The Cleveland Cavaliers kept the Splash Brothers at bay during Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Golden State has now knocked off Cleveland in six straight games, including last year’s Finals and this year’s regular season, but this one may have been worse than a close game or even a torching ignited by Curry.
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After steamrolling through the Eastern Conference playoffs – pulverizing the Pistons, Hawks and Raptors – who could blame the Cavs for thinking they could catch a wobbled and tired Warriors squad.
“We missed 28 shots in the paint”.
“The moment’s here. We lost Game 1”, Irving said. And, after weeks of telling everyone they’re “totally different”, like Coach Tyronn Lue said again pregame, they’re going to have to hope to recreate some of last year’s magic. And, you know, this was a odd game for us. The Cavaliers had problems communicating, with one of the 24-second violations coming when they were unable to hear their bench yelling to shoot the ball.
Livingston, who scored a playoff career-high 20 points, Iguodala (12) and Barbosa (11) picked up the slack for the defending champions, however, with the Warriors bench outscoring their Cleveland counterparts 45-10.
A second consecutive championship remains three victories away. They can’t get too freaked out, and as LeBron suggested, they must do a better job of mimicking the Warriors – by taking care of the ball, making the smart play and finishing at the rim.
Game 1 showed that the Warriors can win games when Curry and Thompson don’t go nova, and that the Cavaliers cannot without a superhero version of James. Kevin Love had a double-double (17 points, game-high 13 rebounds) as did Tristan Thompson (10 points, 12 boards). But don’t matter what you do with Steph and Klay, don’t matter what you do with Draymond.
But James’ four turnovers contributed to the 25 points the Cavaliers surrendered off turnovers. Can those role players do it in Cleveland? Warriors PG Stephen Curry is attempting to become just the fourth player in National Basketball Association history to win MVPs and championships in the same season two years in a row. Irving’s offensive game is so much better than the next option – Matthew Dellavedova – that he has to be on the floor. “We didn’t finish around the basket, so we’ve just got to keep playing the same way we were playing”. Had the violations not wiped out a pair of three-pointers from Irving, the Cavaliers would have held a lead at the end of the first quarter.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Warriors sent a statement to the Cavaliers that the “Strength In Numbers” message on those gold shirts that were draped over the seats at Oracle Arena is so much more than just a catchy slogan.
Forward Andre Iguodala played awesome defense and scored 12 points, while two guards also stepped up – Leandro Barbosa had 11 points and Shaun Livingston had 20.
LeBron James faces the media after the game. And the Warriors took 10 free throw attempts the entire game.
The Warriors have their composure and after overcoming a huge test against Oklahoma City, they might not even look back.
“We’re better built to start the finals than we were past year”, James said on Tuesday. I don’t think Steph was sweating when the clock struck halftime.
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And so the Cavaliers insisted they are fine, will make adjustments and tweaks and will be prepared for Game 2.
