Live Thread: Cavs @ Warriors, NBA Finals Game 1
2016-06-02
The game is set. The opponents are decided. The 2016 NBA Finals are here.
In one of the most hyped Finals contests in recent memory, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers look to take on the defending champion Golden State Warriors led by Stephen Curry and his entourage of position-less, three-point assassins. What’s at stake in this series? Oh, not much. Just a King looking to reclaim his undisputed throne atop the NBA hierarchy and cement his legacy among the elite of the elite of the elite. Just a downtrodden city and fanbase yearning to break an unimaginable 52-year sports curse. And just the greatest deep shooting threat in history seeking validation for a championship whose legitimacy was questioned by many, the bow on top of what could go down as the single greatest season in the history of the NBA — possibly even all of American sports.
These 2016 Finals are hard to predict. While the Warriors reeled off a record 73 wins in the regular season and survived a 3-1 deficit versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cavs have displayed one of the most dominant postseason runs with a 12-2 record and an historic margin of victory at 12.6 PPG. Both the Warriors and the Cavs have set the two most prolific three-point shooting records in the regular season (1,077 for Warriors/880 for Cavs) AND postseason (14.4 per game for Cavs/12.5 per game for Warriors). However, the Cavs enter this series as massive underdogs, viewed as a paper tiger that has feasted on weak competition in a lesser playoff field.
Which team holds the advantage? For every mismatch there seems to be a crossmatch, and for every crossmatch exists a crossmismatch (possibly a word?) and vice versa in this series. How will the Cavs hide Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on defense if the Warriors look to exploit those two? How will the Warriors keep big men like Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli on the court with Love and Channing Frye stretching the floor? Who wins the point guard battle between Irving and Curry? Can the Cavs both play defense and stay hot from beyond the arc? Do the Cavs stay big or go small to match the Warriors’ vaunted “Lineup of Death”? And do the Cavs have a lineup of non-mortality of their own? So many questions to be asked of this series. Tune in at 9:00 EST to find some answers.
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Before you turn your attention to the game, be sure to check out Cavs: the Blog’s fantastic coverage previewing Game 1, including
and Nate Smith’s thoughts on Certainty in sports: https://cavstheblog.com//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////?p=42331
And most importantly, and never forget…
STAY HYPE! GO CAVS!!!
https://www.facebook.com/wearecavsnation/videos/1005196386230853/
Thanks Andy… Floptastic…
Nice flop….hall of fame flop
No FING WAY is that a charge on Love…
The irony that Andy drew that..
Andy can go eat a huge bag of …..
Iggy playing james well again. Thought both those steals were fouls.
Lue is correct: as bad as it looks we’re only down 8.
AGREE KEEP IT TO SINGLE DIGITS GOING INTO THE HALF—–REGROUP—TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND PLAY CAVS BALL—WE WILL BE O K.
Jr needs to put in the effort to get open
Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Two thoughts so far:
(1) We’re lucky to be this close with all of their role players hitting circus shots, the turnovers, and how bad the offense has looked.
(2) I’m not going to blame anything on the refs, but if they let the series be this physical we’re in trouble. The Warriors shoot all of those threes, so letting physical play go has no effect on them. We drive more (especially with LeBron), so if they won’t call that contact underneath we’re going to struggle to keep pace.
Wonder if JR’s hand is bothering him.. looked like he hurt it on a loose ball in the first quarter and he was shaking it after that shot
Love playing solid and he was a concern. JR has had no impact and Irving 3/10.
That 3 was too contested even for jr.
He actually got hit on the arm
JR takes a “Whatever, I’m gettin’ one up.” shot
Big 3 stole a possession there. LeBron with the quick hands against Curry, and Kyrie with a great touch pass to Love who canned it.
Man they HAVE to figure out how to get JR open in this series. They need him to win.
Exactly, but he could have fake that shot and drive. The Warriors put long defenders on him making it really difficult for him to get his shot off but he should use his quickness.
Let’s keep it 8 or less at half, plz…
We cannot keep allowing these offensive boards…Our one advantage should be on the glass and we’re giving up easy put backs after stops…
No excuses for not putting a body on someone and not even attempting to box out
And Tristan Thompson is playing himself right onto the bench next season
Which is where he should be. He’s much better off the bench.
Hard to disagree…
Again, force curry to miss and we aint box out again
Needed that KLove three!
https://vine.co/v/iYb6hUXHMLJ
For some reason our offense looks a lot like last year with james posting a ton/holding a ton. Think we are holding ball too long. How bout some motion off ball?
Nope. ISO ball is the winning formula…./s
Why are we so confused as to what we want to do on offense?! It’s so friggin unacceptable. If we are that way in game 2 Lue is O the hook big time. We look so god awful its ridiculous
Good shot, Kyrie.
No ball movement so far
Even when the Cavs play good D some role player on the Warriors hits a contest j
I know. I dread when I think they’re playing good d cuz it’s just like this is only going to hurt more…
Meh. I’m ok with that. If that’s the way they go down, so be it.
I mean, they have to play d about as well as okc did for most of that series, in other words be able to contest just about everything, and prevent dribble penetration and breakdowns leading to layups or oops off cuts/dishes. Otherwise we will not win 2 games.
Was that our first 3?
No Kevin Love had one the first basket of the game.. Probably a couple others
No, but it’s been a while
https://vine.co/v/iYbrZEti50Z
This game could get out of hand quick if the cavs cannot make a run to close the half.
Wow… Curry too wide open?
Dribbling against that D ain’t gonna cut it…
JR playing like ….
Can’t believe he hasn’t shot yet
Clean it up DG
DG in the house!
The Cavs said before the game that they need to play perfect ball to beat this team. So they start the game with uncharacteristic turnovers and are now trying to play catch up ball
Three Cavs and Igguodala at the glass and Iggy gets the putback…SMH
Box out!
All right TT!
Have we shot more than 4 free throws in this game until now?
Iguodala with some nice swipes, but glad Kyrie got Klay his third foul.
Cavs starting to pick up the pace.
Fouls on iggy, hack hack hack
What the hell I seeing here, literally NO CALLS for the CAVS
I certainly didn’t expect anything different
Gd it Kyrie.
Nice redemption three tho…
JR WITH NO SHOT ATTEMPTS YET —-PLAYING IT TOO ” CLOSE TO THE BELT “—-RELAX A LITTLE —-GET TO THE STYLE THAT GOT YOU THERE
I mean… these are clear fouls… WTF?
This is complete bullshit…I could hear that smack on Kyrie’s arm by Speights from Colorado…
Should have been a charge… JR slides his feet and beats Klay to his spot…
Cripes. That’s a no call at worst.
Ball don’t lie, thompson a 90% ft shooter missed free throw.
Delly absolutely has to find his shot. Maybe they should start running those p/r from the wing.
How kev failed on those 2 layup attempts is beyond me. Classic love
Strong move to the bucket, turrible finish.
Gs is crazy at doubling/trapping at perfect moment, eg that last love turnover
Sigh, do I just stop commenting? Every other play has a GS foul that isn’t called…
The Cavs are not matching up on defense quick enough.
Gar. Kevin. Gotta pass out of that illegal defense.
Love is weak, soft as a mashmallow
No.
What do you guys think of the Cavs’ pace? I feel like we’re struggling in the half court
GS plays great half court D, and the Cavs don’t use much movement in their offense…as long as they do that, they are going to struggle in the half court…
Exactly, they are waiting for double teams that are not coming and taking too long to get into their offense. But to be honest the Warriors are taking the individual challenge on defense and the Cavs are not.
They have thrown a few traps in which have been successful, eg that love turnover where he chucked it off the backboard.
Interesing the Warriors are leaving LeBron in iso and busting up any potential off ball screens.
Smart and effective thus far.
We look so disjointed on offense right now. Cmon guys
I know I’m not there to see but no way has Love been fouled on NONE of these shots…
They just swarm Kev everytime he touches the ball… he’s gonna have to start looking harder for the open man…
Why did Shump give up on the closeout?
Cavs did not get back, love jefferson with piss poor effort on that transition 3, jogged up court. Prob frustrated with refs but inexcusable to pout in finals.
A foul for LeBron! It’s a miracle!
Shocked they called that foul… Shocked.
I mean… how are you supposed to play the game when GSW are literally allowed to just hang on guys with no call?
We finally get a call man, damn….
Where is Mo Williams?
We need Delly to start hitting those.
So I guess you have to do a full pull up on Lebron’s arm to get called for the foul…
How is Speights on 28. Thought the dude was in his 40’s.
He looks like he’s 40…
same age as Curry…
Decent start for Love
https://vine.co/v/iYbihmYYmBW
They have made 3 very difficult shots, Livingston and Barbosa. That’s the difference. And we have to get some more motion in our offense. Powsting up for 15 seconds isn’t gonna cut it.
Agree 100%
How many minutes does Bron play? 46? All 48?
He got about two or three minutes rest already
This is the Warriors bench geez. LeBron needs to attack quick because nobody will come to double him. This type of offense is too easy for the Warriors to defend.
lebron keeping us barely in the game. Gsw shooting 95%.
The strategy is to not let Curry and Klay go off. Make the other guys beat you. Problem with that strategy is…