Quick Recap: Game Two

Steph Curry finished with a 32 point, 11 assists, 10 rebound triple-double. And LeBron James also had had a triple-double and finished with 29 points, 14 assists, and 11 rebounds. But it was the Warriors who moved on to have a 2-0 lead in the series beating the Cavaliers 132-113. Here are some thoughts I had about the game:

Steph and KD are unstoppable

The biggest problem that the Cavaliers have is that they don't have enough talent to matchup against Steph Curry and Kevin Durant's greatness. The duo had a combined 65 points, 23 rebounds, 17 assists, 4 steals, and 5 blocks. This may be the greatest offensive duo in the history of the NBA, and It's being defended by J.R Smith and at times, Richard Jefferson. I just don't see the Cavaliers being able to defend the Warriors at all. And to add on to it, Klay dropped in 22 points.

Cleveland's Role Players

Lebron had his best game of the series, having a triple double, in the 9 minutes LeBron was off of the floor, the Cavaliers were a -8. He was not the problem in the Cavaliers loss this afternoon, but his teammates were for some of it. The trio of Channing Frye, Deron Williams, and J.R Smith who played a combined 38 minutes had a combined 2 points on 2-13 shooting. Combined for a -26 while on the floor. These guys have to step up for Clevland to even have a chance.

Golden State Turnovers

The Warriors had 20 turnovers and 8 by Steph Curry. It became a problem in the first half when they had 14 and Curry had 6. But they quickly made up for their mistakes and cleaned up the offense and stopped being passive with the ball. The only reason we saw the Cavaliers within three at the half was because of the Golden State turnovers.

Warriors' Quick Rotations

During the second half, you could see the Warriors flying around the court. They were able to help in the right positions and know where they were supposed to go to next. If Curry got switched out on Kevin Love in the low post, Draymond Green would slide over and help on the back side, if they threw a lob over the top to Channing Frye, Klay Thompson would side over and close out on the shot, etc. Everything the Cavaliers did, the Warriors were on top of it. For the Cavaliers scoring 62 points in the first half, the Cavaliers only had a 51 point half after that.

Kyrie's Weak Performance

I don't ever mean to bash on just one person, but Kyrie Irving was just flat out awful. He shot 6-23 from the floor, had 3 turnovers and was an atrocious -18 while on the floor. He made all of the wrong decisions, if he should shoot it, he would pass it, if he should pass it, he would shoot it. All of this is without mentioning his defense. The biggest problem with Kyrie is he dies on every single screen. It doesn't matter if it's an off-ball screen or on-ball screen. He collapses.

Summary

This game was worse case scenario for the Cavaliers. Not only did it look like they made a ton of adjustments, some of them worked, but most of them didn't. A lot of this just comes down to the significant talent difference between the Warriors and Cavaliers. There is not much to do when the talent discrepancy is just this vast. Kyrie has to play better on both ends. He has to realize he can't replicate his performance from a year ago, the Warriors have been preparing him for the whole year, Steph in particular. The largest factor and most important number in this game for me were the Warriors' 43 three-point attempts versus the Cavaliers's 29.

Game 3 Prediction: Warriors 112-108. Updated series Predictionn: Warriors in 4

Quick Recap: Game One

In Oakland, California we saw two players come back in their MVP form. Kevin Durant had 38 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists and finished with 55% shooting from the field and 50% from three-point range. Steph Curry had 28 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds along with shooting 50% from the field and 54% from three. We could just sum up this game with saying that this game is the cause of these two player’s greatness. But there is more to a basketball game than just two guys. Here are several keys to the Warriors victory:

Turnovers/Assists

The Cavaliers really struggled on multiple levels regarding keeping, taking, and giving the ball. Let's first look at the turnovers. The Cavaliers turned the ball over 20 times last night, and of their 20 turnovers, 11 were live balls (Golden State steals), giving the Warriors transition opportunities. Golden State scored 17 points off of those 11 live-ball turnovers.  All of this would be okay if the Warriors turned over the ball more or Cleveland stole the ball away from the Warriors. But the Warriors only had 4 turnovers, while Cleveland had zero steals. They weren't able to stress out the Warriors, and the Warriors sure stressed out the Cavaliers. If we have a takeaway from this game is the Warriors were never uncomfortable. 

Paint Points

Although the Warriors are the best team in the restricted area, the Cavaliers really struggled to stop the Warriors in the paint. A lot of buckets came from covering the shooters on the outside instead of helping to cover the driver through the paint. Another problem that is huge is not covering Zaza Pachulia rolling to the paint, not being able to cover the back cuts, and simple one on one drives to the basket. They were too worried about the three point shot, and with that, it creates a lot of easy baskets. They the Cavaliers got outscored 56-30 in the paint. Not a good sign for the Cavs. 

Fast Break Points/Transition Defense

27-9 was the margin of fast break points. The Warriors got out in transition like they want to and pushed the ball. The Cavaliers did a poor job on running back in transition whether it would be off of a miss or a live ball turnover. We also saw during the fast break them glue on to shooters rather than the person driving to the basket or rim running. Now part of this problem is just simply the Warriors are too good in transition, and the reason they're so good in transition is that they have those shooters. When Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are running to each corner while Kevin Durant stops on the at above the break while Draymond Green is driving to the basket and Zaza is running to the rim, it's massively hard to defend.  But at some point you're going to have to pick your poison, are you going to allow an easy dunk, or leave a shooter open and hope someone can recover quick enough? 

Role Players Not Playing Well

Cavaliers not named LeBron were 8-of-28 (28.6%) on uncontested field goals. This is abysmal. Three former Jazzmen really stunk up the bed last night. Deron Williams had zero points, 0-4 from the field, two turnovers, three personal fouls, and was a -8 last night. Kyle Korver was 0-3 from the field and three-point line, and a -8 last night. Richard Jefferson was 0-2 from the three-point line, had 5 personal fouls, and two turnovers. All three were very poor coming off the bench. Also, Tristan Thompson must've been focusing on Khloe Kardashian because he was horrible as well. If Zaza Pachulia is your matchup, you should be owning it. 

It's only one game, these teams have blown each other out in most of the games in the finals. But it still is not a great sign if you're a Cavs fan or just simply a Cavs supporter. The Warriors looked like they should've been up by 20 at the half and were only up by 8. If we see the role players for the Cavaliers step up more than they did game one, we may see a closer game. I just don't see this Cavalier team being successful against the Warriors and the reason can be summed up with one name: Kevin Durant. 

Prediction for game two: 103-97 Warriors. Updated series prediction: Warriors in 5.