NBA Finals Preview: The Cavaliers can only beat the Warriors by fighting fire with fire

A lot has changed in the past year, but the recipe for beating basketball’s best team has not. The Warriors — especially this iteration of their mighty superteam — generally fight their battles on offense, so the best way to beat them is to fight fire with fire. Unless you have a dedicated and effective Stephen Curry stopper, you have no way of controlling this team’s offense with your own defense. However, with the addition of Kevin Durant this season, there’s almost no way to effectively stamp out this team’s firepower. What the Cavaliers have uncovered and effectively utilized as the best tool to beat the Warriors is to run an efficient offense that is more potent than that of Golden State.

One way we see the effect of this strategy is in pace of play. Last season, when Cleveland won the championship, they forced Golden State into a slower game. The 2016 NBA Finals averaged 92 possessions per game, down from the Warriors’ average of 98.4 during the playoffs and 99.3 during the regular season. By featuring LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, who completely understand their roles on this team, the Cavaliers have an advantage that the Warriors generally cannot match in a half court basketball game.

Moreover, by making the Finals a battle of possessions, the series can break in Cleveland’s favor. They averaged over a full turnover less than their Finals opponent during the regular season, and we all still have Curry’s behind-the-back turnover playing in our heads (and on our Twitter feeds) from last year’s Game 7. James is perhaps the most disciplined player in the league, and Curry’s Warriors have been in the bottom 10 in turnovers for the past two seasons. That’s a math problem the Cavaliers can benefit from.

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Both teams were in the top five in terms of transition efficiency this season, but Cleveland in particular has risen to the top in this year’s playoffs. They are averaging 1.20 points per transition possession this postseason, whereas the Warriors are hovering around one point. However, Golden State is still finishing the highest percentage of their plays in transition during the playoffs, meaning that limiting the Warriors in transition will be just as important for the defending champions as scoring in the half court.

James, Irving and the Cavaliers just put on a magic show through three rounds of the Eastern Conference Playoffs, losing only one game and re-introducing the possibility of competition in these Finals. It was perhaps best displayed in the Pacers’ series — the Cavaliers’ most competitive thus far. Put to the test by an aggressive Indiana defense and Paul George getting buckets at full strength, Cleveland responded with a complete performance. They showed what a discouraging opponent they can be, and reinforced that message throughout what have been James’ and Irving’s best combined playoff performance.

Part of what makes a Golden State victory so emphatic is the demeaning effect it has on a team’s spirit. Every fan across the league understands this feeling by now. Yet at full strength, the Cavaliers can surpass it. The simplicity with which they execute is too exhausting.

Though Golden State has constructed and sculpted a tremendous and historic offense around the incredible shooting of its stars, these are still difficult shots. Curry and Klay Thompson basically traded hot shooting nights over the final three Cavaliers victories last year, and it wasn’t enough, even with some incredible performances by Draymond Green. The combined greatness of James and Irving was enough to overcome a 73-win team.

Durant makes everything easier on this Golden State team, even if they never break the glass on the pick-and-pop combination of him and Curry. If the pace slows, Durant can slide back into prior versions of himself, in which he was the most effective isolation scorer in basketball. He makes smaller, faster lineups function better than Harrison Barnes could and he can defend James.

But there is still a lack of comfort here that could play into the Cavaliers’ favor. Their offense is not only as potent as the Warriors’, it is formed around a more tested chemistry. While Golden State’s current best, buoyed by Steve Kerr’s failsafe system and a special defense, could easily be enough to overpower Cleveland, history ought to teach us something.

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The best way to beat this team is to play their game and outscore them, possession by possession. The Cavaliers have done that better than any other team over the past three seasons, and the Warriors’ best counter to the Cavs’ onslaught is untested and was injured for the back half of the season. He has looked healthy for most of the playoffs, but last year, the lingering effects of a leg injury hampered Curry, and Cleveland won. If the defending champs apply pressure in all the right ways once again, they have a real shot. Not enough has changed since 3-1 to persuade me otherwise.