DEFENSIVE ADJUSTMENTS
Cavs focus more on stopping Durant
The Warriors have set the tone. Now the real work begins.
With a comfortable Game 1 win under their belts, the Golden State Warriors look to stay on the offence in the third-straight version of the Warriors vs. Cavs in the NBA Finals.
Winning Game 1 doesn’t guarantee anything. The Warriors parlayed a Game 1 win to the title in their 2015 meeting. But after winning Game 1 last year, the Warriors surrendered a 3-1 series edge only to lose the title to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7.
So make no mistake, a Game 1 win or loss hasn’t changed the expectations of either team.
The Cavs are not shook by their 113-90 loss on Thursday night. But what both teams seemed to agree on the day after is the Cavs’ team that shows up on Sunday for Game 2 will be better.
“I know they won’t have 20 turnovers the next game, so we can’t rely on that,” Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said.
“They’re a good team,” acting Warriors head coach Mike Brown added. “They’re going to make adjustments. You’ll definitely see them doing a better job in that area.”
The area of which Brown was making reference were the uncontested dunks the Warriors feasted on during the Game 1 beat-down.
Kevin Durant, the star of Game 1 for the Warriors, had six uncontested dunks in the first half alone as the Cavs were so locked in on trying to contain the Warriors various three-point threats, ignoring the inside game.
“I think it would be deflating for anybody if someone was getting tomahawk dunks like that,” Thompson said of Durant’s first half. “But I know it’s not going to affect them on Sunday. They just wanted to come in here and get one (win in the first two games). That’s the goal of a road team. So we have to have the mindset of a must win (on Sunday), because (Thursday’s) great game almost means nothing if we lose on Sunday and don’t take care of business.”
Cavs’ head coach Tyronn Lue said after the game that a part of their game plan seemed to be backwards. The fact that came in response to a question about Durant’s private dunk party suggests Lue might have been doing a little second guessing.
One can also assume that will change in Game 2.
Brown fully expects the Cavs to do a better job stopping the ball and he was getting no argument from any of the Cavs themselves.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” said LeBron James, he of the eight turnovers in Game 1. “There’s nothing really that needs to be said. “We know we’re capable of playing a lot better. We didn’t play as well as we know we’re capable of, so we look forward to the next one.”
Outside of cutting down on his own eight turnovers, which by the way were twice as many as any player who took the court, James said the primary focus is going to be on slowing down Durant who had a game-high 38 points in the opener.
He’s a factor the Cavs didn’t have to deal with in the first two series of this trilogy of Finals and in Game 1 it looked like the Cavs had no idea how to contain him.
Even James suggested after the game finding a solution for Durant is not going to be easy, not even with two full days between games. “There’s no ifs, ands, or buts,” James said. “We’ve got to figure out how to combat that, which is going to be a tough challenge for us.”
Brown said it’s inevitable the Cavs will be better in Game 2 just because they have now seen first hand how aggressive the Warriors offence has become.
“It’s like LeBron said in his news conference (after the game). It’s hard to simulate the way we play the game,” Brown said. “And after putting this game under their belt, having film to be able to go back and watch, make adjustments from, get used to the tempo and so on, so forth, it will allow them to come in feeling better about their game plan and trying to do things they feel they need to do to get a win.”
In short, this series may have looked rather one-sided in the opening game but neither team expects it to stay that way.
The Cavs know they have their work cut out for them. If the Warriors slip even a little, they could get pounced on in Game 2.