Written by J.A. Adande at ESPN.com
In the wake of the Golden State Warriors’ Game 7 comeback victory to clinch the Western Conference finals, I asked Warriors general manager Bob Myers what he’d learned about his team.
That they hate to lose, he said, adding that it’s important to get as many of those types of players as possible on your roster.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals turned into a testament to that philosophy of team building and roster depth, at the expense of the suddenly dated big three construction of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors’ top two scoring threats,Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, couldn’t crack the top four on the list Thursday night, yet the Warriors still won comfortably thanks to the likes of Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa and Andre Iguodala.
Or, as LeBron James succinctly summarized: “What happened? They scored 45 points [off the bench], we scored 10. That’s what happened.”
More simple math: The Warriors’ bench had a plus/minus of plus-15; the Cavs’ bench players were minus-15; the Warriors won the game by 15 points.
One reason the Warriors’ bench was so good is coach Steve Kerr returned Iguodala there after using him to start Game 7 of the conference finals — in addition to the second half of Game 6. It’s rare a coach offers a vote of confidence to his starters, but that’s what this amounted to given their previous two games, in addition to the three games Iguodala started against the Cavs in last year’s NBA Finals.
The Warriors are the closest team to the championship right now because they have so many options. They have stars who can steal road playoff games and they have bench players who can carry the day at home, where the secondary guys tend to be more comfortable and productive. It didn’t matter that the Cavaliers’ defensive plans against the starting lineup came to fruition as they held the Splash Brothers to a combined 20 points and baited Draymond Green into trying more 3-pointers than Thompson.
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