Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman noted shortly after the end of the 2018 NBA Finals that the Golden State Warriors used analytics and new approaches to lineups to sit at the throne of the NBA. Andre Iguodala, who attended The Cloud 100 Celebration in San Francisco, said that was for a reason.
“That's the only way to beat LeBron,” he said, according to Forbes.
The Warriors had to get a lot more unpredictable to make a dent under new coach Steve Kerr, so they slowly went from clearing the entire starters off the floor during his first season to eventually staggering minutes.
Once repeat NBA Finals appearances against the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed like their destiny, Kerr had to add more ingenuity to his lineups, giving coach Tyronn Lue a myriad of different looks to destabilize his offense and come away with the upper hand.
James has proven to be a wrecking ball against every other team but the Warriors, and that is partly due to the experience they had by playing against him two years in a row from 2014-16.
Despite his greatness, a player of his caliber would hardly reinvent his game at that point of his career, allowing Kerr to make the small adjustment to his supporting cast in order to negate the small changes in his game.
One thing remained the same, though, as Iguodala has been the Cerberus of the Warriors, becoming James' primary defender throughout the last four NBA Finals.
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