LeBron James kept rolling the numbers over in his mind, dumbfounded over how he and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers squandered a shot at stealing Game One of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
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Conversely, Golden State spread the wealth, as six Warriors players, Draymond Green (16 points), Barnes (13), Iguodala (12), Curry (11), Barbosa (11) and Bogut (10) joined Livingston in double-figure scoring.
On the Warriors’ bench, Shaun Livingston led the Golden State reserves in outscoring the Cav’s backups, 45-10.
James almost finished with a triple-double, coming up with 23 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, but he also had four turnovers.
The usually mild Steve Kerr lost his cool during the nationally televised NBA Finals Game 1 in Oakland on Thursday night.
James had no explanation for his success in bouncing back from game one defeats.
As the 10th team in the NBA history to rally from 3-1 deficit, the Warriors are the favorites to win the NBA Finals.
The Warriors have beaten Cleveland six times in a row, three in last year’s NBA Finals and twice more in the regular season before Thursday’s 104-89 drubbing. James has won nine consecutive Game 2s after losing Game 1 dating to 2009. In that 29-8 run, Curry scored two points and Thompson none. “He’s great at just taking the temperature and finding the right matchups for us and putting us in places where we can excel”. It may require a 40-minute plus game from James, who has said throughout the playoffs he is willing to play the minutes required to win.
As it turns out, there is another collection of players who are mostly the same as last year’s Golden State title team: the ones who begin most games on the bench.
The Golden State Warriors got a big boost from their bench while ABC saw a big boost in audience.
You’ve got to think that Curry and Thompson will heat up.
“I’m looking forward to the film session and seeing ways we can get better going into Game 2”, James said.
“Regardless of how the night’s going shooting for me, Klay, throughout the course of the night, we definitely get a boost when our bench guys come in and change the game”. But Game 1 will make many mouths on TV, radio or around your office say this series is over already.
CNNMoney’s Player ROI will be live during the game – it’s a tool to determine how your favorite players are performing, relative to how much money they make.
“Yeah, I missed some shots, didn’t get a rhythm, but the way they defended I’ll be able to find some adjustments for Game 2 – not anxious about that”.
“But we’ve said all year that if we defend and take care of the ball we’re going to have somebody score enough points, whether it’s the starters or the bench”. Livingston has a grand total of two 3-pointers in the past two seasons, which means his entire output of threes with the Warriors is less than Curry’s when he’s cold.
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Barbosa tweaked his back in the second quarter, but returned to action and hit a jump shot that gave the Warriors a 78-68 lead in the fourth and then a floater to push the advantage to back to 14 points.
