The Golden State Warriors will throw different defenders at LeBron James, including Draymond Green. (GETTY IMAGES)

LeBron James won’t guarantee an NBA championship in Cleveland this year, but he did make one proclamation. “I guarantee that we will play our asses off,” he said about the Cavaliers’ showdown with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

James and his Cavaliers have been playing their butts off this postseason, especially on the defensive end. The Cavs own the top-ranked defense in the playoffs, holding teams to 92.6 points and 28.1 percent from the 3-point line. But now comes the true test. the Cavs are facing the most explosive and efficient scoring machine in the NBA Finals. The Warriors led the NBA in points per game (110), 3-point field-goal percentage (39.8) and assists (27.4). They have the best shooting backcourt in the world in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined to make 525 threes; far and away the most by any duo in the league.

Curry and Thompson present a whole different animal for the Cavaliers. You may be able to slow down one but not both. The Cavaliers need to hold the line and keep the Splash Brothers from going trey crazy.

This series could boil down to how well the Cavs play on the defensive end. They need to disrupt the Warriors’ ball movement and make the game stagnant because they won’t be able to win in a shootout. This will require paying attention to detail: running shooters off the the 3-point line, making them drive to the basket, and putting a body on Steph and Klay at all times. Cleveland must turn this into a scrum and make Golden State uncomfortable.

The Warriors love to run floppy sets for Steph and Klay. They start on the block and run off screens from Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green. The Cavaliers must stay attached to Steph and Klay, and force them to drive instead of stopping and popping for threes. They will make their share of threes, but try to limit their attempts by making them put the ball on the deck.

When Curry has the ball at the top and calls for a ball screen from Bogut or Green, Cleveland has the option of blitzing Curry or switching the screen. The better option would be to switch on the screen even though it will likely expose Cleveland’s big men. Switching the ball screen forces Curry to keep the ball in his hands and stops the ball from moving. If Curry gets cooking, the Cavs can always switch LeBron on him to try to cool him down.

Here are other key matchups to watch in the NBA Finals:

LeBron vs. Barnes, Iguodala, and Draymond

The Warriors are a basketball anomaly. They are bucking the conventional thinking that you can’t win a title shooting jump shots. But these Warriors are a different breed. Sure, they win games by shooting lights out from behind the 3-point line and running teams out of the gym. But what made them a 67-win juggernaut during the regular season was defense.

GSW arguably has three of the 10 best defensive players in the league. Klay Thompson is an elite perimeter defender, Andrew Bogut is a beast in front of the rim, and Draymond Green finished second to Kawhi Leonard as the defensive player of the year. Add Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala into the mix and you can see why teams struggle to score against Golden State.

In The Finals, the Warriors will face their greatest test. They’ll be going up against the most powerful force in basketball. The last time Golden State and Cleveland met, LeBron dropped 42 points in a 110-99 Cavaliers rout on Feb. 26.

LeBron poses matchup problems on the perimeter and in the paint. He’s capable of ruining any defensive game plan Warriors coach Steve Kerr will draw up. The book on Bron is to deny him driving lanes and force him into shooting jumpers. That’s what the San Antonio Spurs did the last two seasons, so expect Kerr, who played under coach Gregg Popovich, to copy that plan. Kerr will likely start Barnes on LeBron first then rotate different bodies on him. Iguodala is physically strong enough and athletic enough to stay with LeBron, so he could spend the most time on him. Green should also see No. 23, but he may have his hands full with Tristan Thompson. We’ll get to the Draymond-Tristan matchup later.

Steph vs. Kyrie

It is unfortunate Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving is running only at 75 percent because this would have a delicious point guard matchup.

Curry and Irving are not only the two most complete point guards in the NBA but they also possess some of the best handles in the biz. Kyrie better stretch his sore knees because Curry will surely test them.

Despite being hobbled in the Eastern Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks, Irving still managed to make an impact in Game 4. In The Finals, he’ll go up against the MVP. No disrespect to Hawks point guard Jeff Teague but he’s not even close to being in Curry’s league. Few players are in Curry’s league.

Steph and Kyrie know each other well. They were both on the U.S. men’s national squad coached by Mike Krzyzewski that took home the gold medal at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Irving served as Team USA’s point guard, while Curry was the shooting guard. Even though they started in the backcourt, you know they went at each other in practice.

Irving doesn’t need to match Curry point for point, but if he can give the Cavs anything close to his regular-season numbers (21.7 points and 5.2 assists) then Cleveland has a great shot a winning the title.

Bogut and Draymond vs. Mozgov and Tristan

The Warriors have mainly stayed with a conventional center-power forward frontline for most of the playoffs, but if Kerr decides to go small he probably use a lineup of Curry and Klay Thompson in the backcourt and Iguodala, Barnes and Green in the frontcourt. If Golden State goes with that lineup, Cleveland coach David Blatt will likely counter with Irving and Iman Shumpert in the backcourt and LeBron, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson in the frontcourt.

We already broke down the Curry-Irving matchup and the LeBron vs. the Warriors matchup. The Cavs will most likely stick Shumpert on Klay, and Iguodala or Barnes will take on Smith. That leaves us with the battle in the paint between two power forwards playing center, Draymond and Tristan.

The NBA championship may rest of the shoulders of two lunchpail guys who could command major dollars during the offseason when they become free agents.

Draymond is arguably the reason why the Warriors own the best record in the NBA, and the Cavs could argue that they wouldn’t be in The Finals without Tristan, who replaced the injured Kevin Love in the starting lineup. Golden State and Cleveland switch most pick-and-rolls because they both feel they have the players who can guard multiple positions. Another reason why both teams don’t like to switch on screens is because they are confident in the abilities of Draymond and Tristan to guard perimeter players. What could decide this matchup is the battle under the basket. Tristan has been a beast on the offensive boards, and he’ll have a height advantage over Draymond.

Kerr could throw a wrench into the mix by sticking with Bogut and Draymond in the frontcourt. That could force the Cavs to go with Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson in the frontcourt. However, if you’ve been paying attention to the Cavs throughout the playoffs they’ve been consistently going with LeBron at power forward and Tristan at center, and those two have been punishing teams on the boards.

Whichever team wins the rebounding battle could be the one hoisting the gold trophy at the end.

Texas' Tristan Thompson (left) was selected by the Cavaliers, while Arizona's Derrick Williams went to the Timberwolves. (US PRESSWIRE)

The picks went fast and furious, but mostly without a hitch. At the end of the first round, NBA Commissioner David Stern was booed by the fans who attended Thursday’s draft in New Jersey but that was to be expected as basketball fans are worried about an impending lockout that may interrupt the 2011-12 season.

Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, not surprisingly, went No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, the Cavs thought they had Turkish center Enes Kanter at No. 4, but he was snagged by the Utah Jazz at No. 3, forcing the Cavs to scramble a little bit and made a panic pick with Texas’ Tristan Thompson. Jay Bilas described Thompson as someone “who needs to learn how to play and how to score.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

OneManFastBreak.net examines the five biggest losers and winners from the 2011 NBA draft.

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LOSERS: Cavaliers, Spurs, Raptors, Bobcats, Pistons

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— CAVALIERS – Before Cleveland fans can start coming out of their post-LeBron doldrums, remember these names: Bobby Hurley, Jeff Capel, William Avery, Jay Williams, Chris Duhon and Jon Scheyer. All were spectacular players at Duke, but none of them became stars in the NBA. Irving is a good point guard, but was he really the best player in the draft and deserves to be the No. 1 overall pick? That was the million-dollar question the Cavs faced weeks prior to the draft. He played in only 11 games in college because of a toe injury so that’s one red flag, and the other warning sign is he’s not super quick. In the Eastern Conference, you have dynamic and explosive point guards such as Derrick Rose, Deron Williams and Rajon Rondo. Irving will have to adjust to the speed of the game and must get stronger. The Cavs were hoping Kanter would fall to them at No. 4, but the Jazz ruined that master plan. Instead of taking the next best player available, the Cavs pulled off a head-scratcher with the selection of Texas forward Tristan Thompson, who is a decent player but is not worthy of a top-five pick. And where is Thompson going to play? Is he better than J.J. Hickson or Anderson Varejao? Probably not.

— SPURS – Heading into Thursday, the Spurs were reportedly shopping point guard Tony Parker for one of the top-eight picks. As it turned out, they were shopping Parker’s backup, George Hill. Now, this one is a bit puzzling. Hill is a terrific defender and can play either guard position, which makes him very valuable for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich given the history of injuries for Parker and Manu Ginobili. In a very un-Spurs-like move, Hill was traded to Indiana in exchange for the No. 15 pick, which turned out to be San Diego State’s Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is a good athlete who can defend and rebound, but he shot just 29% from the college 3-point line and it’s not going to get easier since the NBA line is 3 feet farther. Normally, Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford excel on draft day but shipping Hill out of San Antonio is a little questionable.

— RAPTORS – First of all, the Raptors hired Dwane Casey as their head coach. Casey has a career coaching record of 43-59. No matter how you spin it, Casey is not a good NBA coach. That’s not a good way to retool your franchise. As if that wasn’t enough of a flub, the Raptors drafted 6-10 Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas, who is a terrific prospect but may not be able to get out of his Euroleague contract until 2014. There is no doubt about Valanciunas’ talent. But why would the Raptors gamble on a guy who can’t help them right away? Puzzling. Better hope Valanciunas is worth the wait.

— BOBCATS – So far, Michael Jordan has shown very little skills as the head of basketball operations in Charlotte. Should we be surprised about that since Jordan was the mastermind in ruining the Wizards almost 10 years ago? Jordan’s latest move was trading his best player, Stephen Jackson, to Milwaukee for Corey Maggette. What saves Jordan from having a complete disaster on draft night were his picks: center Bismack Biyombo (Congo) and guard Kemba Walker (Connecticut). Both should be decent contributors for the Bobcats, but can they change the fortunes of the franchise? Not with Michael calling the shots.

— PISTONS – The Pistons’ offseason started with the firing of head coach John Kuester. Not a good way to being your offseason. Then, general manager Joe Dumars, who has had a run of bad picks lately, chose Kentucky guard Brandon Knight with the eighth overall pick. Knight didn’t look pleased at all when he step up to the stage and shook hands with the commissioner. He’s probably thinking, “Why did a guard-heavy team that already has Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon, Will Bynum, Richard Hamilton and Tracy McGrady would ever need me?” If that’s what Knight was thinking, he certainly has a point.

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WINNERS: Timberwolves, Jazz, Kings, Wizards, Nuggets

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— TIMBERWOLVES – The night started great for general manager David Kahn with the selection of Arizona forward Derrick Williams with the No. 2 overall. Williams is the most NBA-ready player out of all the prospects, and that includes Irving, and he’ll pair up well with fellow Pac-10 stud Kevin Love. Then, the night got even better when Kahn was able to dump disappointing point guard Jonny Flynn to Houston, opening up the point position for Spanish star Ricky Rubio. The Wolves also picked up center Brad Miller via a trade, and Florida forward Chandler Parsons is not a bad second-round selection.

— JAZZ – The Jazz put a wrench into the Cavaliers master plan with they picked Kanter at No. 3. ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla rated Kanter as the best international player in the draft and he could turn out to be the best player, along with Williams, from this class. Kanter is a physical big man who can face up and hit a mid-range jumper. He describes himself as a Pau Gasol low-post player with a Dirk Nowitzki-type of perimeter game. Big talk from a very confident player. He should pair up well with Jazz forward Al Jefferson. The Jazz also added Colorado shooting guard Alec Burks in the first round to round out their excellent draft day.

— KINGS – Year after year, the Kings have done a great job in picking players in the draft and this year was no exception. BYU star Jimmer Fredette is headed for Sacramento to play with Tyreke Evans (class of 2009) and DeMarcus Cousins (class of 2010). Fredette should well in Sacramento because he’s a spot up shooter who has unlimited range, which is good news for Evans because this allows him to play more point guard. The Kings were so high on Fredette that they shipped last year’s starting point guard Beno Udrih to Milwaukee.

— WIZARDS – In less than two years, general manager Ernie Grunfeld has managed to change the culture in Washington. Point guard John Wall is now the face of the franchise and center JaVale McGee is one of the best young big men in the league. OnThursday night, the Wizards added more young pieces to their roster in forwards Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton and guard Shelvin Mack. Vesely, from the Czech Republic, brings a lot of energy and athleticism to a Wizards squad that should be running more often next season. We’ve seen Vesely finish plays above the rim and has shown a non-stop motor. What we didn’t know about him is he likes public displays of affection. Check out the video:

Singleton is a rock-solid defender who brings a lot of toughness, and Mack was the catalyst of the Butler squad that made it to the NCAA Tournament final in back-to-back years.

— NUGGETS – If Raymond Felton is a better fit in Portland then Andre Miller is a much better fit in Denver. The Nuggets, at times, plays too fast and having the heady, crafty Miller running point should help maximize their offensive possessions. The trade also allows coach George Karl to play Ty Lawson and Miller together, with Miller defending the 2 guard spot. Denver landed a diamond in the rough with the 22nd pick in Morehead State forward Kenneth Faried. The 6-7 Faried is a high-energy player who defends and rebounds. Think Paul Millsap and Udonis Haslem. Faried doesn’t need any set plays to be effective, which is perfect in Denver because Karl has enough scorers on the team and Faried’s effort and hustle will be a tremendous addition.