In the opener, the Cavaliers contained 3-point sharpshooters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined for only 20 points on 8-of-27 shooting, and outrebounded Golden State 47-41. “So I’m looking forward to seeing the film session and seeing ways we can get better going into Game 2, and I think our team will as well”. Make more shots at the rim after making just 18-of-38 – 12.5 percentage points lower than the league average – in Game 1.
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If you heard those numbers and did not watch the game, you would probably assume the Cavs won by double digits.
The Cavs rallied back from an early double-digit deficit to take a 68-67 lead on a layup by LeBron James with 2:12 left in the third quarter in Game 1. The Cavs liked that they were able to get to the rim, and they want those shots. “We’ve got to push the tempo a little bit more offensively, see if we can get down, get some easy baskets and get to the flow of our game. We remain having a sense of urgency, and we’re going to fight for everything we get”.
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.
“Obviously the game ball goes to Shaun Livingston”, Cavaliers star LeBron James said.
Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors at ORACLE Arena [Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images] Both teams are similar in that they correct their mistakes and find a way to walk off with a victory. You can’t come out saying, ‘We beat them six in a row.
“It’s not like we have any control over them”, he said.
They did not look back after that due to a dominant effort from their bench, which outscored Cleveland’s reserves by a 45-10 margin and added 16 rebounds and 10 assists. But we got to this point because our bench has been so productive.
“It’s amusing, we showed the team that today”.
“It was after Game 4 in the Toronto series, you guys asked me about taking the series over or whatever the case may be because Kyrie and Kevin had struggled a bit”.
Game 2 is on Sunday in Oakland.
However, the ticket market for Oracle Arena in the first two games of this series was insane even for players.
“Overall, I just told LeBron I need him to play faster”.
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“If Coach feels like we need to play faster, then we do”, James said. Rather than shifting away from what has worked for the Cavaliers until now, though, James said he and his teammates have to rely on each other as opposed to him shouldering a bigger load.
