Cavaliers in major trouble after Game 1
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 1 to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals by a 104-89 count at ORACLE Arena on Thursday night. Cleveland should be absolutely terrified.
The reason is not because of a 1-0 hole on the road, but more in the details of the blowout. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry were largely terrible throughout the contest, with Curry so bad that he didn’t play the first half of the fourth quarter with the game still in doubt. Yet, Golden State was able to pull away and was never truly threatened over the last 12 minutes thanks to Shaun Livingston, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.
If there was ever a game to steal for the Cavaliers, this was it. Cleveland got a game where both Thompson and Curry were absolutely horrific from the field, shooting a combined 8-of-27 from the field while scoring 20 points. It was a horror show, and yet the Warriors had no problem rolling past a Cavaliers team at full strength.
The plan for Cleveland was to limit Curry and Thompson while forcing the rest of the roster to beat it. That’s exactly what happened, and in laugher fashion. LeBron James played a very good game, scoring 23 points with 12 rebounds and nine assists. Point guard Kyrie Irving scored 26 points while forward Kevin Love recorded a double-double in his first Finals game with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Despite all of that, Cleveland lost by 15 points to the lackluster Warriors. It screams of a very bad situation for the Cavaliers, who look like a group that simply doesn’t have the ability to hang with the defending champions.
For some teams, simply getting to the Finals would be enough. This is certainly not the case for Cleveland, which is an older group led by James. The Cavaliers were put together two years ago to win an NBA title, giving the city its first major sports title since 1964 when Jim Brown ran wild, giving the Cleveland Browns a 27-0 win in the NFL Championship Game over the Baltimore Colts.
If the Cavaliers want any shot of beating the Warriors, they need to beat them in Game 2. How? Maybe it takes an incredible effort from James and one of either Love or Irving. Perhaps they need J.R. Smith to score 30 points and provide a spark. Could it be a huge showing out of Iman Shumpert on both ends of the court? No matter what it is, the Cavaliers have to find it and ride it.
At this point, the series is only 1-0 and nobody has clinched anything. All that said, Cleveland is in serious trouble after a seriously blown opportunity.
