The Golden State Warriors ran the Cleveland Cavaliers off their court in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The game remained relatively close throughout the game up until the beginning of the fourth quarter where the Warriors went on a 10-2 run while LebBon James was getting a break.
LeBron checking back in didn't necessarily help matters as Golden State's lead ballooned to 20 points at one point in the fourth. The Cavs made a late push to make it interesting but it was too little too late at that point.
Stats of the Night:
Shaun Livingston- 20 points on 8-10 shooting
Draymond Green- 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals
Leandro Barbosa- 11 points on 5-5 shooting
Cavaliers Could Not Get Going
Credit the Warriors defense or credit bad shot selections. Whichever the case, the Cavaliers could not get into any groove throughout the game. Their momentum from their Eastern Conference trip did not carry over with them this game. Had it not been for horrible shooting numbers from Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, this game would have been over a lot quicker. The big three for the Cavaliers put up good numbers but with bad percentages. Outside of those threem no one else showed up tonight. Tristan Thompson had 10 points but the next leading scorer after him had 3 points.
Cleveland also made many mistakes on defense where they looked plain out lost at times. The number of open shots and dunks was way too high if the Cavaliers planned to win on the road. They played great defense on Curry and Thompson but to win against Golden State, especially on the road, they have to figure out how to consistently play defense on all of the shooters.
Warriors' Bench Steps Up Huge
Golden State found a way to blow out the Cavaliers without their two best players scoring more than 11 points individually. The reason was because of the "others" of the Warriors. It started off with Harrison Barnes getting an early seven points on easy drives to the rim and ended with Shaun Livingston getting hot and taking over the game late. The Warriors' offensive fluidity looked in full effect as they were able to get pretty much any shot they wanted all game long.
Defensively, the Warriors were very opportunistic with active hands. Green had 4 steals and Andre Iguodala was a menace against Lebron and Kyrie Irving most of the game much like he was in the previous series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Golden State won the assists and turnover battles which tilted the game heavily in their favor.
You can bet on Curry and Thompson having better shooting nights than they had tonight, which is trouble for the Cavaliers. They have to figure things out pretty quickly over the weekend by getting back to the tape and showing the heart, in the next game, of a team that doesn't want to go down 2-0 to the best team in basketball right now.
Game 2 in on Sunday Night (June 5th) at 8:00 pm ET on ABC.
