Cavaliers vs. Warriors Game 2: TV Schedule, Live Stream Guide for NBA Finals
The Golden State Warriors may have taken care of business at home in a 104-89 Game 1 win on Thursday, but the NBA Finals are just getting started.
While the Cleveland Cavaliers held a late lead in the third quarter, a 15-0 Warriors run broke the game open and allowed Golden State to earn the victory. Now the pressure is on the Cavaliers to bounce back in Game 2 to avoid falling into a 2-0 series deficit against an elite team like the Warriors.
Still, you need four wins to bring home an NBA championship, and the Warriors still need three more to successfully defend their title. Even after the Game 1 defeat, Cleveland likely isn't going down without a fight, which should create an entertaining rest of the series.
NBA Finals Game 2
When: Sunday, June 5
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Where: Oracle Arena, Oakland, California
TV: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Preview
Coming into the series, most of the talk rightfully surrounded the superstars. People expected LeBron James to carry the Cavaliers with the help of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, and the "Splash Brothers" duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson would take care of the scoring for the Warriors.
Measuring out a head-to-head of the starting lineups creates a relatively even result.
However, Game 1 showed the true difference in this series coming from Golden State's depth. The bench has been a big part of the team's success throughout the season and the group stepped up when the best players struggled to find their shots.
NBA on ESPN noted the historic performance from the bench:
Shaun Livingston was the big star scoring 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting while Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa also had strong efforts in the win. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers bench generated virtually no production and ended up getting blown out when the second units were on the floor. Matthew Dellavedova embarrassingly finished minus-19 in the 11 minutes he was on the court.
This difference helped the Warriors overcome a poor night from Curry and Thompson, as the two combined for just 20 points on 8-of-27 shooting from the field.
ESPN's Ryen Russillo explained why the Cavaliers should be concerned going forward:
You don't usually expect someone like Livingston to beat you, but this was also the type of game that the Cavaliers could have stolen on the road. Curry and Thompson are two of the best shooters in the NBA today, if not all time, and when they are both having an off night, you need to take advantage.
Considering Cleveland has to win at least one road game in this series, this was clearly a missed opportunity.
On the other hand, the Cavaliers have areas they can improve on going into next game. Beyond just the defense on the second-team players, they can take better care of the ball. They gave it away 15 times Thursday night, which led to 25 points off turnovers.
Head coach Tyronn Lue also noted the missed chances near the basket as a major issue, per Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
"We didn't finish around the basket, so we've just got to keep playing the same way we were playing. I thought we were fine. I feel good about how we played.
The outcome wasn't great for us, the score, but to get to the basket missing 28 shots in the paint, that's not us. So we'll be better next game.
"
Love and Irving had plenty of good looks at the basket but seemingly any time they got close the shot would rim out. A little more luck inside and this could have been a different game down the stretch.
Cleveland fell behind 1-0 in last year's finals before bouncing back with wins in Game 2 and 3. Golden State obviously won the next three games to win the title, but the Eastern Conference champions have shown resolve before. They won't be sulking after one loss in the NBA Finals.
If they want to make this a series, though, they better come back with their best effort Sunday.
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