10 years after losing the 2015 NBA Finals, LeBron James made a surprising admission about the Golden State Warriors.
During the 2010s, LeBron James held the Eastern Conference at his mercy. After all, he made eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances.
Around the same time, the Golden State Warriors, led by Stephen Curry, also started to become a dominant force in the West.
From 2015 to 2018, James’ Cleveland Cavaliers would face off against the Warriors four times in the NBA Finals. James recently shared a story about the first meeting between the two sides in 2015.
Considering 2015 was when James returned to the Cavs following a four-year stint with the Miami Heat, he once again became one of the most beloved superstars in the league.
The return to Cleveland was going as planned since James also led his team to the NBA Finals. However, the Cavs faced off against the Dubs without Kevin Love as he picked up an injury in the postseason.
On top of that, James’ second-in-command, Kyrie Irving, also suffered the same fate as Love after Game 1. So, what was the mood like in the locker room?
James answered that question during the recent episode of ‘Mind the Game’ podcast with NBA legend Steve Nash.
“In 2015 in the finals, when Kyrie and Kevin were hurt, we went up 2-1 in that series in the finals,” James said. “And you know the momentum of like feeling that feeling of being up 2-1 and two games away from winning a championship was like ‘Oh s___, we can do this.’
He added: “It’s like you had that feeling like we can do this and then we lose three straight.”
Sure, playing without Irving and Love put James at a disadvantage, but the Cavaliers still held a 2-1 lead over the Dubs.
So, what went wrong? James stated: “In Game 4, this is when Draymond [Green] started at the five and [Andre] Iguodala started at the four. And it changed the whole landscape of the game.
“They played with more pace, more speed. You know, they tie it up 2-2, and like the momentum, we didn’t have the ability to kind of change what we wanted to do, and they did,” the 4x NBA MVP continued.
“They had something in their back pocket that we didn’t know that existed. They caught us off guard and rode that wave,” he concluded.
Head coach Steve Kerr’s strategy to utilize a small-ball lineup turned out to be the Cavaliers’ kryptonite in the 2015 NBA Finals.
Although the Cavs took revenge in 2016 as they came back from going down 3-1, the Warriors won two more in 2017 and 2018.
