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/
That was weird. 1. I didn’t understand then, and don’t understand now – why didn’t we even try to keep Livingston? He was a steal four years ago. 2. Bench is better at home was VERY true this game. 3. I didn’t hate it. They were outplayed and out hustled, which is problematic, but I didn’t realistically expect to steal game 1. They didn’t do their best tonight. Then again, neither did Golden State. 4. The main problem I see is the same one I’ve seen for two years now – when we face a good defense that frustrates our… Read more »
You have to be physical with Livingston before he establishes that high post position. That back down, turn around mid-range jumper is his go to move. This should have been obvious and harped on in the scouting report. I am surprised Lue didn’t address this in the game plan and even more surprised he didn’t adjust to it in-game. Should not have let Livingston get so out of hand. Feels like this game was a missed opportunity.
I think it boils down to.. We abandoned what have been the identity of our offense. We have to attack, stay aggressive, let it fly on 3pt land, great ball movement then live and die with it. I get that we try to capitalize on every GS miss but we can’t be so conscious with it. And to our defense, which has been good against Curry and Klay for most of the game, we have to step it up further for us to have a better chance. We have to cover almost all the bases and stop doing the pick-your-poison… Read more »
YES YES YES!! we didn’t play our regular game today and I don’t know why. We gotta rain down 3s. We actually have more three point shooters than GS. This will open up the lane. Bad game plan by Lue. I really hope they see this and go back to what got them there.
I might throw a brick watching Varejao flop. They are basically putting him in just to flop.
I thought the same and then I realized it was Karmic rebalance for all the times I rooted for AV’s tricks. I hope Warrior fans get the same taste of Draymond this series.
Thought Lue did not do a good job of making adjustments early in the fourth quarter. In-game adjustments seem to be Lue’s biggest area for needed improvement.
Cavs might have lost that game when Lue put out that garbage lineup to start the fourth.
Yep. Hadn’t Lue seen enough about what happens when Irving starts the 4th with James on the bench before. Did he go brain dead?
I am hoping to return to a faster offense pace in Game 2.
Plus 35 for GS bench is largest finals pt diff in 50 yrs per espn.
What was Lue doing today? Where was our best lineup? Sure coached like a rookie head coach.
Lue should put Richard Jefferson in every time Livingston is on the floor. RJ can bother him with physicality and match his length.
In addition to his physical measurements, RJ is a tough competitor. You’re never going to question his effort.
Here’s the flow chart for the game. On it we can see the discrepancy with JR minutes and those of RJ and Frye.
Considering the fact that not only was JR not offensively present, he also showed lots of frustration in some defensive lapses.
My question for Lue is, why didn’t RJ and Frye play so little time considering they both provided great minutes in all previous series?
http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20160602&game=CLEGSW
*why did
The Steph Curry (-1) that will never be mentioned.
Really liked the overall defensive strategy and thought we executed great against their starters. KI was terrific against Steph and Love was solid in PnRs. That is a HUGE sign for rest of series.
What totally surprised me was how great their bench played against ours. Didn’t expect that, and I think that clearly won them the game. But that is fixable.
Agree with others that we need to use the bench more. When Varejoa is in there we need to dial up Frye. Save TT for Green.
Limiting curry and thompson was good but their were a ton of open layups in the first half by other guys. Livingston was great, but those midrange shots are his shot. Their passing makes them ridiculously difficult to defend, 29 assists tonight.
Yeah, they had what seemed like a crapton of layups and dunks in the first half. No real shot blocker inside is going to be brutal.
Think that is why okc defended them so well for much of the wcf. They have 2 shot blockers both mobile enough to switch on a lot of stuff.
Absolutely no doubt about it. Which is why comparing the Cavs and OKC drtg in the playoffs is pretty pointless. OKC matches up far better against GS defensively….full stop.
Let’s be honest, too. Livingston and Barbosa had flames shooting out of their butts they were so hot. Barbosa hit some ridiculous layups, and Livinston couldn’t miss. Cavs needed more physicality. They need to foul more.
Let’s be even more honest…all that means is they didn’t need curry to matter, and Thompson had an ok game…and we still got blown out.
There is no excuse for Lue’s rotations. More Frye, more Delly (especially if he’s planning to neglect smith on offense). Considerably less confusion about how we plan to get points.
Think rotations and far more off ball movement/screens and ball movement are the major adjustments he can make. Also somehow getting better defensive rotations.
Delly was -19 for the game and refused to shoot.
Somehow they have to both defend the basket, limit curry/thompson threes and limit open threes from the rest of gs. I am not sure how we do this but they have to find a way. Also the warriors are too good at rotating/switching to rely on simple p and rs, postups, dribble penetration, and one pass cross court skips to get us open threes. Most of our threes seem to come from one pass and then shot. That won’t work on this team as they are too quick at closing out and quick enough to recover. Somehow Lue has to… Read more »
Fox postgame has it best. Cavs held the ball WAY too much and showed the ball way too much: bad picks, no passing… Really disappointed in Lue. Where are the wrinkles from last series? Why wasn’t he telling LeBron to roll? Kyrie throwing away possessions on offense and defense was troubling. Cavs’ energy sucked: anxious first half, got the lead then fell flat the second. LeBron and Shump’s off ball D, especially on Iguodala was lousy. I don’t know defend last year’s finals MVP like you just expect him to miss. Cavs not nearly loose enough. Lue needs to take… Read more »
They did try horns once or twice but that play was shut down both times, clearly been scouted to death.
I’m baffled the Cavs didn’t put in any new plays.
Lue totally clueless. Lebron too many TOs driving against D, tripping falling and losing the ball too often. Kyrie had most pts but he shoots like 250 times to get it. Sux on D. Love. So so game. Good rebounds TT – not playing his worth lately. Delly- hasn’t made many shots last two months. Jr – when he doesn’t have his offense going, his entire game disappears. Frye – coach yanked him after 6 min so ….need more time in the game. Outcoached ..outplayed by Warriors bench, and pretty embarrassing loss. Psychologically this will affect most players …. Not… Read more »
Topgun1967 – Debbie Downer Lue – Definitely counting on Kyrie/LBJ to do too much ISO. Where was the ball movement? Where was Frye? LBJ – Establish down low against smaller defenders and play outside in. Hopefully kick outs result in canned 3s or officials call all of the holds escaped by smaller defenders. (Especially Iggy) Kyrie – Keep showing confidence on offense and grit on defense with assistance of double team/trapping on Curry. Just cuz you pounded the ball for majority of shot clock doesn’t mean you need to shoot. KLove – You did fine. JR – Opposing teams fear… Read more »
Playing against the Warriors it always feels like you are scratching and clawing to stay in the game. A slight slip up, and it’s a 20 point run.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! There were some really stupid mistakes that game. Game 2 is what they call a must win. And also what they call a “we really aren’t as much of an underdog as we wet lay year” kind of game. We had them. And then stopped being normal and strayed. We don’t have to answer every Warriors basket with the same basket…just keep doing what works guys
The lack of offense from our bench is unnerving.
Our second unit, the one I though was going to give the Warriors an issue with LeBron, Delly, Schump, RJ and Frye was nonexistent.
Frye played less than 6 minutes and just like JR, felt as if he wasn’t included in the offensive plan. This is unacceptable.
LeBron’s turnovers and stupid jumpshots were a soul killer. He can’t take those shots, nor run head down into the offense without a plan.
Well, now you have two days to regroup and get a better game plan .
I was really really surprised we didn’t see the LeBron, Delly, Shump, RJ, Frye lineup
I’m not sure why…
Once Livingston got going, put RJ on him and see if RJ’s height gives him problem.
Our shooting was horrid, so why not give Frye a few more tries?
Lue was just outcoached from the first few substitutions. He overplayed them as opposed to letting our offensive flow get into a rhythm…
We got two days to regroup.
Did the coaching staff prepared this team to defend like this? Simply unacceptable.
And the ISO offense is not going to work against them. The Warriors really tooked the challenge individually and took out almost everyone from the Cavs except LeBron and KLove. Kyrie scored his points but he shot a lot.
Both my 2 year old daughter and the Cavs crapped the floor today.
I feel RJ is a good defensive answer of Livingston. Just can’t have small guards on him.
Lue should have been ready for Livingston.
Wow. That was…I gotta remember we only lost one game. That felt like a whole series.
We can definitely adjust…but I feel like the adjustments we need to make were super obvious at halftime.