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There were a couple of things I forgot to mention last night.

--We must stop the ball. Heck, they teach that to kids in 3rd and 4th grade at local rec.

--Golden State holds a lot. They also don't get called for it much.

--Green commits obvious fouls, goes off, and then proceeds to get away w/many plays that should be fouls.

--It's going to be tough for the Cavs and all the guys are going to have to be at their best. For example, we really need guys like Korver to do what they do best.

--GS is way more physical than given credit for. That's why RJ is a better option than Frye.

i admit i didn't expect ZZ to bully us like that.

i know TT is an excellent screener, but he belongs in the paint, and far too often we were jacking up shots with nobody around to rebound.

GS always had at least 2 guys down there for offensive boards. the second chance points absolutely killed us.

on the positive, we did a good job of not letting them shoot the 3 as freely as they would like.

From my own basketball perspective (I admit I didn't watch the 4th quarter):

1. Golden State was WAY more physical than last year and it through off the Cavs. TT/Love were non factors inside. Our guards felt the heat too.

2. No production from TT or the bench? That's BIG trouble.

3. Durant puts the Warriors over the top. Basically unbeatable.

4. Irving needed to be more assertive to start the game. Be the aggressor on Curry.

5. Turnovers were HUGE for us. We can't afford them.

6. Our transition defense was atrocious. Maybe the worst I've seen.

From the other thread

A thought I had last night -

Mike Brown built his reputation as a defensive assistant on a team anchored by Tim Duncan and coached by Gregg Popovich.

Mike Brown coached LeBron in the early part of his prime, when he was even more of a physical specimen than he is now.

Mike Brown coached Kobe in LA.

Mike Brown is now coaching a team with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green due to an injury to the head coach.

The solution to all of our life problems is to hang around Mike Brown more often.

He was a coach for that Indiana Pacers team that should of gone to the ECF too, but ended up in the "Malice in the Palace". No, really! Check out the footage from that night. He went up into the stands to try and drag Stephen Jackson and Artest out of the crowd and ended up taking a few cheap shots from behind from some fan.

A couple times when he had the ball on a fast break last night I was thinking, "Last year this was Harrison Barnes, now it's Kevin Durant."

That is freaky.

The Warriors defense is what will ultimately win them the series. When they go "small" they play Durant or Green at the five. I noticed Durant alter several shots at the rim last night. It's really not fair. The dude is huge.

What a joke....

With Durant now added to that team (that was the first GS game I watched/paid attention to) it seems impossible to think we can match up. He's very healthy and fresh too.

I saw tons of open looks for a team that don't need open looks to score points, so we basically made it a cake walk for them. Wow, just wow... and they have outstanding defense while ours just was left on the bus or something. Our transition defense was like, non-existent.

I'm not going to make any comments about the future of this series, but isn't this how we all thought it would go when KD announced he was joining the Warriors? When I heard he was going to GS, I immediately thought, unless someone gets hurt, they'll win the title. And at the time, I was fine with it because we had just won.

I suppose I'm hoping we win for Lebron's legacy. Meaning, I have my Cleveland title so I can die in peace, but I don't want Lebron to miss any more chances because people are just starting to shift their opinions on Lebron vs. MJ. If he were to win this year and maybe 1 more before he retires, he'd have a good case. If we get swept and then lose again next year, that hurts him.

I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter. He's still one fo the best players ever and like I said, we have our title.

https://www.sbnation.com/2017/6/1/157277...warriors-game-1

^

A good look at how the Warriors were playing defense on the pick and roll with Curry.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/...#incart_m-rpt-1

NBA Finals 2017: Nine takeaways from the Warriors' 113-91 win vs. Cavaliers in Game 1

1. Kevin Durant looks ready for the Finals stage
Playing in his first NBA Finals since 2012, Kevin Durant looked like he had been there many times before. He finished with a game-high 38 points, and had eight rebounds and eight assists. Durant seemed to be able to get to the basket at will and he was 3-for-6 from 3-point range. He finished the game without a turnover.

2. Stephen Curry played like an MVP
Durant and Stephen Curry showed how well they can play off of each other on Thursday. The two-time MVP had 28 points and a game-high 10 assists. Curry was 6-for-11 from 3-point range. The Cavs combined had 11 treys. Curry was also a game-best plus-20.

3. Way too many turnovers
If the Cavs are going to win the series, they need to be better at protecting the ball. They ended Game 1 with 20 turnovers compared to just 15 assists. Having an assist-to-turnover ratio of less than 1.0 won’t be good enough to win against the Warriors. James had eight turnovers in addition to his eight assists.

4. Warriors have rare low-turnover game
Golden State entered the NBA Finals averaging 13.8 turnovers per game in the postseason. On Thursday, the Warriors committed just four, and only one in the second half. In the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, the Warriors had games of 19, 16, 21 and 17 turnovers. Cleveland did not have a steal in the game.

5. Tristan Thompson can't be a non-factor
Tristan Thompson has been a major factor in his postseason career because of his ability to affect the game on the boards. But on Thursday, Thompson had almost no impact. He did not score and only had four rebounds, three of which were offensive rebounds. Thompson is averaging 9.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs.

6. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving need scoring help
James and Irving combined to have 52 points. The rest of the Cavs combined for just 39 points. Kevin Love and Richard Jefferson combined for 24 of those 39. J.R. Smith had only three points, which started the game. The Cavs need to find some offense from other players and not force James and Irving to beat Golden State by themselves.

7. Cavs have plenty of defensive fixes to make
The Warriors gave the Cavs' defense all sorts of fits. They dominated in points in the paint (56-30) and were plus-18 in fastbreak points. That's with a number of missed shots at the rim, particularly in the first half. Cleveland didn't have a steal and forced just four turnovers. The Cavs had eight ball deflections and six loose ball recoveries to 16 and 22 for the Warriors. That’s a lot of things the Cavs need to improve on.

8. Warriors other than Curry and Durant struggled from 3-point range
The Warriors have been an amazing team from behind the 3-point arc for the past three seasons. But in Game 1, other than Curry and Durant, Golden State struggled. Curry and Durant combined for nine. The rest of the team had just three. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are both good 3-point shooters, and both should put up better shooting performances as the series goes on.

9. LeBron's Game 1 struggles in the NBA Finals continue
Among other things, Game 1 was a continuation of a long trend throughout James’ NBA Finals career. He is 1-7 in Game 1s. The only time he won a Game 1 was in the 2011 NBA Finals, which his Miami Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks.

...

I had almost forgotten we had 20 turnovers. Wow.

And yeah, if Klay and Green were hitting their shots like they usually do, we'd have gotten burned even more so.

I just remember last year.

We lost game one 104-89.
Game two was a horrific blowout with GS winning 110-77. Everyone asked how we could possibly rebound.

I am not saying that we need to go down 0-1 or 0-2, with a horrible blowout loss .... but I don't think that it necessarily has to be the end for the Cavs.

A few thoughts -
1. Cavs are lucky GSW wasn't shooting well or it could have been 40 points.

2. GSW did a great job of not letting LeBron or Kyrie get any momentum out of the pick and roll, it was a non-factor and the frustration from that led to turnovers.

3. GSW had a good game plan to not close off of 3 point shooters and give the Cavs some looks at the rim but avoid the kick-out for 3. LeBron committed several turnovers trying to FORCE the ball out for a 3.

4. Tristan Thompson was as invisible last night as I can remember in a long time. I blame Chloe.

5. The Cavs didn't match GSW's intensity on either end.

6. GSW was staying on Love on the perimeter but the Cavs never moved him to the post until the 4th, I thought that was a big mistake. Do something to try to get him into the flow.

7. Our transition defense was horrible.

8. I will never understand NBA officiating. Letting full on body slamming contact go and then calling touch fouls..


The Cavs lost game 1 last year by 15 and game 2 by 33... this is a different and better GSW team, the Cavs have to put up a better fight in game 2.

I agree with 100% of your post, but the above is an interesting observation that I too had. I figured that to be a simple adjustment that at the very least, would've been made at halftime.

I think it's going to be hard for us to match up to their length. Draymond, KD and McGee are just going to continue to cause us trouble. Our best bet is to try to draw them into foul trouble early like last game.

i get tired of refs calling "limb" fouls (meaning, if you touch a guys arms they call it) but they let body stuff go to the point where it affects play. If you are affected, it's a foul.

GO CAVS BEAT GS

Jr swish needs to just start jacking up shots, we need him back to that form. Right now he's not a big threat on offense, and that's hurting us.

I fe l like tonight is a must win...

Steve Kerr is coaching tonight

First time I saw Carlos Santana without a hat on it about 10 or 15 years!

Refs are really helping them out early. Glad Love is feeling it.

Looking better so far!

We look way better than last game...so far.

Refs definitely pulling for the Warriors.

Ut-oh?

We got suckage Irving tonight

Cavs playing sloppy.

looks familiar. Could JR and Kyrie suck any more?

Green is like that player on your team in pickup basketball that any points they give you are gravy.

No way in hell we win a game

I was just about to say Lead will be here any second after the good start went away

Not really sure what more you can do after breaking Klay's ankles.

POW!

Sometimes I wish basketball was football and we could just put a thug move on them.

That's a sorry way to draw a foul...

The Cavs are playing so dumb. They deserve to lose this game.

Someone needs to pull Kyrie aside and tell him to stop sucking like a scrub. The moment is getting to him and he's being just worthless

Act of shooting foul ar half court?? Come on man!!

Yeah, when foul calls like that happen it makes me think its rigged.

I can't even bring myself to like a single person on that GS team, they are all douchenozzles