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Lebron James’ Former Teammate Highlights Why Stephen Curry and the Warriors Made Him Hate Their Type of Basketball

Published 05/20/2022, 8:30 AM EDT

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The Warriors and Cavaliers saga went down as the most popular matchup in history. The two teams played 4 finals in a row against each other. After the Celtics versus Lakers and Pistons versus the Bulls, the Dubs vs the Cavs matchup grabbed the most attention.

It was a matchup between two different generations of basketball. Stephen Curry’s deep shots, which went on to modernize the game, went up against LeBron James, who was already a 2-time champion. The Warriors were desperate for a championship, as they had won their last in 1975, but the Cavs, on the other hand never won a championship. The hunger to win was as great as Cavs’ hate for the Warriors.

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LeBron James and the Cavs were more of a traditional basketball team

The 2014-15 season was LeBron’s first season with the Cavs after his Miami Heat run. James had played the last 4 Finals alongside Dwyane Wade and company. This time, James had one of the best ball handlers in the league with him.

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Cavs didn’t know what type of team they would run into in the Finals. Curry and Thompson had just amazed the whole league with their deadly shooting from the outside.

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Though this was only about 7 years ago, before 2015, no team really relied on outside shooting. Their shooting threat had the Cavs guard them beyond the three-point line, which would ultimately collapse the defense. The team and the players hated the Warriors. Iman Shumpert was one of them. Coming from learning basketball in a simple way like everyone did, he had never seen a team like the Warriors.

Evolution of the game

“How we all learned is how you know it’s like that traditional way of life. Why not go and get the easy points at the rim and then you know as you start heating up and getting more of a feel, then you shoot your deep shot. You know what I’m saying. And they had completely butchered that mold and said when the jump ball goes off we hop from three.”, said Shumpert on VladTV.

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WATCH THIS STORY: LeBron James’ 2 Word Warning to Phoenix Suns Goes Viral as Chris Paul’s Team Crashes Out

It was tough for the Cavs to make a reliable game plan at first, though they did redeem in 2016 with their first chip. But it got worse for them when Kevin Durant joined the Dubs in 2016. In terms of the game, there might not be much to hate. In the end, it’s just a new era and evolution of the game.

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Written by:

Balraj Singh Babrah

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Balraj Singh Babrah is an NBA writer with EssentiallySports. He has been an NBA fan since 2016, and watching Curry shoot from distance inspired him to play basketball. Additionally, he loves analyzing and predicting games based on stats.
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Edited by:

Arunaditya Aima