Cavs vow aggressive play against Warriors

oakland — LeBron James and his Cleveland teammates will need quicker decisions and more aggressive play in Sunday’s second game of the NBA Finals after the Cavaliers were routed by Golden State in the opener.

The Warriors ripped defending NBA champion Cleveland 113-91 on Thursday behind 38 points from star forward Kevin Durant, many of them on slam dunks, and 28 by guard Stephen Curry, who sank six 3-pointers as the best-of-seven championship series began.

“I know we’ll play better come Sunday,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said Friday. “But we have to take away the easy baskets. We did a poor job of taking care of the basketball and they were able to get out in transition and get easy baskets.”

Lue won’t make any changes in the starting lineup after watching a horror show game film, but he does want to see quicker decision making, saying hesitation led to turnovers, and more assertive moves.

“We have to just do a better job of being direct with what we want to do,” Lue said. “We can’t be caught in between. That’s when turnovers happen. We have to be aggressive getting to the basket or making the right passes and right play. We can’t play in between.”

The Cavaliers committed 20 turnovers, eight of them by playmaker James on a night where he had 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. Golden State had only four giveaways, matching a finals record low.

“Take away those easy baskets and them having 20 more shots than we did, it’s a different ball game,” Lue said.

Warriors acting coach Mike Brown expects a better showing Sunday from the Cavaliers.

“Definitely somebody will have to do a better job at stopping the dribble drive,” Warriors acting coach Mike Brown said. —

We have to just do a better job of being direct with what we want to do Tyronn Lue