After their Christmas day matchup, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Golden State Warriors are facing off one more time, tonight on MLK day. In their first matchup, Kyrie Irving propelled the Cavs’ to victory with his late turnaround jumper in the final seconds. The loss by the Warriors’ led to much scrutiny because their roster was subsequently built to defeat the Cavs.
With a bad taste in their mouth from Christmas day, the Warriors’ are most likely looking for revenge. However, will a victory tonight come with a caveat? It was reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers considered sitting their ‘Big 3’ tonight against the Warriors in their Martin Luther King day matchup.
Following from Chris Haynes of ESPN
“The only thing we can do is play,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said when asked about such a move. “Whoever is out there is out there.”
League sources told ESPN that some within the Cavaliers’ organization briefly pondered sitting out the trio, but the desire to improve and gain valuable repetition against one of the NBA’s elite teams trumped that logic.
Luckily for everyone watching, no one from the Cavs will be resting.
Cavs not resting anyone, Ty Lue says.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 16, 2017
When asked about their Christmas day performance, Kevin Durant laid out exactly what they did wrong.
“We turned the ball over [too much on Christmas],” Kevin Durant said. “I want to say 10 or 12 points in transition where we could have had layups, and we turned it over trying to thread the needle. I think we just need to keep it simple, make correct passes, and we’ll be fine. I thought defensively we were solid that game, but we can’t give teams extra possessions when we turn it over. It’s a big emphasis for us.”
Big 3 or no big 3, the Warriors’ will have to improve their play regardless of who’s out there tonight. We’ll all have to wait and see what the Cavs’ do tonight and if they choose to play head games by sitting their big 3. Nevertheless, a Warriors vs. Cavaliers matchup is always must watch TV.
