Tyronn Lue on Cavaliers vs Warriors: “I don’t see a big gap”

Now that the Finals are over, the next step for the Cleveland Cavaliers is to evaluate how far away they are from the Golden State Warriors and make adjustments. The Cavs failed to capitalize on their opportunities to extend the series, making their evaluation a little harder.

In his post-game press conference, Tyronn Lue expressed where he feels the Cavs stack up against the Warriors.

Via Cleveland.com:

I think that the first two games we talked about last year, you can go over all the shootarounds the walkthroughs you want to go through, but until you actually get on the floor and play against this team, it's tough.

They beat us tonight. I don't see a big gap. I thought we played well, got better each game, but against good teams you can't give away games like Game 3 at home and then expect to come here and win in a hostile environment.

So when you have them beat, you have to beat them. You can't go back and forth or teeter on the fence, you have to beat them. Letting Game 3 get away from us and then coming back to this gym, we knew it was going to be tough, but I thought our mindset was right. I thought we gave the right amount of fight, the right amount of physicality, and they beat us tonight.

For the most part, I think Lue is on the right track. There’s clearly a gap between the Cavs and the Warriors, but Cleveland clearly beat themselves and didn’t give themselves their best chance to challenge the Warriors.

But even if the Cavs did play their best, it’s very possible that they wouldn’t have won. Moving forward, it would be unwise to assume that the Warriors won’t continue to improve upon their chemistry with continued continuity. The Cavs will need to rely on internal growth, as well as good asset management if they want to win another title next season.