2016 NBA Finals Preview: 8 Keys to Success in Order for Cavs to Reign Supreme

Published by

Andrew Salmi

10 years ago

3. Point Guard Battle: Kyrie Irving vs. Stephen Curry

Outside the Game 1 overtime thriller, albeit a loss for the Cavs, at Oracle Arena in the 2015 NBA Finals, All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving played only 43:37 the entire series after he was lost to a fractured left kneecap.

This year, we all hope to see a hard-fought battle between Irving and the NBA’s best shooter in back-to-back MVP point guard Stephen Curry. As far as the numbers go from the regular season, Curry’s are absolutely off the charts against Irving’s already-great statistics.

“You just try to make it tough as much as possible,” Irving said on Tuesday. “He’s going to get to certain spots on the floor. They do a great job of running some continuity plays that allow him to not stay stagnant at all. He’s going to come off a lot of pick and rolls, a lot of pin downs. It takes a total team effort to contain him as well as Klay [Thompson] and other guys.”

2015-16 Regular Season Per-Game Statistics:

Player	Season	Age	G	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	PTS
Stephen Curry	2015-16	27	79	34.2	10.2	20.2	.504	5.1	11.2	.454	.908	5.4	6.7	2.1	30.1
Kyrie Irving	2015-16	23	53	31.5	7.4	16.6	.448	1.6	4.9	.321	.885	3.0	4.7	1.1	19.6

However, during this year’s playoffs, one can easily make a case that Irving has been more efficient than Curry.

2015-16 Playoffs Per-Game Statistics:

Player	Season	Age	G	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	PTS
Stephen Curry	2015-16	27	11	33.5	8.9	19.5	.458	4.4	10.7	.407	.909	5.9	6.1	1.8	26.7
Kyrie Irving	2015-16	23	14	35.8	9.2	19.2	.480	2.6	5.6	.456	.836	2.5	5.1	1.5	24.3

Grab some popcorn, because every second of this highly-anticipated position matchup should be worth watching.

“I always say what makes this league really great, especially the point-guard role, everyone is just so different in terms of what they offer to their team,” Irving said. “You have an MVP, two-time, and what he contributes every single night and what he means on the floor for them, you just have to have your antenna up even more. We had our antennas up on Lowry and DeRozan because they did the bulk of the scoring.”

Next: Keep up with the Warriors’ Perimeter Shooting

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Andrew Salmi

Andrew Salmi is a recent graduate of California State University, Fullerton after he previously attended Arizona State University. He is proud to be a staff writer for Cavaliers Nation. You can follow him on Twitter @andrewsalmi.