It’s time Cavs got physical

Hey, get off my lawn.

Back in my day, we walked to and from school — uphill both ways. And we liked it.

What time does “Matlock” come on?

It’s 3:45 p.m. — almost time for dinner.

Oh, sorry. I recently turned 50 and figured it was time to officially join the geriatric set. The best way to do that, I surmised, was to learn the lingo.

See, I’ve finally caught up chronologically to all the gray hair that came from years of running a sports department, raising a teenager and rooting for the Cleveland Browns.

And in keeping with that theme, the rest of this column is going to be about how things were better back in the day — back when there a nice little thing known as a playoff foul in the NBA.

Wouldn’t it be great if some old guy on the Cavaliers’ payroll could find a dusty videotape from the 1980s to show this team what to do in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night?

I’m not saying the Cavaliers should try to injure Steph Curry, Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson. Not even Draymond Green.

But from what I saw of the first two games in Oakland, the Cavaliers pretty much waved red flags and allowed the Warriors to race unimpeded into the lane for easy baskets. On those rare occasions they actually collapsed on Curry or Durant, the result was a kick-out pass for a 3-pointer as wide open as any taken in the morning shoot-around.

All this has to stop. The Cavaliers are not going to win this series — or even a game — by trying to trade baskets with the Warriors and hope they go cold from the perimeter.

Golden State has all kinds of open space at the offensive end, which has made life easy for Curry and Durant. It helps when Cleveland’s defenders go out of their way to allow them room to roam.

This is an NBA old-timers wouldn’t recognize. Defenders didn’t part like the Red Sea back then.

Two things have to happen for Cleveland to get back in this series.

The Cavaliers have to control the pace and get physical.

Cleveland must limit Golden State’s possessions and to turn as many of them as possible into one-shot situations. The best way to do that is to introduce some fear and doubt into the Warriors’ offensive sets by putting bodies on them. The first time — and almost every time — Curry and Durant roll into the paint, they need to be introduced to the floor with a good, hard playoff foul.

This happened as a matter of course in the 1980s. The Detroit Pistons’ bad boys — Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn — did it. Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls did it, even if he usually left that heavy lifting to Dennis Rodman or others. The notion was that if you were going to get to the basket, you had to earn it.

Golden State hasn’t had to do that in this series.

Great defense is about making your opponent uncomfortable. If the Warriors actually have to worry about getting put on their behinds now and then, it might just throw them off their game.

Nothing else has worked, so maybe it’s time to turn back the clock and go old school. The Cavs need to get the Warriors off their lawn, er, lane.

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