Stephen Curry, Warriors Escape for Game 1 OT Win vs. Cavs; LeBron James Drops 51
A blowout never materialized, but the Golden State Warriors managed to withstand a monster effort from LeBron James and secured a 124-114 overtime win in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night at Oracle Arena.
Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant paced the defending champions with 29 and 26 points, respectively, while Draymond Green stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, five steals and two blocks.
James, meanwhile, piled up a game-high 51 points (19-of-32 shooting), eight assists and eight rebounds. And had it not been for an egregious lapse in judgment by JR Smith at the end of regulation, the Cavaliers may very well have stolen the series opener in dramatic fashion.
LeBron's Familiarity With Warriors Breeds Near-Perfect Performance
When LeBron sputtered his way to 15 points on 16 shots in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, he offered a simple explanation for the down evening.
"Game 1 has always been a feel-out game for me," he said, "if you've ever followed my history."
On Thursday, that wasn't the case.
James rolled his way to the sixth 50-point game in Finals history, and the first since Michael Jordan eclipsed the half-century mark against the Phoenix Suns in 1993. Had it not been for a series of unfortunate events, including an overturned charge, George Hill's missed free throw with 4.7 seconds remaining and Smith's blunder (explained below), that performance could have been penciled into the pantheon of individual brilliance.
Still, it would be foolish to cast James' effort aside because it came in a loss.
Rather, it illuminated just how much damage he can inflict on the Warriors after gaining an intense familiarity with their scheme and personnel over the past four years.
James hunted smaller defenders to perfection in the pick-and-roll from the opening tip, and the result was a one-man parade to the rim. Against a Warriors team that doesn't have a stable of robust shot-blockers, it's hard to see him straying from that strategy in the games ahead.
On top of all that, LeBron was efficient. All but four of his 19 field goals came in the paint or from beyond the arc, and he attempted a game-high 11 free throws thanks to his determined downhill disposition.
Golden State will undoubtedly make adjustments before Game 2, but it's clear James has a plan of attack that should give the Cavaliers a fighting chance.
Warriors Transition Offense Exposes Cavs D
Against the Warriors, attention to detail is of the utmost importance.
That's especially true in transition, where they can gash opponents in an instant with furious finishes on odd-man breaks and the most deflating pull-up threes the league has to offer.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, discipline on the break isn't part of their identity—and it hasn't been all season.
That was apparent again Thursday when the Warriors outscored Cleveland 28-18 in transition. A handful of rim runs and open three-point opportunities allowed them to create easy offense on a night when they shot just 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) from distance.
The fast-break disparity also highlighted a key sticking point: The Cavaliers need to be close to perfect in their execution to beat the Warriors. And that doesn't just mean getting back on defense and scrambling with some commitment to match up following missed shots.
It also means avoiding rushed shots early in the shot clock that allow the Warriors to deploy a grab-and-go approach that results in crippling scoring flurries.
Bogging things down may not be pretty, but at this point it could be Cleveland's most direct path to evening things up.
JR Smith's Blunder Costs Cavaliers Potential Series-Changing Win
The Cavaliers were set up to pull off a stunner. And then JR Smith happened.
After Hill squandered a chance to give the Cavaliers the lead for good, Smith committed an all-time gaffe when he corralled the miss and dribbled away from the basket with the score knotted at 107 as time ticked off the clock:
"I was trying to get enough to bring it out to get a shot off," Smith told reporters, according to ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. "I knew we were tied, I thought we were going to call timeout. If I thought we were ahead, I'd have held onto the ball and let them foul me."
Head coach Tyronn Lue offered a contradicting account:
Regardless of Smith's intention in the moment, he cost the Cavs a chance to seize momentum and send the Warriors into a panic on the heels of a grueling seven-game series against the Houston Rockets that finally made them look mortal.
Instead, Cleveland is the club facing questions galore.
And if the Cavaliers can't conjure up a major response in Game 2, Smith's legacy could come to be defined by one of the more surreal moments in recent Finals history.
What's Next?
Game 2 will take place on Sunday night in the Bay Area. The action will get underway at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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