10 Reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers Can Absolutely Defeat the Golden State Warriors

5. These Aren’t the Cavs of December and January

Of the Cavs’ 25 regular-season losses, the two which were as cringe-worthy as any of the others came against the Warriors. There was no disgrace in losing on Christmas to a team which entered the game with a 27-1 record, but shooting 31.6 percent overall and being held to 83 points should have been a wakeup call of sorts. They clearly slept through that, however, when the Warriors came into Quicken Loans Arena less than a month later and led 70-44 at halftime and 104-67 through three quarters.

Tyronn Lue replaced David Blatt as coach before the end of that week. Between that, the insertion of Tristan Thompson in the starting lineup at center and the acquisition of Channing Frye from the Orlando Magic, it would be unwise to use the Cavs’ two lackluster showings as a gauge of how they will fare against the Warriors now.

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