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/
If you said GS’s big two would go 8/27 for 20 total pts, you would guess we won by 20,
Lue has to make adjustments, mostly with rotations and somehow turn the offense into a motion offense with a ton of cutting and off ball movement in about 2 days. Otherwise this could be a long or rather short series.
Barbosa and Livingston were the difference. Lue could probably put our bench players in better positions to score though. We need more ball movement.
Our big 3 has been good but not great overall in this game, and the bench didn’t show up. The defense is good also (especially on Curry & Klay) but not suffocating. MIA tonight; JR Smith. 1-3 all game. We can still improve, but this is the finals. Every game counts.
Too many missed layups, defensive lapses by Kyrie, and hot shooting by GS reserves. Cavs were in it for 3 quarters, though. Some tactics were effective on Curry. Need better work off the ball by JR and Kyrie.
This was a walk in the park for the Warriors.
I can’t believe how the Cavs just couldn’t stop their freaking bench from scoring…. Unbelievable.
Well we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. Just gotta steal 1! We win Sunday we head back to the Q with momentum.
Have two full days to regroup. It’s only one game and we had the lead late in the 3rd. Watch the tape and come back better.
Love the attitude
If we’re going to lose, I’d rather we lose by playing OUR game, at least until it’s proven that it can’t work. We can’t just let them dictate everything the whole time. Roll the dice with what got you there.
I want nothing more than 30 mins of Frye next game…this was bad enough that rehiring Mike brown wouldn’t be met with boos
Cavs can absorb the loss. The Warriors won’t have this type of games repeatedly. Make everyone but Steph and Klay beat you. That’s the gameplan. ABC/ESPN will spin it as the resolute defense by Golden State and won’t lay the line “It’s a make or miss league” Everyone in Believeland knows that it won’t be easy. Respond and play Game 2.
Hahaha… U r funny. Absorbing loss.that we r good at.
Golden State 1 Cleveland 0. Did this become a 1 game playoff all of a sudden?
Outplayed in ALL aspects of the game incl. being outcoached. Lue wasn’t too bright in this game. But it is ok. lebron loves him. Lol
Complete lack of offense by the Cavs… Stagnant, predictable, careless and horrid rotations by Lue.
Crazy to think that our D was rather good as opposed to average.
If Lebron ever lost the finals MVP to a bench player and had a game like the one Curry is having today, you would never hear the end of it from the media. Curry “still helps his team in other ways” and is the second coming of Mike. The double standard is unbelievable.
Please believe. This is truth.
Can someone explain to me, without using the word “sportsmanship,” why we didn’t have Dahntay Jones just punch Curry in the face during that last possession? Just take him out? This is a serious question that I am asking for a friend.
Cause this isn’t MMA or boxing man. As a man, you gotta realize you were outplayed and outcoached. Just take the L a d learn.
very true. it was a facetious comment that I hoped would be funny. It’s just that he’s so… punchable. All-in-all I thought we stayed within 10 most of the game and have a lot to learn from for the next game.
Warriors just have an insane wealth of players.
Basically 9-10 guys that could be starters on a lot of teams in the league. Obviously also the best player in the world and maybe two other guys in the too 10, and easily 2 of top five defenders in league. Iggy prob still in top 10 defenders too.
Thats crazy talk.
Dunno, barbosa used to start for some teams. Livingston in a motion offense that has 3 shooters around him could probably work. Iggy could definitely start for most teams. Ezeili and speights might be a stretch.
Mo Williams used to start for some teams. They have 7 possible starters. Ezeli and Speights are rotation bigs.
Barbosa is in a different league than Williams.
Mo can’t hit in the playoffs either
I am just so surprised at how lost we looked on offense for large stretches this game… We spent the last 5 days worried about getting burned on D
Not enough firepower. The city of Cleveland has hopes of winning a championship is with the CAVS, PERIOD. This team always has trouble matching up but other teams don’t. We have Lebron so other teams lose against us most of the time due to that.
Mo Williams, since we don’t play him anyway, a 2nd round draft pick, Love and fan favorite Delly to Minnesota for Wiggins.
Go to sleep
The Indians are decent.
When is the last time Mo hit a shot???
Glad Mo Gotti gets in to take some shots /s
It was just a matter of time.
Good to see Curry and Thompson finding their rhythm for game 2…
Was just thinking the same thing…
And now Klay and Curry go off
5 point swing, LEbron on the break, loses the ball and Curry hits a 3
Wow… Bron just got absolutely pilfered by Curry… smh
LeBron 3
https://vine.co/v/iYhWYPn0QXW
How is that in the act of shooting?!
there are literally no easy points against these guys
its almost more annoying that this game will end just out of reach
Yeah, hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in terms of rest, keeping starters in like this
2 days off
Why does JR decide to show up when the game is out of hand? It’s all mental with this guy
No it is freaking not…he hasn’t had a single play run to get him open. That’s unbelievably unfair
Plus the floor burn on his shooting hand early in the game.
He’s our fourth option.. can’t rely on plays to be run for him. He should take notes from Klay on how to move off the ball instead of just standing and waiting.
Standing and waiting is how the offense is setup. James or irving drive and kicks, threes out of postups, or crosscourt skip passes. Unfortunately, the warriors d is setup to stop offenses like this.
Yes they help and recover as good as any team I can remember.
Have to agree with scotch, just no looks, mostly bc of the warriors close outs, traps, and switching.
Yep….looked just like last year in the finals…they were all over him…
Rough game. Warriors’ scrubs should feel good about their bout of luck. They will sweep if Livingston, Barnes, Iggy, Barbosa and Green hit on the percentage they have made tonight. This will sound like sour grapes, but Lue should submit Iguadalo’s post defense to NBA. Every time Bron or Love had him on the low post, the off arm is coming over the shoulder of the offensive player and dragging/restricting the shot. I counted 4 uncalled fouls of this nature before GS went wild. It’s frustrating to call that out in a game that the Cavs will shoot more FTs… Read more »
Lebron – your King status will be over soon…..u r gonna let curry be THE man huh?
That three was big from JR! Mostly from game 2.
for not from.
Hope Lue and Cavs realize they need to be active on offense. Lot to learn from this game.
Damon Jones sighting.
Actually glad Lue kept the lineup in. Great couple of possessions there.
JR finally hits one… (bronx cheer)
https://vine.co/v/iYhWWZZBWIL
JR poor body language. No ball movement on offense. RJ/Frye need more run.
Man, they have made us look as if we have absolutely no depth.
Our Big Three showed up, but no one else. Their bench played well, so Thompson/Curry didn’t have to. Cavs defense may have had something to do with that.
Do we do anything but dribble fancy? Can’t believe how horrible we are. JR should have been sitting mostly..
It’s almost like someone dared Steve Kerr to beat the Cavs with his bench…
Big props to OKC. Took vintage Curry/Thompsom to beat them. We get toasted by the bench
But yea, the Warriors are very long and excellent defenders. And as a team they “go small” and remain an excellent defensive team. Cavs can’t get any rhythm at all.
They don’t really go small though because other than curry they are all like 6’7″ or above and strong enough to contain bigger guys until a lightning fast trap comes. And they all have tremendous lateral movement and quickness.
You have to give credit to the Warriors. Their defense is unbelievable. Granted, we are making kind of easy for them, but it’s mostly them not making any freaking mistakes.
And not that it really matters but we’ve somehow been called for three more fouls than the Warriors.
I hate this… always the bridesmaid, never the bride… typical cleveland sports…
The Warriors are a terrible match up for anyone. That’s why they won 73 games.
+1….nothing else need be said. And people should save the ‘that’s the regular season, THIS IS THE PLAYOFFS!!!11!’ nonsense. I’ve heard way too much of that.
Kerr definitely outcoaching Lue so far. Kerr’s not afraid to roll with what is working even if it means benching the stars. Lue is playing too reactionary.
I hate everything about everything that has happened this game. The offense, the rotations, the scouting report, the effort, the rotations…did I mention the rotations?
Curr/ Klay are 6/22 and we are down 20?
Typo. 8/22
Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the series
Lue not making needed changes to the rotations.
Alright pull starters, focus on game 2
Yup
This is on Lue in large part. Kerr made a couple small changes and Lue panicked. Instead of seeing how it would play out he tried to counter immediately and it completely threw us off.
22 points in 6+ minutes in the 4th wow..
29-8 run for the Warriors since the Cavs had a 1-point lead late in the third…
Can we have the dumpster fire pic now plz?
Hmm… Found this:
Another fastbreak dunk with noone close by
Now we are sadly being embarrassed. Didn’t expect this at all
Lue should bench the starters and himself for the rest of the game
I mean at least Steve Kerr broke a clipboard…
only hope is Cavs too embarrassed and bounce back i mean they lost game 1 last year (searching for answers)
Probably time to sit the starters, Lue…
Wish the cavs would move more on offense. Couple minor adjustments on defense, hope they don’t overreact.
Kind of the epitaph on this one…
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/738570155412881408
Warriors bench is stupidly deep. They were torching us without steph and thompson in for most of that run
I think he’ll kill the Cavs every game….they just have no one to defend him effectively…
Seriously why is JR still in this game?
Well they either have to somehow figure out how to play lockdown d for the rest of the fourth, at this rate they might not even need to put curry back in
That’s the game boys. Time to learn from the game and come out hot in game 2.
Love to LeBron, at last a good after-timeout play
https://vine.co/v/iYhBOFHKqHI
Jeeze they just close out on the 3’s so damn fast. That and we’re telegraphing everything
another lapse on defense….since the 2 min mark when Lebron made the layip and we were up 68-67. Last 7 minutes its a 25-8 run
Can hardly wait till Cols comes in here later and blames Delly for the loss because he went 1-3…hilarious…