InstaCap: Warriors 105, Cavs 89 (Or, The Weirdest Game Ever Played) 2016-06-03 Off By Tom Pestak Live Thread: Cavs @ Warriors, NBA Finals Game 1 Recap: Warriors 105, Cavs 89 (or, A Long Ways To Go)
I haven’t seen so many broken defensive plays from us in a long, long time. GS must have had 4-5 uncontested layups in the first half.
Something was off last night. Our offense blatantly went to an isolation offense within the first one or two possessions of the game. Coupled with the poor defensive effort on broken plays, I think Lue might have done a little too much thinking in preparing for this one.
We didn’t play our game at all.
Also, we have a clear rebounding advantage in this series. Golden State is not a particularly good rebounding team, and we are a VERY good rebounding team.
We have to limit the turnovers (17-9) and up the assists with more ball movement. I think we win Game 2 if we get back to PASSING THE BASKETBALL. Guys played nervous in Game 1, hence the 17 turnovers. That should change.
why is that when Kyrie is on the floor w/o Bron, we stink? we go from ‘in the game’ to ‘out of the game’ in just few min? this seems to be happening quite often. so what he scores 25 pts .. on 25 shots.. 7 made FGs.. that’s almost as bad as my FG% in my school days
Kyrie was pretty great a number of times in these playoffs with LeBron off the court. Kyrie is supposed to score for us, and he was doing that last night. He wasn’t efficient, but he also got to the FT line a lot, which is huge. We shot under 40% as a team. Kyrie wasn’t the only one. Why aren’t you ragging on LeBron? Kyrie actually scored 3 more points on only 1 more shot attempt. 26 points on 7-23 shooting isn’t worse than 23 on 9-21. If Kyrie isn’t scoring in bunches, we have no chance. The defense needs… Read more »
Cavs defensive scheme of trying to limit Curry and Klay was the correct call but the Warriors’ role players just killed them for it. Offense was a mess as well. Cavs reverted back to the iso-ball of the regular season. Really let one slip away tonight that I think the Cavs will regret.
I just watched the post game comments of Lue and James. Couldn’t deal with watching anything more last night. James and Lue had polar opposite reactions: James talking about the Cavs obvious problems: bench scoring, turnovers, poor ball movement etc. Lue was more in the “don’t worry, be happy mode.” Not exactly, but Lue was way to rosy in his analysis of what just happened. If that was Blatt, the press would be writing about how James and Lue aren’t on the same page. I know we will play better in Game Two, and it sure hope it matters.
similar feeling I have after listening to post game conf. I surely thought we would have tough time winning against GS in any game let alone series, but last night was a huge dud for me. the way we played scared/hesitant, coaches’ decision on rotation in some parts of the game (4QTR start), JR’s ‘checking out’ mentality when things don’t go well early on and coaches stubbornness to keep him in there entire game, not using Frye more than 4 seconds, etc. horrible. sure Big 3 scored ..but so what when bench scores almost zero (or closer to zero than… Read more »
The series is absolutely not over if we lose Game 2. The series doesn’t start, as they say, until someone wins on the road.
anyone listen to Lue’s post game interview/conference? he almost says everything is fine, despite the score. if he really thinks that, we are done in 4 games or 5. we were NOT fine… coaching rotation didn’t work at end of Q3 and start of Q4..kept JR too long (also didn’t set him up for success either).. too many TOs.. players playing scared… on and on..
no reason to panic but we were definitely not fine, and coaching played like bunch of rookies and our bench should get really mad for next game. that was an embarrassment.
What do you want him to say? We got trounced in Game 1 and the series is over?
Your head coach doesn’t need to sound alarm bells after Game 1. We did a great job on their best two players, including the MVP. Nobody could have foreseen Barbosa and Livingston going a combined 13-15 at one point.
I agree that everything is not fine, but Lue doesn’t need to panic at the podium. We don’t know what he’s saying in the locker room. But there’s just no reason to panic to the press.
There is a 100% chance Cavs: the Blog is the best Cavs coverage around
This hardly qualifies as an insta-cap because its actually pretty in-depth analysis. Great job Tom. Initial defense with Barnes suckered LeBron into hero-ball mode, and other players didn’t get going. We’re always better when LBJ is facilitating to start the game, and has some left to bring it in the later quarters. Wish the refs would call it more when he gets fouled on the shoulders every time he goes up under the rim. Your points about LeBron moving off-ball more are right on. Cavs have got to be in extra-pass mode. I think the overall scheme of taking Curry… Read more »
I really thought LeBron had realized that hero iso ball is not the best option. Yet multiple times we saw him back out when he saw a perceived mismatch, dribble 5 times, then drive left, and throw up a difficult left handed shot with bad footwork while the other four players stood around. His decisions not to roll to the hoop got the second unit completely out of rhythm and cost us the game. I don’t understand why Lue thinks LeBron hero ball and benching Frye is going to beat this team.
I’m pretty sure Livingston played like that both regular season games vs. cavs as well. He s so efficient and we have no guard who can match up with him. We must double when he’s on the floor now.
Cavs played intimidated from the start; porous defense for stretches (sans 3rd qtr) and refused to run consistent moving offense…also stunned Lue kept JR in game past 1st quarter…guy offered nothing to the team….and not having Frye out was inexcusable….Lue looked unprepared and it spread to the team….gotta figure things out quick and make some shots here or this series is over next Friday
Cavs need to get off to a better start in game 2. No butterfly-induced turnovers. Kyrie’s jumper needs to start catching net. If he can’t hit and the team continues the unforced errors, it’s curtains
Man, I just feel like the Cavs would be destroying the opponent right now if it was anyone else. This Cavs team is so good. The best Cavs team ever. It is so Cleveland for them to have to face what might be the greatest team ever. That would coincide with our best chance at a championship in 52 years.
Thanks for the great analysis. Flukes are so confounding when we try and make sense of basketball- they are vicious little tares in our understanding of how things “probably should” work out. I think Lue et al. have plenty of tape to study, and here we go for game 2.
Great points – I largely agree. We succeeded at greatly diminishing their two most explosive scorers and won a bunch of battles we wanted to (e.g. FTs, OREBs). Lot of good things to build on. Ultimately we missed a lot of difficult close range shots, whereas another night you might get 50% more of those falling and it ends up being a much closer finish. Several close calls went against us – the shot clock violation where it should have been reset on the TT shot, the out of bounds call on Love when Igoudala first touched it out of… Read more »
Thanks for your take. Very good analysis.
Thanks – can’t wait to watch this again once it posts on League Pass and take another pass at what happened and what next… as Tom alluded to, it was a lot of strangeness to digest in one sitting! You may be right above though – and this is sort of my point too – much of it may be too fluky to really try to respond to next game. We’ll see…
No one in the league defends Lebron better than GSW. Very difficult match up for the Cavs. Wish OKC won one of those last three games. Can’t believe they couldn’t do it.
And I forgot to say it, but as John wrote, excellent recap. I think you pretty much hit everything.
You and I are on the same cloud, Tom. Warriors are too good. Lebron could play his best series ever, and I don’t think the Cavs could beat this team 4 out of 7. I picked the Warriors in 5, and I’ll stick by that. I could see it going 6, though, especially if Cleveland somehow is able to win game 2. I regard game 2 as a must win now, unfortunately. They are going to have to play some semblance of an offense, though. Not going to beat this team without some player or ball movement. Agree that Lebron… Read more »
Tom great recap. Pretty much covered everything I have been thinking about the warriors and the cavs, and you had the balls to say something that I have been thinking for awhile but was too timid to say for fear of getting lambasted….. The cavs need to play like the warriors on offense. A ton of off ball movement, cuts, second and third passes, and constant motion. Think how that would unlock this offense. Think of all the finishers we have, of the three point shooters. Think of how the seams would open in the defense if james was constantly… Read more »
The whole “horns run” thing that spread like wildfire through the analytics-minded of the Internet seemed like such a positive revelation that I’m very confused the Cavs don’t use it more often. It makes me wonder if it was just a sample-size mirage misinterpreted by ultimately amature analysis. But, this may only be the post-loss bummer effect.
Rub, rather. What a silly name either way.
Huh, interesting… Is there an article or video you could recommend that shows this “horns rub” thing in action?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJ6wyiGtZM
Like i said they ran it a ton against Toronto so i am sure the warriors scouted the hell out of it. They just have to vary the initial action and add some secondary actions enough to make it less predictable.
Cool play – thanks for the link
http://www.basketballinsiders.com/nba-pm-the-play-that-almost-doomed-toronto/
Nice – thanks for the link
Posted a youtube link but it is awaiting moderation. Just google horns rub and there should be some youtube links with van gundy breaking it down.
Actually just look at the link tom posted
No it wasn’t a fluke, just scouted to death. They ran it couple times tonight and it was shut down. They just need to add wrinkles and modify it. For instance they could have guys screening for a run to the 3 line in addition to guys screening for the man with the ball on the elbow. Just have to add some different options and vary it enough so the d cannot predict the initial action. I actually think some of the cavs could use some of the warriors set reallu well. For instance that cross screen under the bucket… Read more »