Cavs reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova faced accusations of dirty play for the second NBA Finals in a row after hitting Iguodala in the groin. “Sometimes your offense dictates your defense, and the fact that we had 17 turnovers and that led to 25 points is not a good ingredient for our offense for sure”.
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“They got to the point where they were a year ago and won a championship because of their whole team and their bench”, James said.
Whether or not we’ve seen a blueprint for how the rest of the series will go, we don’t know.
The NBA’s first unanimous MVP was outshined by his teammates in Game 1, as the Warriors bench drove the team to a 104-89 victory over the Cavaliers to start the Finals.
After lighting up the Western Conference finals, Curry (four-of-15 for 11 points) and Thompson (four-of-12 for nine points) were limited in their output, as bench player Shaun Livingston (20 points), Draymond Green (16, 11 rebounds), Harrison Barnes (13), Andrea Iguodala (12), Leandro Barbosa (11) and Andrew Bogut (10) saw off Cleveland, just like the Warriors did in game one 12 months ago. It’s worse when you factor in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson’s combined 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting. The 45 points off the bench was the most in the NBA Finals since Detroit in 1989.
James understands the importance of tying the series and not falling behind 2-0, and while losing the first two of this series against Golden State doesn’t give the Warriors the championship, it’s hard envisioning a scenario in which the Cavs win four of the next five games in this series. “It’s been a good thing for us throughout the whole season once Coach Lue took over, so we need to do that”.
Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 26 points on 7-of-22 shooting while James had 23 points and 12 rebounds but shot 9-of-21 from the floor.
If they can’t beat the Warriors when their biggest stars aren’t raining 3-pointers, the finals rematch that everyone wanted could be over a lot sooner than most predicted.
LeBron James is mighty impressed at what the Warriors are bringing to the table.
“We had a chance in that third quarter [when the Cavaliers briefly held the lead] to do something special, but we didn’t counter and do it”. “Didn’t make it happen in the fourth quarter”.
“I missed some shots and didn’t get a rhythm, but the way that they defended, we’ll be able to find some adjustments for Game Two”.
When asked if his less-heralded team-mates served as inspiration for himself and Thompson, Curry replied: “No doubt”.
“They were just staying attached”, Smith said about the Warriors’ defense. Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James have accomplished this feat.
Nearly every single role player showed up in a big way.
Considering Cleveland has to win at least one road game in this series, this was clearly a missed opportunity.
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Kevin Love completed a 3-point play and then scored on a putback to give the Cavaliers a 64-63 lead. “We’re not use to having both Steph and Klay off like that with their shooting”. He made a baseline 3-pointer for the Cavs’ first basket in almost 5½ minutes.
