Game 1 NBA Finals: Golden State Warriors (1-0) 124 - 114 Cleveland Cavaliers (0-1)

First published June 1st 2018

The Cavs clearly wanted to take something from the Houston strategy and came in switching everything, but the mistakes and miscommunications were rampant. That will happen when you try to adopt this without all the practice during the year the Rockets had.

The other problem of this approach is that i'm starting to get sick of mismatch basketball after the western conference finals and late we would see a lot of "Attack Curry v Attack Love". Early we saw immediately the Warriors fighting over switches to stop Curry to get on Lebron. But KD's defense was again very sub-par and the Warriors soon started switching as well. Iguodala on Lebron continues to seem our best option, 4 years later.

If the Dubs had to send a second man to stop Lebron, most time the one who'd end up being neglected was Jordan Clarkson. Which seems a perfectly fine choice because he can't hit an open three to save his life. It's also very different for Dray not having to deal with someone like Capela, allowing himself to roam around for help defense.

West coming back to the rotation role was expected but Patrick McCaw starting the second quarter surprised me. Here he can be seen doing a good switch and using his length to stop a pass to Nance. The Warriors were presenting a 4-guard line up but 3 of them very above average sized. This seems something they're willing to risk with the Green-Korver-Clarkson-Nance line up. But Larry reacted well and his size (and how fast he is considering) was causing a lot of trouble. Plus, for as long as West was out there Lebron was attacking him with no mercy. This first stint of Larry Nance would be his best. They were more equipped to deal with TT because they see it coming and are not afraid to play a big man specifically to hold him a bit (see McGee, J.). But Nance didn't get that treatment and took advantage.

I felt most of the Cavs dilating into a nice lead in the second quarter also had a lot to do with KD and Klay coming back in and forcing a ton of shots. KD bricked 2 of those threes where he brings the ball up and shoots immediately at the wing, both relatively contested. I'm okay with these shots when the players are "feeling it" but that implies some heat or some rhythm. If it's going to be an offensive series (and it seems like it), possessions need to be valued more.

The third quarter run early run was based in quick passing and pushing the ball up the field but this needs to be fueled by great defense and every guy being attacked by the Cavs was doing just that. McGee actually did a good job (for him) on two different Lebron possessions and here we see Curry doing a great job on JR and getting the board behind TT's back. But then Lebron James is an absolute monster. Shocking, i know. He's become so dangerous on above-the-break threes that at this point you have to force him to pass the ball now.

The start of the forth was really plagued by Curry missing a bunch of open shots keeping it closer than what's comfortable. The numbers are clear that Lebron can carry the team in the clutch very well while the Warriors tend to have a hard time if those second half runs don't give them some space. It was also here that Jeff Green and Korver had back-to-back threes - the only Cavs bench threes of the game.

Regarding the end of regulation, I like it when teams don't call time outs to try abuse the bad defenders used to space the floor on the other end. As for the JR blunder, if that had resulted in a loss for the Warriors it would've been on KD. His lack of rebounding was again a plague and the huge amount of offensive rebounds can't be excused by small ball when he's is around the paint. JR should not be getting that ball. That can barely be called an attempt to box out.

Draymond Green was phenomenal in the clutch. Defense, play-making and actually hitting threes. The blocked shot that sent the game to overtime and this play come to mind as particular highlights. Here the fear of Steph Curry creates another defensive breakdown.

Some other notes: Jordan Bell all grown up... He's an excellent roll man in this series for Curry to work with. He's fast, a good finisher and the amount of times his defender (or Curry's) screws up in the PnR sure is useful.

TT is great at setting screens. They're hard and get such a big amount of space for the offensive player to get a shot off. James abused this and every so often faking and choosing not to use the screen to surprise the defenders.

I though Curry had a fantastic first half. He never went supernova with shot after shot but basically didn't miss the ones he took and was getting big rebounds and driving the offense with assists. He was also saving possessions with some hard floaters that he was banking hard off the board. The layup for the and-1 in the clutch was one hell of a play.

Korver is an interesting piece. He gets killed when attack off the dribble by most if not all of the warriors players but they need his shots. Today we saw a legendary Lebron James performance and he just needed anything from his teammates to win this, and those shots just never went in. I still think Love was a pretty decent overall but they needed those dishes from Lebron to result in something and they rarely did (3-17 in catch and shoot 3's coming from LJ).

Just a quick mention to George Hill since he's one of their best players and getting those 4 fouls.

This feels a lot like the game the Raptors let slip at home, in the sense that it was the perfect shot to get a win and not going that way can dictate the rest of the series. This was Cleveland's game to win at Oracle. Let's see if Lebron can give them another shot at it.

(Reddit)