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NBA Finals Game 1

How Did The Cavs Manage To Lose Game 1?

Those of us who picked Cleveland to win the NBA Finals have to answer this question—if the Cavs couldn’t get a road win on a night when LeBron dropped 44 and Cleveland’s inside personnel decisively won the battle against Golden State and when the Warriors were clearly tight for a quarter-plus, then when exactly does Cleveland intend to get the necessary road win?

It’s a fair question and one that I’m pondering this morning after Golden State’s 108-100 overtime win in Game 1.  Cleveland had control of this game through much of the first half because they controlled the pace. When they keep it a halfcourt game, it’s much tougher for the Warriors to get loose for open threes in transition and easier to play physical defense on Steph Curry without fouling.

Golden State was able to gradually open up the pace of play, but they still ended up converting only ten trey attempts. For a game that went into overtime, that’s not a high number and should spell danger for the favorites.

I’ve been hyping Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson and Golden State’s Draymond Green all postseason and had them circled as key performers again here. Thompson only scored two points, but he got 15 rebounds. Six of them were in the offensive end, and that doesn’t count several balls he kept alive by tips enabling a teammate to get to keep the possession alive.

Green had his moments and played pretty well, but with 12 points/6 rebounds, I didn’t find him as consequential as Thompson.

The battle between the big guys in the low post, Timofey Mozgov for the Cavs and Andrew Bogut for the Warriors was a decided advantage for Cleveland. Mozgov had a 16/7 line, while Bogut was 4/7. Mozgov seemed to be more active offensively, making himself available on cuts and receiving passes from LeBron at key points. One of those points was Mozgov dropping two clutch free throws to tie the game 98-98 towards the end of regulation.

Through much of the game, Curry seemed reasonably under wraps. The final stat line is good—10/20 from the field for 26 points, but there are two mitigating factors. The first is that I’m saying through “much” of the game, not all and we’re getting to the end point in a little bit. The second is that even as Curry shot reasonably well, he never really got unleashed the way you’re looking for an MVP to do at home.

Kyrie Irving looked, if not 100 percent, at least close to his old self. He had 23 points and two spectacular blocks on Curry, one that kept the score tied at the end of regulation.Continue reading “How Did The Cavs Manage To Lose Game 1?” »

NBA Playoffs: Oklahoma City Owns 2nd Half & Takes Game 1

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Oklahoma City grabbed the first game of the NBA Finals with a riveting second half, as they caught the Miami Heat from behind and pulled away down the stretch to a 105-94 win and hold serve on their home floor.

To look at the box score of this game you don’t see a lot of differences, save for OkC shooting 51 percent from the floor to Miami’s 46 percent and in either case that’s a good offensive showing for each team. What it doesn’t factor in just how much the Thunder defense controlled the second half. The Heat hit early three-point shots, with Shane Battier knocking down 4-for-6 and Mario Challmes hitting 2-for-4. As TheSportsNotebook opined in yesterday’s series preview, that’s too many treys for Battier to be taking and the early makes proved to be fool’s gold, as he took an ill-advised one at a key point in the fourth quarter and the Heat in general defaulted to the three-ball at too many key moments when they had a chance to keep the Thunder from pulling away. This team has got to find a way to ride the hot hand outside from these role players early while not letting it distract them from their focus at bigger points later in the game.

On an individual level, the big difference you see is that Russell Westbrook is much better than Dwayne Wade at this point in their careers, and allowing that Wade’s probably not 100 percent. To watch it in person made it look like a huge mismatch. To double-check the box score shows it’s probably not quite as bad—Westbrook dazzled with 27 points/8 rebounds/11 assists, while Wade was merely good, with a 19/4/8 line. But of the three best players on the floor, it’s the Thunder, not the Heat, who have two of them and that’s a circumstance Miami is accustomed to.

Ultimately, to bring back a point alluded to in yesterday’s preview, Miami simply looked like a team that spent two weeks hitting against the knuckleball (the Boston Celtics) and is now seeing a pitcher with serious gas. On the positive side, perhaps they’ll have mentally caught back up to the new speed that the Finals have to be played at for Game 2. But on the negative side, they got nice games from the role players, Oklahoma City was sloppy and presumably nervous in the first half and everything was set up for the Heat to get a road win, but they didn’t do it. OkC turned up the pressure, got a big defensive performance from Thab Sefolosha and some key rebounds from Nick Collison, erased a seven-point deficit and finally took over in the fourth quarter. If the Thunder don’t waste in future games with nerve issues, what does that say for the future of this series?

I haven’t mentioned the stars, LeBron and Kevin Durant, because they were both great, and when both stars are great, they aren’t the decisive factors. LeBron dropped a 30/9/4 line, while Durant was even better at 36/8/4. If I’m a Heat fan, I can allow James being outscored by Durant. But LeBron is normally a better rebounder and passer, yet the rebounds/assists line was virtually even and it seems like Durant’s biggest passes came on the biggest possessions. The positive side is that only rarely did King James settle for airing up three-point shots and the aggressiveness at the hoop he showed in the Boston series carried over to this one. It’s just now the caliber of the opponent has exponentially increased.

Is Game 2 on Thursday a must-win either way? You can make the case for both teams. If Miami loses, they’re obviously in a 0-2 hole and would have to come back to the raucous arena in Oklahoma City no matter what. On the flip side if the Thunder lose, they give up homecourt advantage. Because I think getting a road win is normally necessary for any team, even one with homecourt advantage. I’m still inclined to think Miami needs a split here in these first two games—I know they won the 2006 NBA title after losing two on the road, but a three-game sweep in your own arena is tough to do against the league’s best and the road wins are easier to get earlier in the series than they are at the back end.