Last month, a number of NBA players convened in Los Angeles for a pick-up game of basketball, including LeBron James, Draymond Green and Warriors’ rookie Jordan Bell.
The youngster’s struggles against James were well-noted, and his teammate Green gave him some words of wisdom regarding playing defense against James.
“Draymond was on my team,” Bell said, “and he was just like, ‘Look, you can’t do nothing about that. Just worry about the next play.’ But he also said if LeBron is taking those types of shots, that’s what we want because we’re going to make more 3s than he makes 2s.”
Bell learned an important lesson that day; you cannot hope to stop LeBron James. Your best strategy is to attempt to slow him down by forcing him to take lower percentage three-point shots, which, while James is not bad in that area (he shots 36 percent from deep last season), it isn’t the best facet of his game.
The Warriors’ strategy of relentlessly scoring three points at a time has won them two of the past three championships. The Cavs will hope to slow them down this time if they meet in the Finals for the fourth time in a row.