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NBA Finals | Game 1 | Cavs (0-0) @ Warriors (0-0) | June 1, 2017 | 9:00pm EST

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Wanted to bring up fact that after 8 ORBs surrendered of first 15 rebounds on that side of court, they grabbed just 6 more of the next 43, and the entire episode seems as much of an anomaly as it does when you watch them one-by-one. Cavs had 106 total rebounding opps (guy w/i 5' of ball) to 85 by GSW. GSW had 23 ORB chances which they turned into 14 boards. It took the Cavs 32 ORB chances to create 15.

That was pretty anomalous. (On other hand, not forcing TOs and making a lot of their own, well that's classic unfocused regular season Cavs....)
 
This was a beat down but I think the Warriors came out with more energy and it was obvious from the start. Too many offensive rebounds, and the defensive intensity wasn't quite there as the refs let them play.

KD killed us but honestly it seemed like all his points were in transition layups/dunks, if we could control the turnovers I think it could put alot more pressure on him. Can't let him front run.
 
Which frankly is really discouraging. Even if we shore up those turnovers, they are bound to improve on that shooting percentage to offset some of them. It's really depressing.

We can shoot better to. They also took 20 more shots than us.
 
I hate to lose but losing to the Warriors fucking sucks THAT much more. I know its just 1 game and adjustments will be made but it still sucks the WAY the Cavs lost. Horrible management of defensive assignments and not controlling the ball. They were so concentrated on stopping the 3 the lane was open the entire game. Couple that with fucking losing the ball in what seemed like every other possession and they were lucky to not lose by 30 plus.

I don't tend to over analyze or dissect 1 loss in a long serious but it was just frustrating the way this team came out NOT ready. Just when I thought they were over this they do it on the biggest stage. Looking at the bright side, I doubt they have 20 turnovers again or that Durant has no more than 2 dunks in game 2. But its fucking alarming that the defensive schemes were so out of whack, a lot has to be put on Lue but you would think they would clean that up at the half and nope. Last year Lue's adjustments made the big difference and I was eager to praise him for it, so I am optimistic this won't happen again.
 
Well.. not really the way I wanted to take my first Game Thread L.

Bring us home for Game 2 @Stark!
 
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After all i think its clear that the loss was on us not because they where so amazing. Yes they are dangerous.. But we mostly cant beat ourselfs. They scored 26 in Transition of of our 20 Turnovers and scored at leat 15 on Offensive Rebounds. If we cut both in half(wich would bring us back to around our Average for Turnovers and allowed Offensive Boards) like we absolutely can.. its a close Game with a good shot to win.

I am still not scared... We beat ourselfs last night. Its no Excuse and it better not happens again... but we really beat ourselfs.
 
I am still not scared... We beat ourselfs last night. Its no Excuse and it better not happens again... but we really beat ourselfs.

I agree with this somewhat, but the Warriors with Durant are a far different animal. I won't pretend to know more about basketball strategy than our staff, so I'll be interested so see any adjustments.

It may be hard to win a game let alone the series. Especially if we play like we did last night. From the start they were higher energy and more focused. But damn did they get about 4 lucky bounces in the 1st qtr. Take half of those away, and have Korver hit his open shots and it's probably tied at the half.
 
I agree with this somewhat, but the Warriors with Durant are a far different animal. I won't pretend to know more about basketball strategy than our staff, so I'll be interested so see any adjustments.

It may be hard to win a game let alone the series. Especially if we play like we did last night. From the start they were higher energy and more focused. But damn did they get about 4 lucky bounces in the 1st qtr. Take half of those away, and have Korver hit his open shots and it's probably tied at the half.

And the bolded is exactly my Point. Before we actually can even start making things tough for them to beat them we first have to stop beating ourselfs. Against them or a healthy Spurs Team you just cant make many mistakes. If you cant play a nearly perfect Game you wont win.

We also have to up the Effort and Physicallity 10 fold.
 
Need to be cleaner all around. Getting killed on the boards was demoralizing- they're bracketing Tristian and even though Love had 21 rebounds, as a team they need to be better.
JR Smith is straight SAWFT- maybe they need to give Shump some more burn. Someone needs to stay in front of GS instead of being blown by.
Kyrie cant play hero ball alone, needs to get shots in some offensive flow.
Korver needs to hit shots. Only took three but missed them all- not good.
Just ugly- but its one game.
 
Wanted to bring up fact that after 8 ORBs surrendered of first 15 rebounds on that side of court, they grabbed just 6 more of the next 43, and the entire episode seems as much of an anomaly as it does when you watch them one-by-one. Cavs had 106 total rebounding opps (guy w/i 5' of ball) to 85 by GSW. GSW had 23 ORB chances which they turned into 14 boards. It took the Cavs 32 ORB chances to create 15.

That was pretty anomalous. (On other hand, not forcing TOs and making a lot of their own, well that's classic unfocused regular season Cavs....)
How can you be unfocused knowing you're in the finals???
They got too many points off ORB's and again I ask where was TT???
He allowed MaGee to look like a all -pro defender.
But too many TO's , and some were not forced.
But that invisible D against Durant is inexcusable and seeing Lue just gazing at the court just kicked up my irritation way more.
I know you adjust game by game, but darn it you have to adjust IN THE GAME also.
Also if the game plan was to guard the shooters, then you still have to adjust to STOP THE BALL handler first!
Thats 101 BB..
They semi zoned Lebron but he and the shooters didn't take advantage..and those lazy bounce passes don't get it done against that team.

First 5 minutes of the 3rd was critical and the Cavs shrunk.
 
In the halfcourt, the defense wasn't that bad. But like Lue said before the series started, if you turn the ball over - you're dead against them.
 
Durant scored 13 more points than both his playoff and season average.

LeBron scored 4 less. LeBron's gotta be better.
 
Durant scored 13 more points than both his playoff and season average.

LeBron scored 4 less. LeBron's gotta be better.
If LeBron got 5 more open dunks he would have been 6 more points over his average. Durant essentially had 12 free points. I don't think it's that simple to say because Durant more productive thats why we lost.

LeBron could have cut his turnovers in half, made a couple more freethrows, one of his missed threes and a shot around the rim and we still likely lose that game.

#1 the pace of the game was 103, we need to be in the low to mid 90's.
#2 We can't turn the ball over a ridiculous amount of times. We need to be the team with more possessions, not them.

That being said, even if we execute our gameplan to perfection, there is still a chance we lose. That's what we are dealing with here.

That's why LeBron is the undisputed Goat if he bests this team. Because it's nearly an impossible task.
 
The way they attacked guys to mess up our normal rhythm was masterful

Now there was a lot of uncalled holding and that has to be called. Even the announcers alluded to it alot of times. It just seems like we didn't expect them to play us physical and we were surprised but we shouldn't have been because they do it literally every single year and the refs never even it out until about game 3
 
I was most disappointed in the lack of purpose. They came out with a terrible game plan and looked slow and old...win or lose at least play with intensity and fight don't play passively
 

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