Puskas: Cavaliers are killing us softly

There were two ways to handle the postmortem on the first two games of the NBA Finals.

I could watch them again or I could simply dig a little deeper into the numbers between the Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.

Which did I choose?

If you watched those games live, you have one guess.

Anyone who wasted five hours of his life on those two games at Oracle Arena can understand why no one but a masochist would sit through them again unless Dan Gilbert signs his paycheck.

So I crunched the numbers. And they’re nearly as ugly as seeing what happened in real time. In fact, Gilbert should think about cutting me a check just for doing that.

The Cavaliers, who sizzled from 3-point range earlier in the playoffs, have shot a combined 12 of 44 (27.2 percent) in two games against the Warriors. Cleveland was 60 of 163 overall (36.8 percent).

Golden State, meanwhile, was 24 of 60 (40 percent) from 3-point range and 87 of 168 (51.8 percent) overall. And keep in mind that includes the Warriors’ uncharacteristically poor 3-point shooting in Game 1, when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were a combined 8 of 27.

The Cavaliers lived by the 3 against lesser playoff opponents and they’re dying an ugly death by it against the Warriors, who have been far better than Cleveland in every possible way in the first two games.

Golden State shoots better.

Golden State passes better.

Golden State rebounds better.

Golden State plays better defense.

Golden State is more aggressive.

And in case you hadn’t noticed, the Warriors’ Steve Kerr has made Tyronn Lue look like a bad high school coach. The Cavaliers can hang with the Warriors for a quarter or two, but then Kerr and Golden State adjust — be it on offense or defense — Cleveland has no counter.

Once the Warriors adjust to what the Cavaliers are doing, Cleveland’s offense disappears. Lue said he wanted the Cavaliers to play faster in Game 2. They might have, but what does it matter when you’re not playing effectively?

The Cavaliers’ hot shooting early in the playoffs covered up a lot of holes, mainly the lack of production from anyone other than LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

Where have J.R. Smith and Channing Frye gone? Smith has gone AWOL twice now in the NBA Finals.

The Warriors have done a terrific job of not allowing James to beat them. He’s always going to get numbers, but he has yet to put the Cavaliers on his back and impose his will in this series.

It increasingly appears that is the Cavaliers’ only chance now. But if James can’t hit outside shots, can he produce that 40-point game?

James is just 3 of 9 from 3-point range and he’s gotten to the foul line just eight times in two games. So is he simply not being aggressive enough or is he not getting the calls?

James also has averaged 5.5 turnovers in the first two games.

But it gets worse.

When the ball goes to Irving, it disappears in a flurry of “hero ball” mistakes. Irving has taken poor shots, has failed to involve teammates in the offensive flow and has been unable to finish at the rim. He had one assist — that is not a typo — in Game 2 and just five in the series.

Love, like James, had a double-double in Game 1. But he played just 21 minutes in Game 2 and left with a possible concussion after taking an elbow to the back of the head in the first half. Love’s status for Game 3 is unclear.

The potential of a Love-less Game 3 doesn’t bode well for the Cavaliers turning this series around, given that contributions from non-Big 3 members have been negligible.

But forget the offensive numbers or the lack of them. Perhaps most galling about the first two games has been the Cavaliers’ defense. Curry and Thompson haven’t been themselves and some observers are quick to credit Lue and the defense for that. But is that really warranted?

My impression has been that other than James, the Cavaliers’ approach to playing defense has been to turn, watch and hope the Warriors miss. There has been too little movement, too little help and too little physicality involved in what I hesitate to call a defensive effort.

The numbers do not lie. The Warriors are shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and they should be when you consider that — per league statistics tweeted Monday by Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal — no Cleveland defender was within four feet of the shooter on 43 of Golden State’s 81 shots in Game 2.

Someone should remind the Cavaliers that this is the NBA Finals, not a game of “H-O-R-S-E.”

Offense comes and goes, especially when the 3-pointer is so much a part of what teams do. But defense is not streaky. It is about desire. Defense only disappears when you refuse to play it or when a team plays soft and lets the opponent dictate its game.

Golden State has done just that so far. Beneath the surface of all the ugly numbers, that was the Cavaliers’ biggest problem in the games in Oakland. They didn’t show much “want-to” against the Warriors, who clearly have that intangible at every spot on the floor and up and down their bench.

Cleveland has it. The city has craved a championship for more than 50 years. But do the Cavaliers have it? Do they really want to do what it appears will be necessary to wrest control of the NBA Finals from the Warriors?

Can they figuratively — or even literally — put the Warriors on their backsides — or at least on their heels a bit?

The Cavaliers have shown little or no passion, especially as Game 2 morphed into a nationally televised embarrassment. Maybe they’re all waiting for James to take control. The national pundits, meanwhile, have already started to shovel dirt on Cleveland.

If the Cavaliers don’t show up Wednesday night and show they’re not highly paid marshmallows, they’ll be down 3-0 and buried too deep to do anything about it.

Then it will be time for the real postmortem.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @EdPuskas_Vindy.