Are Warriors Already Past Toughest Test En Route to NBA Championship?

The hard work appears to be over for the Golden State Warriors, who cruised past the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, 104-89, Thursday at Oracle Arena.

Aside from a spirited third-quarter surge, the Cavs barely competed with a Golden State team reveling in the freedom and airspace the Oklahoma City Thunder denied it for a grueling seven games. Where the Thunder obscured the Warriors' passing vision with thickets of arms in the Western Conference Finals, Cleveland opened broad avenues. Where OKC attacked with relentless athleticism, the Cavs sauntered, wary of matching the Warriors' pace.

Golden State built a 14-point first-half lead behind early scoring from Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut. Good looks came easily, as the smart money expected they would. Cleveland's defense, burdened by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, was never going to bother the Warriors like that suffocating OKC straitjacket.

Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group, like many, saw this coming:

Though the Cavaliers took the lead in the third quarter for a short stretch, the Warriors answered with a decisive bench-fueled run.

Shaun Livingston scored a postseason career-high 20 points, victimizing Irving, who chased him over screens and allowed easy access to his beloved mid-range shots. This is a problem that may not be going away; Livingston is now 18-of-21 from the field against Cleveland on the season.

His performance even impressed LeBron James, per the NBA:

"

"The game ball obviously goes to Shaun Livingston" - @KingJames after Game 1 of the #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/sPToVKJbJS

— NBA (@NBA) June 3, 2016"

Alternative candidates: Andre Iguodala and his game-high plus-21 or Draymond Green, who finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Even Leandro Barbosa added 11 points off the pine, as the Golden State bench plastered the Cavaliers' reserves, outscoring them 45-10 overall.

The role-player punch was necessary for the Warriors to win because neither Stephen Curry nor Klay Thompson had games worth celebrating. They combined for a postseason-low 20 points, which, according to ESPN Stats & Information, was their lowest aggregate total in a win all year.

For the Cavaliers, who desperately need to pick up a victory in Oakland if they expect to make a series of it, dropping a decision by this big of a margin, with Curry and Thompson shooting blanks, does not bode well, per Turner Sports' David Aldridge:

Perhaps the Cavs deserve credit for limiting the Splash Brothers' flow to a trickle. They did what they could to hold Curry away from the ball, and Thompson rushed a handful of looks because of solid closeouts. But for the most part, Golden State's best scorers simply had off nights.

Curry missed clean attempts, committed five turnovers (several of them carelessly) and never found a groove in the pick-and-roll game. Against the Thunder, Curry's struggles were generally the product of a terrifyingly athletic defensive scheme. It felt more like he was his own best defender Thursday, even though the Cavs did all they could (which wasn't much) to keep him from springing free.

When Cleveland watches tape of Game 1, it'll see the Warriors' small lineup erasing the highly effective Channing Frye-at-center units that worked so well in previous series. It'll see embarrassing communication breakdowns on basic transition defense, like this:

And this:

It'll see Golden State switching liberally, forcing stagnant offensive possessions and reducing a once-potent Cavaliers offense to James' one-on-one bully-ball drives. Those still work, by the way. James finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and a half-dozen strong-man finishes at the rim. But if that's the only place the Cavs can generate reliable offense, that's not nearly enough.

Neither is this, courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info:

What the Cavaliers won't see are answers.

Sure, maybe there are faint glimmers of hope. Cleveland will likely shoot better than 7-of-21 from three in most games, and it's highly unlikely the Warriors will get good nights from virtually every reserve and the Bogut-Barnes combo simultaneously.

Hopes aren't answers, though, and maybe this is where we see how much Cleveland's powder-puff road to the Finals hurt it. Untested to this point, the Cavs can't be sure how they'll respond to this kind of adversity. While Golden State's brutal fight against Oklahoma City and comeback from a 3-1 hole has it believing it can't be knocked out, the Cavaliers haven't been punched at all.

Until now.

And this is not what you'd want to hear from head coach Tyronn Lue after the Warriors exposed so many systemic flaws, per Bay Area Sports Guy:

The Warriors can do what they want against Cleveland—quite a reversal after having to beat the Thunder with last resorts and incomparable (often flat-out lucky) shot-making. Every personnel grouping seems to work, there's no threat of monstrous inside forces neutralizing the Death Lineup, and there's at least one weak defensive link on every Cleveland unit.

Playing the Thunder was painful, and surviving that series took everything the Warriors had. 

From the looks of it, Golden State may not even have to sweat in this one.

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