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/
Game plan sound. Keep bringing it, Cavs!
YES time to wake up
Kyrie with the tough and-1
https://vine.co/v/iYbFtYmWYnq
That’s what I’m talking about!
Finally TT earning his paycheck lol
oh wow we actually scoring, 7-0 run
Yeah call timeout your front running hackers
Kyrie over Curry
https://vine.co/v/iYbFZ3VJrVu
Even with all the bad play and nonsense, 4 point game…
Kyrie!!! Alright, get it going
There we go!!!! Cavs back in this
Big shot by Kyrie there…
So…we have enough talent that we should be able to get to the free throw line right? Cuz great teams have always come back doing that
Cavs: 12 FTA
Dubs: 2 FTA
Oh of course that wasn’t a a foul on Green. JR only did the same thing only less egregious and got called.
Dray falling over before LeBron even got there
Dubs 15-0 with this head ref….hard to understand why…
Draymond wasn’t even close to being stationary.. that’s ridiculous
Doesn’t need to be if he has position. Actually defended well there.
Green is literaly moving, wow
Uh? Still moving maybe?
Well that was a total bullshit call
If that’s not a blatantly awful call… I don’t know what is?
EFF THESE REFS
Pretty sure this game is over. Really disheartening first game
Can Lue plz get thomspon’s lazy or confused or just plain unprepared keester on the bench? Dude is useless on both ends…he will make one tenth his current contract when this one’s up
Frye hasn’t even played 5 full minutes yet
Inexcusable for that to be true
Really? Are the Cavs are going to play with this kind of effort?
Kyrie ISO transition to a backdoor wideopen bucket for Dray… Lue with the inevitable early timeout…
kyrie really trying to do sooo much and shots aren’t falling….has to be point guard in those situations….he will find his shots off ball
3 of 13, toronto game 3 here we come.
Bad bad sequence there
Argh. Thompson stinking up the joint. Gotta get him out of there and run some actual plays.
this is entirely on us if we have 45 at this point
TT needs to sit forever…completely lost on D..outrun by Bogut (what?!) and provides no offensive threat
Cavs offense can’t get any rhythm. Warriors defenders 2 steps ahead of everything they want to do. So many reset plays and screw it, I’m driving plays.
Gotta go through the options. Cavs being way too impatient.
Yeah. Getting outplayed on both ends right now. Lucky to be within striking distance. Better up their play soon.
Yeah i don’t get why refs have to help them so much. They already have the best d in the league when they are locked in.
Cavs seem to be bickering and confused to start this half
JR, stop being a d bag…
Not much movement on O….not gonna cut it…
If the refs don’t call fouls for james in the paint, it basically seriously limits his effectiveness since his j is awol.
Wonder if JR’s hand was injured worse than it seemed on that play early in the first…
We don’t need excuses, we need buckets.
Whole half was weird. Cavs played terribly…but so did Warriors.
consider those teams stats we’re very lucky to be down just 9
Cavs not named Lebron (may include Kyrie) are playing scared and tentative…can’t do that…Cavs lucky to be down 9 while getting nothing from JR or their bench….those factors go back to norms we should be in good shape…have feeling Klay will be in foul trouble being stuck on Lebron at times…Iggy is so underrated…unreal
Cavs playing hard, not getting calls. GSW bench making shots, using their size. Gotta keep this up and keep fighting.
Big three on pace for 68 pts, everyone else 12, stars need to create some offense fort the rest of the squad
We just need to move the ball a bit more. They’re running us off the 3-pt line and mugging us at the rim. At some point the fouls will (I hope) come and then we’ll go to the line, or else they’ll have to clog the paint more and the threes will open up.
Seriously, this is on the Cavs. Just gotta loosen up. They’re right there.
Yup, if we’re within 5 by the start of the 4th, it’s anyone’s game.
Has Delly make a shot in the past few games? We look lost on offense? Look at Lebron’s face? Not too happy…he went AWOL in 2qtr. TT is having another awful game.
Play like this we lose the series in 5 …maybe 4
Delly needs to find his shot for sure. Unfortunately it has been awol for about 2 months.
Delly needs to find his shot. Lock himself in a gym if need be.
The Warriors were doing a lot of switching on the offensive end. I thought that the Cavs really hustled to keep up. It is a challenge.
Are we forcing less turnovers than OKC or is GS just taking better care of the ball.
Tough start to the series. Cavs can’t get any rhythm 3s. Golden State’s D is so underrated
Heh. Yes. Uncalled fouls and illegal defense makes for amazing d
Stop being such downers! Cavs have come back from much worse. Cavs fighting refs and some dubs pulling shots out of their butt holes. I like the defense just gotta play looser and move on offense. Also, don’t help Draymond up next time, Bron.
Warriors lead the Cavs 52-43 at halftime of Game 1. The big difference? Points off turnovers. Golden State turned nine Cleveland turnovers into 15 points. The Cavs scored just 4 off 4 Warriors turnovers. Cleveland had more turnovers (9) than assists (7).
Love has been more than playable this first half. He has even held his own defensively. The worst thing about the Warriors is that they don’t make stupid mental mistakes. They are not going to beat themselves, we have to do it for them.
Cavs couldn’t really have played much worse given the circumstances… could be much bigger than 9 point deficit…
Agreed. Didn’t think it was about dubs as Much as the Cavs being anxious and playing poorly. Gotta smoke up at halftime.
I have no doubt Klay will smoke up at halftime…
Kyrie’s isolation misses were tough. Cavs have to start getting some guys moving on offense. And dare is say it? Cavs have to start flopping.
Basically Kyrie need to step up on offense and our bench need to produce. Need to move the ball more to get open looks to JR, KLOVE and anybody else
Who would have thought that Curry/Klay have 10 pts at half and we are down 9.
It could be worse. We had some terrible breakdowns on D, that we didn’t pay for, and some very good defensive possessions, that we got scored upon. It is the offense, where we need to get exponentially better. We are making this too easy for them.
The Dubs are great frontrunners and Steph/Klay haven’t gotten in a rhythm yet.. Got our work cut out for us the second half
Cavs have to get TT off the floor or put him as roll man. He’s clogging the whole offense otherwise.
It looks awful so far, but we’re not letting it get out of hand. Single digits at the half. Guys will find their shots.
Cavs held splash bros to lowest half scoring of the playoffs and are down 9.
Damn.
Either we’re doing something right or they’re just slumping and due to go off…
We’re doing something right. They are not getting the ball easily. The problem with this, as we saw with OKC, is that as we fatigue, they find a little daylight and we all know what happens next.
Watch one of them go off in the third, and get up by 20 quick
I think it’s by design to let the other guys beat us.. at least that’s what I’m telling myself
That is not great d. We need to be able to remove most open shots from the equation. That is a scheme. We need to somehow find away to be a lockdown defense.
Gar. That green three was big. Shump not getting the ball to Kyrie or Bron at quarter’s end was ugh.
http://www.pleasestopdribblingshump.com
Warriors look calm headed to he locker room, Cavs are talking and looking anxious. Damn
Channing just froze there… had time to get an easy one underneath to LBJ…
Uggh another wide open three for green
And a contested one for Irving, difference between their offenses ability at generating easy shots and ours.
The Donkey with his FIRST foul of them game… riiiiiigggghhhht.
He was all over LeBron’s back
Make free throws
Welp flopping varejao is not as fun on the other side of it.
17 BENCH PTS TO OUR 5 / NEED MORE PRODUCTION FROM THEM
Jesus h. Now I know why everyone hates Andy.
Hahahahaha
https://vine.co/v/iYbXTJnilnW
Honestly, plays like that should go uncalled, and also be heavily fined. I mean heavily.
I’d put money on Andy getting fined for this…
That was basically Marcus Smart level there. And I think Smart should be thrown out of the league.