With all the star firepower on the court for this NBA Finals who would have thought reserves would be the headliners? The Warriors used their bench extensively to embarrass the Cavaliers in Game 1, now it’s time for Cleveland to show up for the rematch it wanted.
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LOOK AHEAD
The Cavaliers wanted this rematch. They dreamed about it all season. And know they’ve got it. Cleveland fell to the Warriors in six games during last year’s NBA Finals and many felt the outcome would have been different if the Cavs had their roster intact. Forward Kevin Love was shelved in the first round of last season’s playoffs with a shoulder injury. Point guard Kyrie Irving was lost in Game 1 of the NBA Finals with a knee injury. Without them the Warriors proved to be too much, overcoming a 2-1 series deficit to win the title.
With two of their Big Three back for the first game of this Finals series, the Cavs were no match. And the Warriors continued their season-long dominance in the head-to-head confrontations. Golden State won both regular season meetings and has yet to allow Cleveland to hit triple-digits in points. The Cavaliers will be better. They had a few extra days between their conference championship victory and the start of the finals, and need to chip away the rust. The Warriors went right from their thrilling Game 7 win over Oklahoma City on Monday into this showdown still on a high from their dramatic comeback.
INJURIES
We had our first groin shot of the finals and, no, Draymond Green was not involved. Late in the second quarter while reaching for the basketball from behind, Cavs’ Matthew Dellavedova caught Andre Iguodala in the sack, a move that had Iggy wincing in pain before getting up in Delly’s face. The fracas didn’t escalate, Dellavedova was assessed a common foul, Iguodala stayed in the game to ignite a massive Warriors run, and all was good.
KEY MATCHUP
After witnessing what transpired in Game 1, the Cavaliers have to do a better job of locking down Golden State’s reserves. Led by superior performances from subs Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa, the Warriors’ bench outscored Cleveland’s 45-10 and Golden State cruised to a 104-89 victory. The Cavs did a nice job of limiting Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry to 20 combined points on 8 of 27 shooting, and each had to knock down a late three-pointer just to get there.
The Warriors have preached depth and their subs were on target Thursday night. Livingston scored a personal postseason best 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting. Barbosa returned from a minor back injury to make all five shots on his way to 11 points, while the 2015 finals MVP Iguodala had 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and played some stingy defense on LeBron James. “We play a lot of people, and we feel like we have a lot of talent on the bench that can come in and score when we need it,” coach Steve Kerr said.
QUICK PICK
The Cavs got all caught up in the hype, stumbled out of the gate and it wasn’t pretty. They got away from what worked for them during the first three playoff rounds and allowed the Warriors to dictate the pace. Cleveland turned too iso-heavy with LeBron and Irving and it just didn’t work. That’s not how the Cavs got here. That’s not how they pillaged through Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto.
The Cavs will be better. They’ll get back to the ball movement and three-point shooting that carried them to the Finals. What they need to be concerned about, though, is Golden State’s depth, which did a number on the Cavs Thursday. When you hold Curry and Thompson to a combined 20 points, you shouldn’t lose by 15. Someone always provides a lift that makes the Warriors so dangerous. The names will probably change in Game 2, but the contributions will be similar.
NBA Odds: Golden State 108, Cleveland 101
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