The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cavs say they have the ‘blueprint’ for defeating Warriors
OAKLAND, CALIF. — George Hill couldn’t sleep Thursday night. He just kept watching the free throw he missed with the score tied and less than five seconds remaining in regulation over and over again.
“It was one of the worst feelings ever,” the Cleveland Cavaliers guard said.
He blamed himself. That free throw might have sealed a win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. But he knew, too, it was time to move on.
“I have great teammates who have been in my ear,” Hill said, “even last night and this morning, telling me to forget about it, continue to just focus on the next game and don’t let it linger.”
The Cavaliers began to pull themselves out of the haze of a brutally disappointing overtime loss, one that came despite a historic 51-point performance by LeBron James. They began the work of moving on to Game 2, which they’ll play at Oracle Arena today.
As they did that, they realized something: They now know how to beat these Warriors. And the Warriors, who felt lucky to emerge victorious, knew that, too.
“Listen, we’re not broken,
all right?” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We lost a game. You’ve got to win four in the series. We understand that. It was a tough game for us. We played well enough to win, but we didn’t. Now we’ve got to move on. The guys’ confidence is not shaken. We’ll see what we need to do and how we need to perform to win. We have the blueprint, so now we have to execute at a higher level.”
The Warriors winning Game 1 was anticipated. In fact, few experts expected the Cavaliers to put up much of a fight, if any at all. Many, bored by a fourth straight matchup between Cleveland and Golden State, expected a dull and predictable triumph by the Warriors, who won two of the previous three and swept two games against the Cavaliers this season.
But if Game 1 didn’t shatter that preconceived notion, it at least dented it.
“We came into this series knowing what we’re up against,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Everybody else was saying it’s going to be easy. We weren’t the ones. So I hope the media got a wake-up call.”