Recap: Warriors 105, Cavs 89 (or, A Long Ways To Go)
2016-06-03
Much like the ball in this picture, Game 1 was just out of reach for the Cavs.
We all saw that one coming, right? Cleveland’s defense held stout against Golden State’s “Splash Brothers”, the Cavaliers’ offense shot a lame 38% from the floor, and the Warriors walked off their court on Thursday evening with a 15 point victory. The battle was won in places unexpected heading into the 2016 Finals, and the chessmatch that is Cavs-Warriors 2.0 saw the home crowd capture Game 1 for the second straight year. Only this round there was no overtime. Instead, the Cavs were outmatched by a team that was more confident, more prepared than they were. With their uber-long limbs and amorphous defense, the Warriors were able to play keepaway with a Cavs team that looked flustered, less prepared, and undersized… or, quite frankly, a team that appears to have a “long” ways to go in reaching the defending champions’ height.
By the by, did you check out Tom Pestak’s video InstaCap providing an instant reaction to Game 1? If not, be sure to check it out here to see where I get 99%* of my analysis used in this recap. Otherwise, let’s get to it.
*Kidding, obviously. It’s no more than 95%.
First Quarter
Cleveland opened the Finals playing Kevin Love at the 5. He immediately drew first blood by canning a catch-and-shoot three as if to announce that his presence was indeed missed in last year’s playoff run.
https://vine.co/v/iYbWWZglzA6
LeBron James and Kyrie Irving found ways to get into the paint early in the quarter, with LeBron bullying the smaller Harrison Barnes and earning shots close to the rim, and Kyrie earning his first points on a pair of free throws that tied the game 7-7.
On the other side, Barnes began to go nuts offensively by attacking the basket off-ball. He ultimately scored seven points in the quarter on 3-4 shots, including an and-1 three point play against Tristan Thompson who was slow to catch him cutting. Barnes is a solid two-way player who has been playing poorly on offense to this point in the playoffs. It was somewhat expected for him to break out of his slump sooner or later, so why not sooner (he surely asked)? Was Barnes’ outburst a sign of future things to come from the Warriors? Since you already saw Tom’s InstaCap, of course you know the answer to this question, but more on that later.
https://vine.co/v/iYbmjXq1FnP
Some excellent Warrior defense forced the Cavs to get frantic with their ball movement, forcing JR Smith to hit the deck in an attempt to secure a loose ball, only for the shot clock’s 24 seconds to expire a moment too soon. Immediately after, an absurd 26-foot three by Steph Curry pushed the Warriors lead to 14-9 at the 7:28 mark and Cavs coach Tyronn Lue called a quick timeout before the Oakland crowd could grow too rabid. After some trading of buckets by both teams, Tristan secured an offensive rebound and layed it in to bring the Cavs to 15-16 with just under 6:00, but Golden State would not let Cleveland regain a lead.
With about 3:00 left in the quarter, the Warriors led 24-17. During a chaotic Cleveland possession, the Cavs appeared frustrated as their first and second options on offense were foiled by Golden State’s whirring defense, resulting in an awkward 4-foot scoop shot by Tristan, who missed and grabbed his own rebound; the Cavs then performed their best Washington Generals impression by bumbling the ball around until a shot clock violation was forced for a second time in the quarter.
Overall in the quarter, LeBron James was unstoppable inside but the Cavs simply couldn’t get stops. The team also had three turnovers. Still, even though it felt like Cleveland was losing all the 50/50 balls and calls, the visiting team ended the quarter only down five. Warriors 28, Cavs 24
Second Quarter
The second frame opened with a Cavalier lineup of LeBron, Love, Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova, and Richard Jefferson. The action started off of an entry pass by Iman Shumpert to LeBron, who missed his layup, grabbed his own board, missed another layup, grabbed his own miss again, missed again, then nearly secured a third rebound… only to wrestle with Draymond Green for what resulted in a jump ball. LeBron won the jump ball but Kevin Love was called for an offensive foul, ending the hard-fought possession.
An innocent game of keepaway (courtesy of cleveland.com)
Golden State’s backup unit featuring guards Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa came the other way to hit shot after shot, with a short 2-footer by Barbosa extending the Warriors’ lead to 36-28 with 9:07 remaining. Meanwhile, it seemed as though the Cavs could not buy A) a foul or B) a shot. The rims at the visiting end of the floor may or may not have been made of rubber.
To his credit, Iguodala played inspired defense that was highlighted by an amazing and clean strip on LeBron… The turnover-fest had continued into the second quarter. The Warriors simply continued to make plays on D and O, the Cavs did N and O (and T). Cleveland looked entirely out of sync on offense and could not get out and run the way they had in these playoffs. The Warrior lead stretched to 13 before Tristan Thompson checked back into the game at 6:09, and by 5:41 TT had snagged two offensive boards and made a layup to cut the Cavs deficit to 11. The Cavalier defense forced a missed Curry three, but Iggy was there for his team to ferociously slam in a putback, putting their lead back to unlucky 13.
All of the Cavs shots felt as though they were being taken late in the shot clock and out of rhythm. Cleveland found a way to chip away, though, and Kyrie earned his first FTs of the period, hitting both to get back within nine with 9:00 to play. The next play, great 1-on-1 defense of LeBron against Curry forced a Curry missed three, only for the Warriors’ Andrew Bogut to get a putback of his own. Golden State seemed to have a counter for every blow the Cavs would land.
Good hustle by the Cavs on the offensive end saw the ball swing around the arc from Kyrie to Love, who hit a three-pointer to cut the differential to eight points.
https://vine.co/v/iYb6UIdnPAe
Cleveland still couldn’t muster a consistent run on offense, as JR Smith took and missed his first shot of the game with 1:52 to go in the half. To rub it in, old Cleveland fan favorite Anderson Varejao even flopped and drew a foul against Love. The traitor!
As bad as the game appeared to be going for the Cavs, coach Lue raised a good point during a timeout near the half’s end: Cleveland was only down eight. The visiting team did not let their hosts balloon their lead, keeping the game margin within single digits. The half would end looking like Warriors 52, Cavs 43
Cleveland weathered the storm. Golden State tried multiple times to bust game wide open, but couldn't connect on three-ball. Anybody's game.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 3, 2016
Third Quarter
The third quarter played out similarly to the prior two: with the Cavs getting the job done on defense and missing everything on offense. Unless, of course, your name was LeBron James or Kyrie Irving, in which case you were the only member of your team to score for the first four minutes. In fact, other than those two, TT was the only Cavalier to score at all (twice) for the quarter’s first eight minutes.
Near the 10:00 mark, the Cavs defense was caught snoozing as Draymond Green cut to the rim for an unguarded dunk, causing Tyronn Lue to call a timeout with the Warriors up 11. Coming out of the timeout, Kyrie hit a jumper to pull his team within nine, and a strong couple sequences on defense from the Cavs finally began to push Golden State onto their heels, resulting in an LBJ-assisted layup by Irving that was called for the and-1 against the unset Warriors D. Kyrie’s free throw cut the deficit to six…
https://vine.co/v/iYbFtYmWYnq
Irving then forced a steal and got the ball to Love for a missed fadeaway in the paint that was rebounded by (who else?) TT, who plopped a bunny into the basket, culminating in a four point game and one rage timeout called by Warrior Coach Steve Kerr. No, seriously, Kerr was SO MAD he pounded his fist on his clipboard and Hulk smashed it!
Warriors went on a 40-24 run after this moment #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/IPyHaJSUCV
— NBA.com (@NBAcom) June 3, 2016
They just don’t make clipboards the way they used to. Golden State came out of the timeout and Klay Thompson found Iggy for a pindown open three in the corner. LeBron answered at the other end with a 26-foot three of his own to maintain the deficit of four points at 6:58. Cleveland continued to push the ball on offense and Kyrie was able to earn free throws because of it. On defense, a trap on Curry created a steal by LeBron, who assisted an and-one layup by Love.
https://vine.co/v/iYbPQKgnALl
With 4:00 remaining in the frame, Love and the Thompson of Canada traded misses and offensive boards, only Love’s O-board resulted in a putback that saw the Cavs regain their first lead since early in the first quarter. This would spark a sublime stretch of basketball where there were six lead changes in the ensuing three minutes. And what sublime stretch of basketball would be complete without a good ol’ LBJ-TT Loaded Wombat for the lead? Despite the Cavs’ efforts, the Warriors had an answer for everything the Cavs attempted, and when Shaun Livingston made a layup with 1:27 left, Golden State would not surrender the lead again. Remember that basket — more on Livingston soon.
https://vine.co/v/iYbQBw60rJ3
The officials took a long time to discuss a foul Delly committed against Andre Iguodala at 0:34… upon further review, it seemed Delly gave Iggy a tap on the family jewels when swiping for the ball. Iggy took exception to the contact, and nearly earned himself a tech by barking at Delly. It appeared to be just a misunderstanding, but the Jewel Master himself, Draymond Green, surely nodded approvingly to himself in light of the incident. The quarter ended with Kyrie Irving blanketing Steph Curry just well enough to not allow the MVP to get off a buzzer beater. Warriors 74, Cavs 68
Groins are the real losers of this year's postseason.
— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) June 3, 2016
Fourth Quarter
Let’s just call this quarter the Shaun Livingston show, guest starring Leandro Barbosa. Cleveland trotted out a lineup featuring Irving as the lone member of the Big Three. The Warriors promptly went on a 12-4 run, or, stretching back to that Livingston basket I told you to remember, a 23-6 bombardment. Livingston assisted the first bucket of the final frame with Iguodala hitting a long two. Barbosa banked in a tough, long two of his own. Livingston made a well-defended mid-range jumper. Barbosa hit another tough two of his own. Livingston made a well-defended mid-range jumper. Livingston assisted a Harrison Barnes two. Livingston made a well-defended mid-range jumper. You starting to get the picture???
29-8 the run since Cavs had late 3Q lead..GS 11-12 from the floor since..
— Fred McLeod (@CavsFredMcLeod) June 3, 2016
Meanwhile, non-Big Three members of the Cavs were lost on offense, and Kyrie and Love were the only players keeping their team afloat. The wishes of all Cleveland fans were granted when King James re-entered the game with 9:30 left, following a much needed rest as the King looked absolutely gassed the previous quarter. The Cavs continued to gather their own misses off the boards, but no players were able to consistently finish around the rim, clearly bothered by the Warriors’ jersey pulling and uncalled fouls length.
It was a comedy of errors. With just under 6:30 to go, Kevin Love made a poor pass that was deflected and stolen. On the ensuing fastbreak, Kyrie tripped up Draymond Green by accident and was lucky to not be called for a clear path foul. Nonetheless, Green drew a shooting foul on JR Smith, hitting two free throws. Following a LeBron miss, Curry assisted a vicious Iggy dunk for a 20 point Warriors lead at 5:43. A highly necessary Cleveland timeout was immediately called.
The Cavs came out of the TO with a three point play by Richard Jefferson assisted by LeBron. A JR Swish three and some inspired defense allowed the Cavs to hang in a little longer than they maybe should have, and a deep LBJ three gave Golden State their final scare of the night by capping a 9-0 run and cutting the lead to 11 with 3:45 to go.
https://vine.co/v/iYhWWZZBWIL
Shaun Livingston and Kyrie traded pairs of free throws to keep the scoring margin at 11, and Irving’s steal from Curry brought with it a final ray of hope, only to be dashed as a streaking LeBron had the ball stripped away from him. The Warriors found their MVP for a deep three; one possession later and Splash Bro. Numero Dos ended the game at 2:24 with a three of his own. 17 point lead, Warriors. And the depths of the Cavs bench assumed garbage time. Final: Warriors 105, Cavs 89
Thoughts
-For all the competitive elements that have been most discussed for the 2016 Cavs-Warriors matchup, Thursday night’s display featured few of them. It was not the Warriors’ shooting ability or Cavs’ defensive inability that lost Cleveland this game. It was not a no-show by Love or Irving, nor a three-point eruption from Curry or Klay that did in the Cavs. Instead, it was everything in between. One has to give credit where credit is due, and the Warriors just. made. plays. And the Cavs could not. Golden State truly does have a team of versatile and smart players who will beat you in all the little ways and rarely (read: never) beat themselves.
“I’m sure they’ll start calling fouls against them eventually,” (courtesy of cleveland.com)
-Speaking of Irving and Love, those two were some of the biggest question marks coming into the series. After not playing in the Finals last year, fans simply didn’t know what to expect from them. The fear was that they’d be exposed all day on defense and the Warriors would render them net negatives and unplayable. The opposite proved true. Kyrie and Love both played strong defense and never looked in over their heads on that end. On top of that, they scored as much as you could ask of them, with a game-high 26 for Irving and 17 for Love (Bron had 23). When Tristan Thompson is your fourth leading scorer with 10 points (yeah), you aren’t getting enough production from the “other guys”
-And speaking of the “other guys”… what happened? Richard Jefferson was the only reserve who looked competent out there, except Delly in spurts. Everyone else struggled to score in a major way. Again, the Cavs’ defense was terrific in limiting the Warriors’ stars, but when that is the case, the Cleveland role players need to be outscoring their counterparts or at the very least coming close to matching them. Thursday night they were not even close (see below).
-The Warriors’ role players played enormous roles in the contest, none more than Shaun Livingston, who finished 8-10. Livingston has been a Cavs killer in the past (and a killer Cav back in 2012, too!) and his ridiculous length for a guard made him nearly impossible to guard for Irving, Delly, JR, Shump… name a guard, he torched ’em. Richard Jefferson had some success when defending the 6’7” vet, so look for Coach Lue to tweak his matchups moving forward in order to not let Shaun Livingston be the best player on the floor.
Cavs having a lot of trouble matching up in transition after misses — especially when GSW switches on D. Need to communicate better.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) June 3, 2016
-Coach Lue has to get his players in better positions to succeed. No one looked comfortable in Game 1, with the exception of when the team made their run in the third quarter. Lue probably played the starters too much as they looked winded late in the contest. The lineups were suddenly different than what had been working for weeks. The reserves, especially Channing Frye, could have been played more to exploit mismatches. Yes, the Warriors are a great team and present their own mismatch for anyone, but the Cavs have a strong roster too that can punish teams with lockdown D, scorching outside shooting, and smart passing — the trick is just getting all three of those elements going at once. Lue has his work cut out for him. He ran some nice plays out of timeouts and said the right things. With a couple days to review film and practice, the hope is the rookie coach comes out with an even better plan in Game 2.
Think LBJ was a little upset in Game 1? (courtesy of cleveland.com)
-The Cavs’ offense was far too simplistic. Too often the team would become confused and frantic if their first and/or second options on offense were blown up. Many of Cleveland’s possessions either ended in desperate bailout passes and heaves late in the shot clock, or ill advised passes into the happy, waiting hands of the Warriors. Simple drive-and-kick plays are not going to beat this Warriors team. They are simply too long, too fast, and too smart.
-On the bright side, the Cavs’ offense couldn’t have looked much worse — from stagnation to unlucky bounces to just being in a funk. Offense has never been the question with this team, the defense has. And Thursday night the Cavs played D well. Curry and Klay were held in check, and the Warriors’ bench, while deserving of credit for their great play, also hit some pretty ridonkulus shots. Expect the Warriors bench to come back to earth. Also expect the Splash Bros. to do the opposite. And also expect the Cavs’ offense to pick up, too. There are still far too many factors to be played out in this series for anyone to be writing off any team. The nature of Game 1 was highly unexpected, and if we’ve learned anything from watching the Thunder’s run out West, one game is a seven-game series is just that…
-At least the Lake Erie Monsters are up 1-0 in the 2016 Calder Cup against the Bears of Hershey, PA!
Question
I’m not gonna touch this one with a 10 foot pole on here… but how did you feel about the officiating in Game 1, Cavs fans?
This is nuts. Warriors getting touch calls, TT hammered twice no call. Refs have blown three possession calls too.
— HoopsDogg (@oldseaminer) June 3, 2016
Stats R Fun
-Teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson totaled their lowest scoring output of the entire season, shooting 4-13 combined from downtown… and their team still won by 15 points…
-The Warriors’ bench outscored the Cavs’ bench 45-10; the +35-point margin for Golden State’s bench is the largest finals point differential in 50 years, per ESPN…
-The Warriors’ bench had a +/- of +15, while the Cavs’ bench had a +/- of -15… the final margin of victory for the Warriors? 15. Hm……
-Anderson Varejao is the first NBA player to ever to play for both finals teams in same season…
-On two-point attempts, LeBron James and Kevin Love both shot 41% and Kyrie Irving shot 33%…
-Cleveland shot 18-20 from the charity stripe Thursday night (11-12 from Irving alone)…
Cavs gonna win Game 2.
Rest in peace Muhammad Ali.
May his soul be free and encircled in light! Some comments about Clay/Ali, not to deter the comments section. Moderator please delete if you so wish. As a Hispanic male, I’ve been absorbed by boxing since an early age. I was born in 1980, way after Clay had become Ali and the racial/religious divide he created was already dissipating.(Meaning HE wasn’t the main target/cause of it) Given the fact that I was born in the Caribbean, the whole Draft/Nation of Islam/Whites debacle with Ali was not as important as it was here in the States. But I remember a conversation… Read more »
I think I understand your point of view without getting into specifics. However, whether his decisions regarding some social issues were influenced or not, he stood by his principles in a turbulent difficult time for African Americans and for the country in general, a time where the US government was systematically trying to oppress an entire group, especially those who spoke out against oppression. The very fact that he and others like MLK were spied upon by the NSA and FBI shows how those involved in the civil rights movement and those who spoke out against the majority were purposefully… Read more »
Hi John, I wanted to respond to your post but considering the fact that we are all mourning Ali’s passing, I would rather not do so.
If you would like to take this conversation privately, please don’t hesitate to email me at jleon1980 at Yahoo dot com
If not, no biggie. I just don’t want to clutter this thread :)
JRL – thanks for being respectful of the nature of Cavs: TheBlog. I appreciate that. You could have kept your thread going – your tone and everything is very respectful – we do our best not to delete comments that don’t contain profanity or abuse (of which we hardly get any here at CtB – very good-natured people comment here). All the same, I appreciate that you care about the content of our comments section.
He was a living legend and an exemplary example of how to use sports fame for the greater good. More powerful outside the ring than in it.
exemplary example was poor writing. Yikes. Sorry Ali, you deserve better.
You see, I don’t think he truly did. I think he could had been so much more but he decided to fight the “wrong fight”.
Again, these are only my opinions, please dont take them as personal.
I think it was the right fight. You don’t become a world icon for peace fighting the wrong fight. He walked into Iraq after they had invaded Kuwait, stayed there without his Parkinson’s medication, and walked out with 15 American hostages. Of all the draft dodgers over the course of that war hiding in school or some other exception to service, he gave up his career and was willing to go to prison for five years because he refused to kill. He made a stand and accepted the consequences. He inspired a generation and was the voice of millions of… Read more »
Lue says he wants the Cavs to push the pace more. He’s trying to out Warrior the Warriors – the opposite of what we did last year. Either this works, and he’s a genius, or we get swept.
Well after watching this, my eye test was confirmed last night. Bballbreakdown’s analysis of cavs d last night. The cavs did not play great team defense and had a ton of breakdowns, leading to open shots and missed opportunities by the Warriors. They barely touch on most of the layups in the first half. Mostly the video focuses on the plays the cavs got lucky on despite sloppy rotations. Sloppiness in switching, rotations, and bad effort in transition was always what I was most concerned about in this series. Their defense has to be better going forward. The warriors had… Read more »
Irving was especially lousy in transition D….no surprise.
Carsons and others, Based on this stat, Curry, Klay and Kyrie missed lot of uncontested 3s, may be defense has little to do with it. Check last 3 columns under each player.
http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0041500401/playertracking/
Meant to say, lot of uncontested FGs not 3s. The stat for FGs includes all attempts.
There was something off about Kyries floor game. He couldn’t find his spots on the floor like he usually does. Driving in too deep when he could have a wide open 12 footer. Stepping hesitantly into a 20 footer instead of jacking up a rhythm 3. I hope it was just game 1 jitters. He was able to get to the line with his quickness, but could have been far more efficient.
Nice breakdown of the gameplay.
I’m actually quite surprised at a lot of different things that happened in the game and I really can’t decide how to process it. Thereforel, I’m just going to put this game behind me and see what happens in the next one.
I just hope the Cavs play with a better offensive flow as opposed to the stagnant one from last night.
James always loses game one of the Finals anyways. Throw this one away. It was a weird ugly game by both teams.
I wouldn’t say throw it away, but I agree, it was weird & ugly. Not too much to take from it other than they gotta play better.
Man, really wish the Thunder won one more game. Why couldn’t they win one more game? sigh.
The more I think about the game the better I feel. I think the Cavs played tight and that caused some issues on defense. I think that they will come out loose next game and the rotations will be better. I would put Jefferson on Livingston, to keep him from getting to his spots by using his strength, would also help with him trying to back down. Don’t worry about Iggy, just keep him in front of you.
Also the Frye/Love lineup didn’t appear and if it did it was brief.
SO Lebron doesnt get foul calls anymore? I guess his Superstar run is over
What a game. Suddenly the 2002 Kings think their refs in the Lakers game were good!!
Im so pissed. Need to punch something
According to ESPN, we missed TWENTY EIGHT (28) “point blank” shots in Game 1. That’s absolutely crazy. I don’t expect us to finish so poorly in Game 2. But I also don’t expect Klay and Curry to be nonfactors on offense. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
I am a NBA and warriors fan, don’t mean to troll but just wanted to read opinion from other end. This is some excellent analysis. From my perspective: Kyrie, Love, JR Smith and Frye are bad defenders and warriors can score easily when two of them are there. Barnes and then Barbosa never looked more comfortable in playoffs. Excellent D by Cavs while limiting splash brothers, still not sure how Cavs were able to limit them but Cavs might have let a golden chance slip by not winning this one. I have to watch game again to understand how splash… Read more »
Whatever
Yeah, whatever.
hmmm, won’t post again, don’t want to party crash. Have a great playoffs,
No, man, I think it’s cool to have another voice in here. Just be ready for disagreement. For example, you’re meeting COLS for the first time. It’s an acquired taste.
and great point about Kyrie becoming a volume shooter. Good defenses will do that. Kyrie is preternaturally talented, but doesn’t use screens or picks very well. As for our side, I don’t think limiting the Splash Brothers was a fluke. We threw everything at them and we’re good at whatever we focus on. Problem is, I actually think Lue gave zero thought to getting killed by Livingston jumpshots, Barnes playing aggressive, or Barbosa hitting big shots. Warriors just showing more depth and adaptability.
Thanks. Barnes first 3 plays to the hoop and scored layups because of no rim protection or weak side help. Infact, warriors first 5 scores are either layups or tip ins. Lebron and TT should be the PF/C duo for Cavs, IMO. I also don’t think Cavs D on splash brothers is fluke but I expect splash brothers adjust and be efficient. Lost in all Curry’s MVP season is the defense is how warriors win the games lead that side of the floor by Green and Bogut. The warriors can field their own all NBA defensive team in Green, Bogut,… Read more »
I agree with a lot of your analysis. JR has been excellent on D, but doesn’t have the height if Livingston’s shot is on. I think the Cavs played tight most of the night. Nothing looked natural. D had a lot to do with it, but they just were doing things differently than normal (sans LeBron). I totally agree with your rim protection comment. Cavs have to overachieve in the paint.
So, the difference is the points in the paint due to the Cavs lack of rim protection.
Who exactly is the GS rim protector that kept the Cavs away from the basket?
Additionally- “points in the paint” means the ENTIRE paint- the 15′ x 16′ box. Many of Livingston’s points in this area were fadeaways from 10-12 feet. A rim protector is of no help there.
Thanks for playing though.
Bogut and Draymond are top rim protectors in NBA. Look it up any stat for rim protection. You will see even more dunks and layups for rest of the series.
No worries, I don’t take this as a troll-job. Plenty respectful. Besides, I took my fair share of jabs at the Warriors in the recap myself. All in good fun (except for Draymond. Ooooh, Draymond…) Anyway, for starters, you’re off on JR Smith — he’s been one of the Cavs best defenders all season and can guard three positions. He just looked bad against Livingston last night (as did everyone and their mom). The others won’t be confused with All-NBA defenders but they’ve improved past what their reputations indicate. Especially Love, he’s been solid this postseason, even against guards 1-on-1… Read more »
Only one thing I want to point is that Cavs misses around the rim is nothing new for warriors opponents, Bogut and Draymond alter shots.
Sure will visit even if dubs lose. Much respect to Lebron, my 3rd all time favorite player behind The Air and Curry.
Green- while an outstanding defender- doesn’t sit camped out under the basket swatting shots. He’s bodying up Lebron & Love one-on-one as they post or drive. He’s not altering anyone that attacks.
Bogut saw a whopping 15 minutes of court time. Not a factor.
There are lots of legitimate reasons the Warriors won last night; “imposing rim defenders” is not one of them.
A cuestionable decision from Lue was that with the Cavs at striking distance at 6 points to begin the 4th quarter and he decides to sit his key players and then the Warriors push the league up to 16 and he stills keeps his key guys on the bench, really? Before you guys tell me that LeBron needed a breather I believe that Delly-Iggy play call and the rest between quarters gave those guys enough rest. I hope I’m wrong but maybe the Cavs blew their chance of stealing one yesterday. And if the Cavs go down 2-0 well it’s… Read more »
TBH I thought the Cavs strategy was going to be to let Klay and Curry get theirs and try to keep the others in check but the Warriors are such a great passing team that they just rotated the ball off some of the doubling the Cavs tried on Curry and others. Again I think is better for the Cavs to just take the challenge individually and try to stop them that way so that they can get their whole team involved like they did yesterday. I would also try RJ on Livingston if he gets into a nice rythm… Read more »
Spot-on recap!
I like the idea of the Cavs not forgetting to play loose on offense. Might be tough against this Warriors team, who forced us into running out the shot clock multiple times. This is a challenge, but our guys need to watch some film, communicate with each other, and come out fired up to play Game 2. Let’s go Cavs!
Every time Kyrie came back onto the floor there was a missed assignment, or a lack of communication on a rotation that eventually lead to an easy bucket. The communication on defense just isn’t at the level of the Warriors. On the offensive end, when the ball stagnates, the Warriors defense settles and focuses on their target and positions themselves perfectly to clog the lane as well as recover to outside shooters or disrupt passing lanes. Unfortunately, our best two players need to hold the ball from time to time to create and use their abilities. It’s a really tough… Read more »
Would some expert comment on off ball movement as an effective aspect of successful Cavs’ offensive schemes?
Not an expert but I’ll give you my understanding garnered largely from actual experts. When we talk about ball movement we are talking about creating shooting or driving space- open looks, basically. There are only a couple kinds of passes you can make to a stationary teammate to try and create offense, basically you can get the ball to a tall guy in the post because he has the length to catch it standing still, you can get it out to a guard standing several feet behind the arc since his defender will not expect him to shoot from that… Read more »
Good recap of a bizarre game, Carson… The thing that boggled my mind was how few minutes Frye was used… especially since he was the only non-garbage bench player to post a positive +/- even in his limited seven minutes of court time…
Not quite sure why Lue hasn’t learned his lesson yet that you can’t have Kyrie leading bench players to start the fourth quarter… It will only end in tears…
Kyrie really is the biggest mystery on the team. It is tough to believe that he doesn’t know how to use screens, for instance, but he consistently looks at them and decides he’s better off not using them. I always joke that he says, “oh they think I’m going to take the screen- I’ll surprise them and not take it!” Maybe he doesn’t want, or Lue doesn’t want, the switched matchup that could come from it. I don’t know. There is plenty of evidence that Kyrie with the bench is flawed, but Lue must think Kyrie’s scoring against their bench… Read more »
Kyrie’s mental game is miles behind his physical talents, and miles behind LBJ and Love’s mental game. Delly has forgotten more about screen usage than Kyrie knows.
Frye’s minutes were mind blowing to me, too.
Yeah, Kyrie and bench never works. Never. He’s got to resist the urge to play LBJ all of Q1 and Q3. Kyrie and Love and 3 good defenders while LBJ rests is the only way to survive.
Thanks, EG. I didn’t understand the lineups, either. I think what you said — not enough Frye, playing Kyrie + bench to start the fourth — are the two biggest reasons for the L. This one’s on Lue because he abandoned what worked the first three rounds. The Warriors have been doing this to teams all season. Lue has to get the players back in their comfort zones, that’s been, like, his biggest strength!
You guys can complain about ISO, but I think there was a decent amount of passing just for whatever reason there was also a decent amount of passing up a three. They need to just shoot the ball in those situations.
The really encouraging thing was the ability of James, Irving, and Love to get shots at the rim. They had a lot of shots at the rim (and a lot of misses).
The majority of passes received on the three point line were almost immediately closed out upon by the warriors to the point they literally limited the three point shots we could take. It was not just that they contested the three point line so much as they tried to smother it to even prevent shots from getting off. A lot of our threes this postseason have come from a single pass and then shot either from drive and kicks, passes from post ups from james after the double, transition, or cross court skips. The warriors are too quick at closing… Read more »
Yep, reminded me exactly of last year…guys rarely get a good opportunity from three, because they are so quick to get out on guys. And since that’s mostly the Cavs offensive identity, it takes away a large part of what they do.
I heard a stat from Chris Fedor on the Fan today (not that I put much stock in what Fedor says) but he mentioned that the Cavs had 18 ISO drives into the paint on the night… and scored on exactly one of them… That’s the biggest indictment of ISO-ball I can remember ever seeing…
Cavs defense was outstanding for the most part. GSW is a hard team to guard, but the Cavs did a great job last night. There were some lapses, but that’s going to happen against this team.
Disagree that lapses are just “going to happen against this team.” The lapses were freakin’ huge. We’re talking about 4-5 times in the first half that we didn’t guard a guy who just strolled to the hoop. That’s inexcusable. If you want to win an NBA Championship, you can’t be completely lost on defense 5-10 times in a game.
Nah, the lapses weren’t huge. They held Klay, and Steph and Bray to really low totals. That’s fine. They guarded the crap out of Livingston but he hit turnaround fadeaway jumpshots that were well guarded.
The Cavs offense played weird, but their defense was pretty great.
You’re both essentially right, for stretches, the defense was great, especially coming out of the half to bring the game back to even and take a lead. But, I agree with Gordon, Those lapses were huge – essentially the difference in the game. How many cuts were made without anyone even close to covering? Nothing came that easy for the Cavs on O, and that’s why GS came away with the G1 W.
If you think we played great defense, you’re just being a homer, Cols. You can’t just turn a blind eye to the GIGANTIC mental lapses we had throughout the entire game. Even if we played elite defense in all other facets, when you have a plethora of huge mental lapses, it totally negates the elite defense. And, I don’t think we played elite defense. We played very good defense in streaks, but far from elite defense. Too many easy, uncontested layups.
speaking of mental lapses.
https://twitter.com/RobMahoney/status/738771130748522497
It was a strange game. The Cavs offense didn’t shoot threes at all. I think next game you will see a better offense. The defense for the most part was outstanding. They made the Warriors shoot contested long range twos. They hit them, but those are the shots you want them to take. Klay and Steph won’t suck as bad next game, but Livingston won’t be Jordan and Barbosa will crawl back into whatever bag of poop he came out of. The Warriors are going to score a decent amount every game. I expect the Cavs to let fly the… Read more »
I’m not sure why I’m even saying this, maybe it’s the deep, deep dread of being embarrassed and losing yet another chance at a championship, but I am longing for Cols absurdly positive comments flooding the feed.
I think it’s absolutely imperative that we come out playing free and aggressive in Game 2. For example, JR Swish is at his best when he’s confident and can burn the opposing defense with threes, even if they are off balance. But in Game 1 the guy didn’t take a shot attempt until the 3rd quarter. By that time, he doesn’t have a groove, and is obviously in his own head. The same thing applies to a number of guys. Delly passed up a couple open threes last night. Not that I want Delly shooting 15 times a game, but… Read more »
Yep.
Delly needs to find his shot or at least trust in it to keep the defense honest. Don’t think it was mental last night with JR. JR literally had almost zero opportunities to shoot the three last night. His first three attempt was literally with a hand in his grill, about as closely contested as possible. There needs to be extra passes after the initial pass from kick outs. Part of the problem as you said was space on the line wasn’t there after the initial pass because they closed out so quickly which is why guys either need to… Read more »
“The Warriors’ bench had a +/- of +15, while the Cavs’ bench had a +/- of -15… the final margin of victory for the Warriors? 15. Hm……” ^^^This… Despite everything that happened in last night’s game, the Cavs were in it until Iggy got a shot in the jewels. The starters played right along with GS, with what felt like a comedy of offensive woes. We’ve seen this Cavs team come out flat in game 1s before, but being at home during the EC Playoffs they could feed off the energy of the crowd and turn it around. That won’t… Read more »
Yep. I was mostly disappointed in our offense. We went straight to iso offense on the 1st or 2nd possession of the game. When I saw us doing that, I cringed, and hoped that Lue didn’t design a gameplan around iso basketball. We played really poorly in my opinion. Curry and Klay also played poorly, but I don’t think we’re in a position where if they score a combined 40 next game we get blown out. GS’s bench was spectacular in Game 1, but there is no need to over adjust to that. Livingston and Barbosa were a combined 13-15… Read more »
The media narrative appears to be “Curry & Thompson had off night; Cavs blew opportunity”. I don’t quite see it that way. Curry & Thompson were off because the Cavs successfully hounded them like crazy. In doing that, you have to leave guys like Green & Iggy open for threes, and allow their bench to get one-on-one shots. You’re basically making the support players shoot 60% from the field to beat you- which is exactly what happened. It’s still the right strategy, even though it didn’t work. Some individual comments: KLove- HE. SHOWED. UP. Hit his shots early, and was… Read more »
Good analysis. I agree that we have some good stuff to build off of. I do think though, that the only way we beat GS is at their own game. In other words, we need to take a lot of 3s and hope that they drop. I’m not sure that this ISO grind it out style will work. And Kyrie needs to get benched if he goes rogue again like this again.
I agree with most of that. I think it’s a game that we could have won, had we played a lot better. Sure, I understand the media narrative that we let one slip away. But other than our third quarter run, we were never really in the game. I honestly felt like we were Toronto (or Atlanta, or Detroit) when they played us. We kept it within 10 for most of the first half, but never really threatened to go on a run. In the third quarter we went on a run because we were playing defense. We hit some… Read more »
There is little chance the Cavs hold Stef and Klay to 20 combined points in another game. That is why this was such a missed opportunity. Cavs defense on both was mostly great but regardless of the defense, those two will make shots. If the Cavs cannot beat GSW when those two only score 20, and if the Cavs get blown out in such a game, it does not bode well for a long series, much less a series win.
Good analysis. There were so many times I was saying out loud “good D!” Only to watch their shot hit anyhow. Flukey but not insignificant.
Forgot to mention Lue’s decision to bench Frye. That was stupid as hell. Dude has the highest effective field goal % in NBA Playoffs history
The Dubs went on a tear after Iggy got hit in the sack. Sort of the same way OKC ran all over GS after Draymond kicked Adams. Obviously, the key to Game 2 will be to take nut-shots early and often.
We should have Sasha Kaun pin down Delly on the court and then invite Iggy to walk over and stomp on his nuts 100 times over. That should do the trick.
Yeah, that moronic 10 minute review really slowed our momentum. The same thing happened to use in Game 4 against Atlanta. We stormed back and took a lead, and then the refs took 5 minutes to escort a fan out of the arena. It totally killed out momentum.
Obviously that’s not an excuse for why we lost, but I think it definitely hurt our chances of extending the lead. GS got a breather and a chance to adjust to what we were doing. They went on their 21-4 run after that and the game was over.
The funny thing about this game is all the analysis was completely wrong. Love and Irving were not a huge problem on defense. Irving couldn’t score, James couldn’t pass, the Cavs didn’t shoot many threes, Curry and Klay sucked. No analysts said that the Warriors are going win game one because Livingston will suddenly turn into a homeless person’s Michael Jordan and hit fadeway turnaround jumpers all game.
Kyrie had no three-ball last night and EVERYone struggled at the rim, but GS also had no way of keeping Kyrie or LeBron out of the paint, regardless of their results of getting there. That gives me optimism that we can find a way to uncork the O.
My concern with getting to the rim is that the Warriors make it very difficult to score even when you are 5″ from the hoop. Draymond comes over to help and Bogut is there blocking shots. Sure we can continue to get into the paint but finishing there isn’t easy against this team. Lue seemed to think it was just our guys missing layups and tip ins at the presser but its obviously the Warriors having an effect too. If our 3s aren’t falling, or rather we cant get them off because Warriors close out to the 3 point line… Read more »
Agree with the sentiment, but Kyrie was totally lost on defense 4-5 times. Maybe I’m wrong and a help defender was supposed to move over, but there were quite a few times that Kyrie was trailing his man to the hoop by 4-5 feet for an easy layup. Whether that’s on Ky or someone else, I don’t know, but I don’t think Ky was particularly good on defense.
Again the cavs didn’t shoot many threes for a reason. There were hardly any opportunities to do so. The defense got torched for a ton of open layups and drives to the bucket for most of the first half.
There is a 100% chance Cavs: the Blog is the best Cavs coverage around
We missed a lot of shots at the rim. I thought the defense played well but Livingston and Barbosa went for 35 points on contested shots.
Gotta come out stronger next game.
Hoping to see more of Frye in Game 2.
Hard to not be discouraged after that one. Like Tom said in the instacap last night, they won by double digits and klay and steph didn’t even need to show up…
Great recap. It was such an upside down game. The good was how great KI responded to the game. Intensity on D, attacking on O (even if he forced a few things). Love was OK, but I thought they ran too many post plays for him. He wasn’t scoring out of the post, and it bogged their O down. Lue’s rotations were, to me, the biggest issue. I just thought he missed a lot of chances to use Frye and/or other elite shooting lineups when the Ws went to their bench. The two major runs of the game were from… Read more »
in post game interviews, coach and Bron very diff . Lue says everything is fine.
I agree w/ coach if we want to be swept. that’s where this is going if he thinks last night was fine except shots just not falling through
Thanks for mentioning this. I agree, Lue’s presser was frustrating. He just acted like we got what we wanted, just missed shots we normally make and everything is ok. No criticism of the ISO, no taking responsibility for rotations, basically just saying ‘we missed a bunch of shots in the paint, we normally make those, we’ll be fine’.
I think Irving was okay defensively on his man, but, brother he got lost on some switches that just led to dunks. Hard to say for sure who was at fault on some of them, but he looked as if he knew they were his foulups. Already tired of Verejao’s garbage out there. He got two flops called his way, one of which should get him fined about 500 times what the league *might* fine him, and he had another that was a no call on a Cavs defensive rebound soon after he entered the game. He’s just floping around… Read more »
true, but let’s stop talking about AV. he’s not even a remote reason why last night happened and he will never be the reason we lose a game against GS
Good write. Kyrie of course wasn’t the only reason for this loss, but according to ESPN, Irving had nine possessions where he took the ball from out of bounds, dribbled up court and shot with no one else touching it. On those nine terrible possessions, he shot 1-9. Lue should make him watch replays of all those nine possessions. That should only happen if Irving is pushing the ball upcourt after a turnover to attack and drive to the hoop. Don’t recall that happening once either. And way too many shots to score his points. As pointed out, Lue gave… Read more »
According to ESPN, Cleveland missed TWENTY EIGHT (28) “point blank” shots in Game 1. That’s absolutely absurd. Yes, GS did a good job contesting on some, but I haven’t seen so many missed layups and bunnies in a long, long time. I think that’s just nerves. Like the recap says, Lue has to do a better job of getting our guys in positions to succeed. I cringed early in the game when we went to an Iso offense early. That’s simply not going to allow us to win this series. We need ball movement. If we want to mix in… Read more »
Nerves and the refs afraid to blow their whistles. Lots of fouls were not called in the paint last night against the warriors.