The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't trust their bench or move the ball well in their loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals on Thursday.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Scribbles in my Cleveland Cavaliers notebook after their 104-89 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals:
1. It's one game. Really. Just one game. It's a loss and a strange one at that. How did the Cavs lose a game to Golden State when the Warriors starting guards scored only a combined 20 points on 8-of-27 shooting? Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry have never played so poorly together in the same game, at least in terms of points scored. Not in five years.
2. So Curry and Thompson had a game where they could have stood in the middle of the Golden Gate bridge ... dropped a ball ... and missed the water. And the Cavs lost by 15 points. Sounds like a Warriors sweep in the making, right? But it's still one game.
3. "It's a great sign that we can win in the Finals without those guys having big games," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "We've talked about our depth for the last two years. We rely on a lot of people. We play a lot of people."
4. After the game, LeBron James proclaimed: "What happened? They scored 45 points, we scored 10. That's what happened." James was talking about the bench scoring. The 35-point difference is the largest in The Finals in the last 50 years. So obviously, it's a big deal.
5. But part of it was Kerr played his bench. Andre Iguodola (36 minutes) was The Finals MVP last season. He is talented enough to start and occasionally does start for the Warriors. But they brought him off the bench. He had an outstanding game with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. He also spent a lot of time guarding James. The Warriors outscored the Cavs by 21 points with Iguodola on the court. He had the best plus/minus of any player in this game.
6. Shaun Livingston led the Warriors with 20 points. It's the first time he's been the Warriors leading scorer in his two seasons with the team. He took 10 shots. The entire Cavs bench only took 10 shots. Iguodola and Livingston played a combined 63 minutes. The entire Cavs bench was on the court for only 57 minutes.
7. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue stuck with his starters. I wrote how Channing Frye could help the Cavs in this series. He played only seven minutes. He took one shot and missed it. Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, Matthew Dellavedova and Frye combined for only 3-of-8 shooting (10 points) in 47 minutes. When they were on the court, they weren't even looking to score.
8. A general playoff rule is the home team's backups tend to play better in their own arena than on the road. They are fueled by the crowd. Players sometimes are more comfortable in the arena where they play 41 regular season games than they are on the road. That was the case in Game 1.
9. Most of the damage done by the Warriors bench was against a majority of Cavs starters. LeBron James went to the bench with the score 71-68 (Golden State) late in the third quarter. The Cavs were outscored 13-2 until he returned with 9:37 left in the game. It was only a 4-minute span, but it changed the game.
10. But during that time, starters Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson were on the court. Then Kevin Love joined them. They did nothing to stop that quick Warriors onslaught. The Warriors points in that 13-2 burst while James rested came from backups Iguodola (5), Livingston (4) and Leandro Barbosa (4).
11. Part of the reason Curry and Thompson played so poorly was the Cavs defense. They swarmed those guys. They also left a lot of other players wide open. They switched defensively when Curry and Thompson ran around picks. Often, that led to two Cavs defenders chasing Curry, and someone else left open for layups or easy jumpers.
12. That was part of the Cavs plan. Before the game, Lue said, "Everyone is going to have a role (defending Curry). He makes them go ... everyone has to be locked in and focused on Steph."
13. Do the Cavs play that kind of defense again, gambling the others won't make their shots? What are the odds of Livingston and Barbosa combining for 31 points (13-of-15 shooting) in 38 minutes? Barbosa had only 14 points in the entire seven-game series against Oklahoma City.
14. My guess is the Cavs will look at tape from the game and see how they were sloppy on defense, not covering for each other. While the Cavs have improved dramatically on offense since Lue took over, their defense has declined a bit. Also, they didn't face a team in the Eastern Conference playoffs with anything close to the scoring power of the Warriors.
15. "We missed 28 shots in the paint," said Lue. "We didn't finish (score) around the basket ... I feel good about the way we played (on offense). The outcome wasn't great for us ... but to get to the basket and miss 28 shots in the paint ... that's not us. We'll be better in the next game."
16. But the Cavs did have trouble with their offense beyond all the missed shots near the rim. Yes, the officials allowed a lot of contact, fouls were seldom called near the rim for either team. The Cavs were 18-of-20 at the foul line, Golden State was 9-of-10. So fouls were few for either team.
17. Golden State has consistently been underrated as a defensive team. They play superb team defense. It's the backbone of their title winning team in 2015. It's how they set an NBA record with 73 victories in the regular season.
18. Lue had to see it, but didn't say the obvious: The Cavs didn't move the ball. Irving was especially guilty of dominating the ball. He scored a very ugly 26 points, shooting 7-of-22 from the field. There was too much dribble/dancing as his teammates stood around and watched.
19. But James mentioned the problem: "We've got to be much better moving the ball, moving bodies. They're a great team when you just hold the ball and pound the ball."
20. James did express confidence that "Coach Lue and the coaching staff" will get more ball movement for Game 2. James was 9-of-21 from the field, a poor percentage for him. He actually was 2-of-4 on 3-pointers, encouraging because his long jumper has been a mess for most of the playoffs. James had 12 points and nine assists, nearly missing a triple-double.
21. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Frye averaged 9.0 points and shot 58 percent from 3-point range. He was open for those shots because the Cavs kept passing the ball from one side of the court to the other, making the defense work. There was little of that in Game 1. The Cavs made 17 turnovers that became 25 points for Golden State. The Cavs put very little pressure on Golden State's defense.
22. J.R. Smith took only three shots in 36 minutes. He said, "They (the defense) stayed attached ... that's what we wanted." He meant the Warriors didn't leave him open, so someone else must be open for shots.
23. But Smith can get off a shot almost any time against any one. He was defended by Thompson, who could just stand and rest because Smith wasn't moving -- and wasn't part of the offense. He was almost a decoy, a stationary 3-point shooter.
24. Love had a solid game with 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. He had some problems defensively. But I also thought when Love and Irving got the ball, they were so focused on scoring -- they missed chances to set up teammates for better shots by passing the ball.
25. So it's one game. One frustrating game. James is now 1-6 in opening games of the the NBA Finals. But the year he actually won an opener was 2011. His Miami Heat team opened with a victory over Dallas, then lost the series in six games. In 2012 and 2013, his Miami team won titles -- and lost openers. So there you go, no real trend there.
