Preview/Live Thread: The Finals Game 1
2015-06-04
Never before has eight days seemed like such an eternity. But in just four hours, we will finally witness an end to that excruciating wait with the tip-off Game 1 of The Finals. The storylines have been dissected, regurgitated and picked apart ad nauseam. Articles have been written. Pods have been cast. Analytics have been scrutinized. Debates have raged. And now, the games will, at long last, be played.
Can the best player on the planet overcome the best team? Exactly what percentage of Kyrie will be available? Can either the current MVP or the four time MVP be stopped? Who will Delly be accused of knee-capping next? Which “rookie” coach will pull off the unimaginable? Will TT or Draymond be the bigger man underneath? Which “Son of Akron” will bring home the hardware? All of these questions and more will finally be put to the test on the NBA’s two grandest stages.
There is nothing more to do today but to somehow make it through the end of the workday, then get home, to a friend’s house, or your favorite sports bar, get your Cavs gear on and get ready for the epic showdown that so many of us hoped for from the moment that LeBron made his decision to come home.
For me, between the late-night podcast, reading endless articles and tweets, watching tons of Cavs hype videos and recaps of how they got to this point, and debating the outcome of this series with so many of the Warrior bandwagon fans in my neck of the woods, I’ve barely slept in the last 24 hours. I’ve somehow managed to survive on Red Bull and adrenaline, as well as a continuous loop of some of my favorite musical anthems to get me pumped up for the impending Cavs foray into the Finals.
I’m sure everyone has their own particular music that gets their blood pumping for the wine and gold. Here’s my top five…
#5 (For the EDM crowd)
#4 (For the old-school hard rock crowd)
#3 (For the dub-step/hip-hop crowd)
#2 (For the Indie Anthem crowd)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OmMPaLmxKg
#1 (For the Hans Zimmer superhero crowd)
And here it is used in my personal favorite LeBron Playoff Hype Video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOLID82bESs
Enjoy the listens… share your own… and GO CAVS!!!
Iggy is still a great defender.
@ChrisFedor: #Cavs LeBron vs Iguodala: 11 points on 4-14, including 2-7 in 4th Q/OT. Against everyone else: 27 points on 12-22
Does anyone think we can win this series without Kyrie?
I don’t. Not without some crazy stuff happening, probably including a player or two for GS also being out. They could beat some teams, but GS is too good.
The rest of the team would need to be sipping some serious Fuego-power juice for that to happen IMHO. I never expected a championship this year, still so proud of this team to have taken the East. I think next year, particularly if KLove stays, we will break records.
No guarantees we get back, even with a healthy squad.
Exactly, that’s why we need to look at how we can somehow win it this year besides the odds. The future is not a given and I hate coming so close and not being able to win it, I think that would hurt more than not coming at all.
Isn’t is obvious???
ENGAGE NUCLEAR DELLY.
Hahaa I want us to win legit so that the Championship doesn’t be tainted and we wouldn’t hear the end of it from media and others.
I don’t. They can compete, and win a game or even two, maybe, but even if Lebron could roll the clock back five years I can’t see him carrying this team to a best of seven over this Warriors team without a healthy Irving. They are too good and too deep, and can defend him and wear him down.
@SamAmicoFSO: Getting the sense that Cavs believe Kyrie Irving (knee) is done for Finals. Not official, just a vibe. Again, MRI is Friday.
I’m officially trolling Brandon Jennings now.
Brandon Jennings has already congratulated the Warriors for beating the CAVS in 4. Hope he has a set back with that Achilles.
@WindhorstESPN: Kyrie Irving left arena on crutches. Initial diagnosis is no ACL or MCL tear. MRI tomorrow. Status uncertain.
Well clearly wind horsy…he walked off the floor. Guys don’t do that after they tear those puppies.
I think I’m just gonna go and play some NBA 2k15 with the Cavs to relax a bit
Broussard saying that Kyrie was not on crutches… Showered on his own and walked (with a limp) out of the locker room.
This was the worst lie by Broussard. Photos show Irving on crutches.
Well, he’s usually wrong about most things…
Can he predict the Dubs to win the series?
That’s the shortest I’ve seen them interview Lebron and Co at the podium. Maybe because it’s so late
Lot of international press asking LeBron questions…
I’m going down to Vegas and putting $20 on Delly to work MVP at 500:1 tonight.
@ChrisBHaynes: Kyrie Irving is exiting the arena on crutches.
Mozzy going for the reverse instead of just going to dunk hard was a big factor.
Lebron just come on the podium
LBJ on the podium discussing the last shot…
Frustrating, frustrating night. Our day will come, we will prosper. This is a promise to ourselves, the faithful.
It’s only a game. It’s only a game.
Yea it is, but what great game they played for most of the game, had Golden State down for almost da whole game and didnt pull out the win. Don’t know what to expect in Game 2
Dunno either but from years of watching, it seems very few road teams win game 2. Statistics please? I honestly have nothing really to support this.other than my own recollection, which admittedly can be sketchy.
CAVS seem rattled. Not good!
They probably know they blew it and that if KI is down they’re in trouble. I’m Delly’s biggest fan, but he’s no Kyrie and GS is no Atlanta.
1,2,3 hard work
4,5,6 together
@ChrisBHaynes: Tristan Thompson being overly hard on himself. He was going over how many times he misplayed Stephen Curry. Never seen him this frustrated.
Michael Wilbon and Stephen A… just rays of sunshine…
I turned off the TV, I’m not able to hear ish from the media. Just waiting for Lebron to come on the podium and thats it.
@ChrisBHaynes: Not to be the deliverer of bad news, but Kyrie Irving is having trouble getting around on his own. This is the worst I’ve seen him.
Fly him to Germany immediately for some of the Kobe “treatments”
Can’t say this wasn’t a great game for fans to watch. OT in Game 1. Let’s hope Kyrie can recover okay and keep the series a fair fight…
What a strange game – not to know if you love or hate the ISO ball. Are they really going to play this much ISO ball going forward. And why not involve Curry on the pick and roll. But in the end, a very bad traveling call could have changed the whole complexion of the series. Cavs win, no Kyrie injury. What a difference a horrible call can make.
Okay, I’m going to try to be positive: 1. Kyrie played a helluva game, offensively, defensively, with toughness and leadership. He is under contract for 7 years. 2. Our defense is real. It wasn’t just the East. We gave the best offense in the league and one of the best in history all it could handle. That was a great effort. This team is tough. 3. TT was awesome, again. Chris Grant hit on both those picks. We will be paying him 4 billion dollars. 4. Blatt proved true to the reports: He had a great scheme, adjusted well, and… Read more »
Great post, and #10 has me PML.
Steph giving props to Kyrie for blocking his last layup. Also said they were lucky the Shump shot didn’t go down…
They were lucky. Sometimes that’s enough, but I don’t think anyone in that locker room thinks this is going to be a cakewalk.
Yea and even more Lucky about Kyrie. I mean damn, no luck on da Cavs at ALL..
Jeez guys. Chins up. Dubs got lucky with some GENOROUS calls. Time for game two.
Would be an easier loss to stomach if not for how well Kyrie played and his unfortunate spill in OT…
Yeah that is the only thing I’m down on is Irving. He played great and now he might be done.
Nate and I are on the same page.
“Tis rare. This even gives me hope that I was lacking. If you and Nate can agree that we don’t need to worry, then I’m on board too.
This feeling sucks right now for real, sometimes I hate how invested I am in the Cavs and these games. Hoping for a better ending in Game 2. #AllIn #Together . Hope the kyrie situation brings everyone more together than they already is.
The injuries have motivated then before. We hist need more offense from smith and shump. Moz was big tonight and we can grow on that big guy as well. They were not doubling on James and nothing was really open. Ugh just pissed about injuries.
JR was bad JR tonight. He can’t pull that stuff on Iggy. Iggys arms dangle past his ankles.
So I’m assuming Kyrie is back to hobbled 35% Kyrie, if not worse. That’s a HUGE problem. @TonyZ19: I asked Kyrie if he fears the knee injury worsened. He said “you can tell by the tone of my voice that I’m worried” @cavs
We need JR to errupt next game if Kyrie’s out. I think he can step up big.
Yeah, it was not a good second half and OT for JR… He seemed to have it going early, but I think Thompson’s length bothered him later…
Lebron/Kyrie : 67 points, 28/60 FG, 7/11 FT and 12 Assists
Others: 33 points, 11/34 FG, 6/8 FT and 7 Assists
For the love of FSM. No other cav besides James Irving and moz could hit a shot. And the cavs lost because of a travel that wasn’t and a couple of pump fake draw a foul jump shots. I get that everyone wants a wide open end of game shot. But almost all end of game shots are contested jumpers. Rose James Paul and pierce all won games on contested shots at the end of the game in these playoffs. So please stop whining about it. The Warriors played well and the cavs played well the Warriors got some breaks… Read more »
Sorry Cols, but you don’t get to just come in at the end and tell everyone how to feel about it…
And it wasn’t just a contested shot… it was maybe his worst shot attempt of the game. A step-back, fall-away contested long two…
So was his last second shot against Chicago. That’s how last second shots are. Show me an uncontested last shot. They mostly don’t exist.
That shot against Chicago was also a bad shot, but he made it. Doesn’t make it a good shot.
No, it wasn’t. His last second shot against Chicago was a fairly spot up shot, and not all that contested. And also off the pass instead of the dribble…
That’s true. Good point. Makes this shot tonight even worse.
I’m with cols here. It was a low-risk play that he didn’t convert on. They had a five minute game to play after that and they lost it.
They got the ball with 24 seconds left. This wasn’t 3 seconds to inbound the ball and hurry up and get a shot off.
The iso was effective when James was in the post or driving. Not when he was taking long contested Saint Weirdo J’s. He had to attack the basket on that last possession of regulation. Or give the ball to Kyrie and let him create.
Hate to say it but Cols does have a lot of valid points. Except now Kyrie is hobbled again, which occurred in OT. Easy to blame refs, trust me I want to punch them. But CAVS went cold in OT. LeBron should have made that shot, Shump almost bailed him out. There were a ton of spin out shots in either the 2nd or 3rd quarter. Dubs bench is deep and really benefitted tonight. No Speights no win for the Dubs. It sucks because we had the lead for most of the game. Thought we played too much prevent ball… Read more »
And that is ths problem cols, the rest of team will not be getting open shots and hence hitting shots against the warriors if iso is how they play, period. That team is too good at rotating to simply rely on passing out of doubles or drive and kick to get shooters open.
I agree to some extent. The James iso is devastating, but it is exponentially more effective when the defense sends help. Golden state shades in but mostly stays with shooters. Blatt will come up with some off-ball movement to get guys open so that lebron can find them.
Blatt on the podium now…
Saying Cavs just went flat going into overtime…
If we can make some adjustments and can figure out how to spread the floor better we can steal game two. Delly’s gonna be tired but he can be an effective physical presence against curry. Blatt gets his chance to coach a true underdog here. Let’s see what he’s got. I think we can do it.
Delly has absolutely no chance against Curry. You are totally underestimating Curry and the few time Delly tried to guard him Curry went right past him.
Hence the “physical” presence thing. He’s gotta body him up, post him up when curry defends him…make him feel it.
He did a good job of running him off the three. Let him drive. That’s the better poison from curry.
Hat tip to Kerr… Even he admitted they were lucky to get overtime…
The ISO king giveth, and the ISO king taketh away. But hey, I don’t know how you can fault a guy for running out of gas carrying a less talented team for 50 minutes. He was amazing tonight. If he didn’t play as well as he did the Cavs would have lost by 20, better ball movement or no. The real problem is the role players mostly didn’t show, but they’ll be better at home. Just need to steal game 2.
I mean, assuming Kyrie’s OK. If not… Well let’s not talk about it.
I rhink the game was lost on missed free throws. That Mozzy travel call looked sloppy in slow mo, let alone real time. The officials deserve a pass on that one, sorry.
Um, cavs look like warriors of lasf year. Teams that rely on iso against great d and offenses that generate easy buckets will more likely than not regress to mean. Great effort, horrific execution of team ball from q 2 onward. Hopefully, they instill a semblance of a modern nba offense by game 2. On the bright side great d effort for the 1st 48. Actuallly, surprised with how well we played for so long. Scared we let best chance slip away down the stretch.
Hard to imagine them being able to do that if Kyrie can’t go…
True. F our luck.
Huh? Cavs played amazing ball for 48 minutes. It’s a make or miss league. Get ’em Un game. 2.
Yes we scored due ridiculous individual efforts, sustainable, I dunno, you tell me. Really, open shots in today’s nba seem to usually win out in the end. Maybe I am crazy, I dunno.
This is how they’ve been playing throughout the playoffs. Isolate lebron. It works ’cause he’s a ridiculously good basketball player. It’s not beautiful, but it has great upside, particularly when it comes to limiting turnovers. Golden State dared James to beat them and he had an opportunity to do just that. They’re not all of a sudden going to start running Princeton sets because they lost this game. Cleveland will win next game, with relative ease, even without kyrie if it comes to that.
What to say now! That was an amazing game and we were there when we needed to be! Go Cavs
Sorry about the comment above just didn’t like the comment about Blatt. Hope the team holds their heads up or this is over
I hope the energy remains positive because we played great and lots of players could of played better.
Sorry for the comment above to ? But couldn’t stand a negative comment about Blatt right now
Don’t worry about it man. Neither could I…
@Rachel__Nichols: Outside the #Cavaliers locker room, GM David Griffin looking for Kyrie Irving’s father and his agent.
WOW… I’m nervous as hell…
Well, Griffin would be wanting to let them know what’s going on whether it’s serious or not. It looked like *just* an aggravation of the tendinitis.
I say *just* because tendinitis can be incredibly painful even though it’s just an overuse injury and not a tear or break.
But the margin of the game: two absolute crap pump fake calls and a phantom travel call on Mozgov.
Yeah that ruined a great game. Refs didn’t need to be involved
Preach it. It’s notike we got run out of the building or even outplayed. For all the nonsense about beautiful basketball vs ISO ball (which it wasn’t. James passes out of there if there’s a guy who could shoot that’s open) the cavs played them evenly and came extremely ode to winning. Narratives are
Built out of such small things.
I dont know which loss is worse, this game or Game 3 with the buzzer beater by Rose. Man, we had this game
Well it’s only one game. Just felt like that was theirs to take. If only Shump hit that shot. Don’t blame him because he wasn’t set but damn!!! Oh well!
Don’t think the Cavs have much chance of winning on their court if Irving isn’t healthy. It really sucks. I feel like we’re being robbed of watching a series for the ages by injuries.
James. Moz. And Irving were great. Thompson was so so and shump smith and Delly were pretty bad. We will
Get the next one. Hold your heads high. One bs traveling call and 1 cm from shump from winning.
And if they hit a shot at the end of regulation you aren’t even here right now. Get lost.
I dont mind if they missed it, buh damn compare what Curry got a wide open layup to a fadeaway 3 by Lebron thats what you me mad. I find it should be been a simple pick and roll with Kyrie, leave him use his handles for a good look for the win. sighh
I mean we missed wide open threes on OT and they made theirs. It has nothing to do with ISO ball and every bring to do with making shots. Lebron just played his ass off and if they didn’t give moz a bs travel call maybe we win.
Totally agree on that Moz call. Complete BS!
Feel really bad for magnum K.I.
Wish we were healthy… nice of the dubs to get speights back and be at 100% across the board while we’re down andy, love, and magnum
On to the next game… which i’m very nervous about without kyrie
Oh god. And here come the ISO commenters. James was killing them all game. What do you want hi to do? Jones shump and smith couldn’t hit. It was all Irving and James and Irving could barely move at the end. He put the team on his back and almost pulled it off. Do not blame James. Heist.
Amen to that Cols.
Blame Shump for missing the reload.
Speaking on a pure basketball level though, the first 47.5 minutes was amazing from both teams.