Golden State Warriors' sharpshooter Stephen Curry says he will attack Cleveland Cavaliers' point guard Matthew Dellavedova in game five of the NBA Finals.
Harassed, battered and shadowed by the Australian in the championship series, Curry plans to turn up the pressure on Dellavedova and exploit him.
Curry, with the ball in his hands, fancies himself in any one-on-one duel with Dellavedova.
"I have to be more aggressive attacking the match-ups that we like," Curry said on Saturday after a workout at the Warriors' training facility in downtown Oakland.
"That's one of them."
Sunday's (Monday 10am AEST) game five at the Warriors' Oracle Arena will be pivotal in the series, with the winner going up 3-2 and needing just one more victory to claim the championship.
The Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr, after a 3am text message from assistant Nick U'Ren before game four, made what could be the most decisive adjustment of the series.
U'Ren noted last year's champion San Antonio Spurs were successful against Cavaliers' star LeBron James' previous team, the Miami Heat, after moving to a smaller lineup midway through the series.
Kerr, who has compared the Finals to a chess match, liked the idea.
He took Warriors' 213cm Australian centre Andrew Bogut out of the starting lineup, moved 201cm power forward Draymond Green to centre and brought in 198cm guard/forward Andre Iguodala.
The smaller Warriors thrashed the Cavaliers in Thursday's 103-82 game four.
Bogut said he understood how potent the Warriors would be with five players on the court who could hit three-pointers and outrun the Cavaliers.
"As a professional athlete you don't want to be like 'OK coach, I just want to sit here and not play'," Bogut said.
"But I understand it.
"I understand the journey.
"I'm a smart enough basketball player to know the match-ups work much better."
The pressure is on Cavaliers' coach David Blatt to make a counter move, but he refused to reveal details.
"I'm not going to sit here and give away too much," Blatt said.
What will help the undermanned Cavaliers, who lost All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to injuries, will be the three days' break before game five.
Games two to four were played over five nights, leaving James and Dellavedova drained.
"I'm feeling a lot better and really ready to go for game five," Dellavedova said.
The Australian kept Curry to nine points in game four, but when other Cavaliers were on the MVP he was able to push his point total to 22 points.
Dellavedova was interested to hear Curry's attack plan.
"Thanks for letting us know," Dellavedova said.
Curry was averaging 29 points a game in the playoffs, but with Dellavedova bumping and shadowing Curry his average in the Finals has dropped to 23.5.
