Cavs rue turnovers, look to address them in Game 2

AN uncanny “big” number of turnovers did not help the cause of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game One of the National Basketball Association Finals last Friday, that was the consensus among key stalwarts of the world champions as they bowed to the Golden State Warriors, 113-91.

Highly competitive in the first 24 minutes of the game, the Cavaliers saw things dropped for them as Game One progressed which they attributed to mistakes they made, both forced and otherwise.

In Game One, the Cavaliers had 20 turnovers while the Warriors had only four, tying an NBA Finals record.

“We just didn’t start that third quarter like we felt we were capable of and needed to. We said before the series started that they’re a team that’s capable of runs, and they showed that tonight in the third quarter,” said forward Kevin Love in the postmatch press conference whose transcript was shared to local media by the NBA.

“We kept fighting and fighting, but they never looked back. We had a ton of turnovers. To their credit, they didn’t turn the ball over. They played great downhill. Some of our lack of communication led to mistakes and led to buckets. They got downhill, to the spots they wanted to get to,” he added.

In the series opener, it was a tale of two halves for the Cavaliers, who scored 52 points by halftime but could only muster 39 points the rest of the way to the Warriors’ 53 points in the second half in add-on to the 60 they had in the first half.

“The shift came in the first about two minutes and 30 seconds after halftime. That’s something that we have to limit going forward, especially when it’s an eight-point game. We have done a good job of limiting them to certain things going into halftime, had a few too many mistakes, and then coming out of halftime they just jump on us. Great teams do that,” guard Kyrie Irving, for his part, said.

Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said the 20 turnovers they committed could be partly attributed to Golden State’s defense and the week-long layoff they had entering the finals.

“Probably a little of both. You got to credit their defense. That’s why they’re the number one defensive team. But we had some that we could control. We talked about it before we come into this series, like our best defense is going to be our offense, of taking care of the basketball, not a lot of turnovers. And tonight we had 20, and that’s way too many against this team,” Mr. Lue said.

But despite the Game One loss and the manner that they fell, the Cavaliers are still up on their chances in Game Two today (Manila time) and in the series.

“There’s no time to be disappointed. I think that just thinking about the next game, things that we can correct going forward. They capitalized a lot on our mistakes, a lot of transition, easy baskets that we can’t allow going into Game Two,” Mr. Irving said.

“So definitely a lot of things we can correct and get better at… and go from there,” he added.

LeBron James led the Cavaliers in Game One with 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. He, however, committed eight turnovers.

Mr. Irving had 24 points while Mr. Love had 15 points and 21 rebounds.

Kevin Durant, meanwhile, led Golden State to the win with 38 points, nine rebounds and eight assists while Stephen Curry finished with 28 points and 10 assists.

Game Two today is set for 8 a.m.