Cleveland Cavaliers' Guide to Stealing Game 2 of NBA Finals vs. Warriors

The Cleveland Cavaliers have overcome an NBA Finals deficit before.

After a 113-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Oakland in which they were beaten soundly on both ends, the Cavs will once again have to dig themselves out of a hole.

The good news for Cleveland? Everything that went wrong appeared to be correctable, and with two days off in between Games 1 and 2, it has time to correct. Losers of the opening game have gone on to win four of the past six Finals, including last year's Cavaliers who lost the first two games at Golden State.

With plenty of mess to clean up, these are the five biggest areas head coach Tyronn Lue and his staff should focus on.

Stopping the Fast Break

The blueprint on getting easy baskets against the Cavaliers has been passed around the league for a while now.

Simply, run.

Cleveland's inability to get back on defense or stop teams in transition has killed it all year. The Cavs were dead last in the NBA in transition defense during the regular season (1.18 points per possession allowed), while opponents scored 53.7 percent of the time they pushed the ball.

The Cavs were outscored 27-9 on the fast break, thanks in part to their 20 turnovers. With an athletic monster like Kevin Durant coming down the lane and shooters spacing out all around him, there's no right way to stop them.

"When you turn the basketball over, they really make you pay," Lue told reporters after the game. "... When we're not making shots and they get off in transition off of rebounds and stuff like that, they're tough to guard."

No team scored more transition points in the regular season than Golden State's 2,025, making up 18.5 percent of its total offense.

The biggest adjustment for Cleveland to stop the Warriors from running is taking care of the basketball and crashing the offensive boards, thus neutralizing their opportunities.

If that's not enough, better effort is required to sprint back and limit the damage that's being done.

Increase Ball Movement

Hero ball will forever live in Cleveland with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving around.

Think of this style of play like a dessert. A little bit can be delicious, but too much will always make you sick.

"Playing iso ball has helped us get to this point, and it gave us success in the last three years," LeBron James said, via Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding. "So we don't want to have a high, steady diet of it, because the defense becomes stagnant and our players become stagnant, but that's part of our package."

On this night, that package should have been returned.

Golden State blew the Cavaliers out of the water in passing stats:

Team	Passes Made	Assists	Potential Assists	Assist Points Created
Warriors	325	31	58	69
Cavaliers	246	15	35	37

James and Irving can thrive in any sort of offense. Move the ball. Or don't. They'll still get their buckets, as evidenced by their 52 combined points.

It's the other players who suffer, the non-superstars, without proper ball life.

Getting More From Role Players

Cleveland designed its roster around James. JR Smith, Kyle Korver, Channing Frye and Deron Williams are all three-point threats who need to rotate between big nights. In Game 1, the four combined for just three total points, and Frye never saw the court.

Instead, Smith, Korver and Williams were a combined 1-of-11 from the field. None scored after the game's opening two minutes.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Both Korver and Richard Jefferson expressed a desire to move the ball more to reporters after the game, as James was the only Cavalier to finish with more than two assists. Cleveland does the defense a favor when players like Korver and Smith just sit in the corner and get cold.

James and Irving should both enjoy a strong series. Love's 15-point, 21-rebound Game 1 is an encouraging sign that he will be productive as well. Now it's time for Smith to pour in a 15-point game, or Korver to dig Cleveland out of a quick hole with his outside shooting. The Big Three were the only players to reach double digits in scoring. Jefferson, 36 and previously out of Lue's playoff rotation, was the best role player with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field.

If only there was another bench member that could provide a spark...

Play Derrick Williams!

The Cavaliers need big, athletic wings who can guard multiple positions, run the floor and hit open shots.

Enter Williams, who's been out of the rotation for months but has kept himself in excellent shape waiting for a call. With Durant dropping 38 points in Game 1 and James forced to guard both he and Draymond Green, Williams could be just the player needed to assist.

According to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com, Lue may be waiting to see how other reserve unit members perform before inserting Williams into the rotation.

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Little-used Cavaliers forward Derrick Williams could see meaningful minutes in the Finals, team sources told cleveland.com.

Williams, who is 6-8 and was signed as a free agent on Feb. 9, hasn't been a part of coach Tyronn Lue's regular rotation since March 19, would come off the bench to help guard the Golden State Warriors' smaller lineup.

Richard Jefferson is expected to get the first crack at that role, but if he struggles Lue could turn to Williams, the sources said.

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James' primary matchups this postseason have gone from Monta Ellis, to PJ Tucker, to Jae Crowder. All fine players, but the three combined would not possess half the offensive skill of Durant.

This is where Williams comes in. The Cavaliers would be wise to use the former No. 2 overall pick to guard Durant and give James a breather on defense so he can orchestrate more pick-and-rolls, drives and overall offense on the other end.

Even if it comes at the risk of benching Jefferson completely, the Cavs need to give Williams a crack at Durant and company.

Energy/Enthusiasm

This is a little embarrassing, but unfortunately better effort is a crucial factor if the Cavaliers want to win Game 2.

The overall effort level resembled that of a regular-season game, a six-month stretch that they largely slept-walked through knowing they'd eventually be on this stage.

Golden State clearly wanted the game more, as it was the more physical and active team on both ends.

The most concerning part was James, who didn't appear fully engaged until a questionable foul call came his way on a Green and-1. As Jason Lloyd of The Athletic wrote (subscription required):

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James barely gave effort on some of those transition 3s, starting up the court the other way before a shot was in the air. He failed to even try to stop Durant on one of his dunks down the lane and he was beaten/outhustled to an offensive rebound by Curry in the first half — something that should never happen in a Finals game.

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Golden State topped Cleveland in both total distance ran and average speed, per NBA.com. Cutting down on transition opportunities should help the Cavs muster some extra energy throughout the game as well.

Bumping the level of physical play seems to be an emphasis moving forward.

"I think just make them feel us," Kevin Love said, via ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin. "That's something that I imagine Ty probably talked about [with the media] and we can definitely do a better job of."

Cleveland needs to play with the passion that they so proudly displayed in Games 5, 6 and 7 of last year. If Golden State still plays a better game and comes out with the win, so be it.

If the Cavaliers can make immediate improvements before Game 2, this could be a tied series heading back to Ohio.

Stats via Basketball Reference and NBA.com and are accurate through June 2.

Greg Swartz is the Cleveland Cavaliers Lead Writer for Bleacher Report.