LeBron, Cavs Facing Another Finals Loss Unless Irving and Love Decide to Grow Up

OAKLAND, Calif. — If you want to make this series a broader referendum on LeBron James because he'll drop to 2-5 in NBA Finals if he loses, let's shift the blame game somewhere more legitimate.

There are two built-in, wholly viable excuses for James not to win: Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

They weren't winners before they joined up with James.

If they don't win with him, it says far more about them than about him.

Game 1 Thursday night was a landmark moment in the careers of Irving and Love, whose injury absences from the 2015 NBA Finals were the convenient excuse for the Cleveland Cavaliers' failure.

Irving and Love made it all the way back to the final round. It took a lot of hard rehabilitation and real dedication, no doubt.

Yet the way they played in the Cavs' 104-89 loss to the Golden State Warriors was far too predictable.

They like to score. They love their stats.

Yet do they still not understand what it takes to make their teammates—and LeBron's team—better?

It's not about their numbers; it's about all the little things they do to put their teammates in positions to succeed.

It's possible Irving and Love just aren't capable of that higher learning, no matter how much James has tried to teach them.

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That's the beauty of James' game: He can and will get his points, usually with the sweetener of doing it efficiently, and he will set up the guys around him for success in a multitude of ways.

"He's most dangerous as a facilitator," Golden State's Draymond Green said on the eve of these Finals.

The Warriors tried to make James a scorer in the Finals last year because the depleted supporting cast meant no one else could create.

The fact the Warriors are still so committed to making James a scorer now is a testament to how little faith they have in either Irving or Love doing what it takes to meld the Cavaliers into a cohesive unit.

And it showed Thursday night.

Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue tried to steal extra real-time rest Thursday for James using the bridge between the third and fourth quarters—a logical tactic.

When James went out with 34.1 seconds left in the third, Cleveland trailed 71-68. By the time he returned 2:23 into the fourth, Cleveland trailed 84-70.

Irving was out there that whole time. Love was out there for part of it.

They took all the team's shots during that spell, predictably.

They moved with a lot less dedication on defense than offense, also predictably.

Irving slides at half-speed most of the time, unconvincing in his commitment to keeping his man out of the lane. Love seems too confused by the opposing offense to move at all.

Individual defense isn't their strongest suit, we know. But the ability to be effective within the team's defense, along with simple consistent effort, is a must against this particular opponent and with so much at stake.

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Love's reputation as a faux-hustle guy goes back a long way, and he had a play early Thursday that might've impressed some casual fans. He dived into the backcourt to nudge a loose ball farther away from Stephen Curry. Of course, Love wasn't going to secure possession, and there was still so much time on the shot clock that it left Cleveland's defense compromised behind him…so Curry just moved the ball ahead for the Warriors to score.

Love is capable of making the eye-catching, spectacular pass, but rarely the quick, logical pass.

Irving also has his issues. Perhaps because he doesn't quite trust his rebuilt kneecap fully, or he doesn't trust his teammates, Irving regressed this season with how often he over-dribbles before trying to score.

That stuff has to change by Game 2 Sunday, which is probably unrealistic.

"We've got to be much better moving the ball, moving bodies," James said. "They're a great team when you just hold the ball and pound the ball."

James also had some pointed words for Love on the floor with 3:32 left after Cleveland failed to get a much-needed defensive stop with Golden State's lead at 96-85.

Maybe James used the team dinner back at the hotel late Thursday night to send an even clearer message to Irving and Love about team play.

But James has tried all sorts of tactics to get through to two guys who simply are not Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Bear in mind that Irving and Love not only couldn't lift any of their respective teams to playoff success, they couldn't get their teams even into the playoffs before James' homecoming brought them all together last season.

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The Warriors just got pushed to the brink by an Oklahoma City team that saw Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both 27, really start to mesh their individual greatness with team play, topping it all off with a ton of defensive effort.

The most costly part of the Western Conference Finals for the Thunder was the final stretch of Game 6, when Durant and Westbrook fell into old habits of trying to do it alone.

Perhaps Love, 27, and Irving, 24, should be excused for not grasping the highest level of teamwork yet.

Except they're not even close.

Who cares that their Game 1 numbers included the usual token good stuff: Irving with 26 points; Love with 17 points and 13 rebounds?

They've got to control their turnovers, dig deeper on defense and make the game easier for those bench players who don't have their talent. Six assists between the two of them isn't going to do that.

They've got to do the stuff that isn't going to bring them glory.

Some would say James' legacy depends on it.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.