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The Finals | Game 1 | Cavs @ Warriors | June 2nd, 2016 | 9:00pm EST

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It really seems odd to me that the GSW backcourt hits open perimeter shots against the good defense of taller players but find it more challenging to hit outside shots against shorter guards. The Cavs for the most part did that well, as our small backcourt defended well.
Now how do we guard their stars without letting the roleplayers go off. Some of their roleplayers are physical mismatches. Would have been nice to have a Mozgov in the paint as a defensive pillar. I allowed this place to blindly convince me that we could run over them despite a shortage of facts and objective or historical match up analysis as to how we would do so. Nuff brave talk. Let's talk facts not emotions
 
What are you talking about. the team was playing hard the whole game. its a game one loss by the road team. nothing spectacular. however there was some things the team could of and should of done to improve their chances of winning.

The bad habits, the bad shots, the lack of effective ball movement...
 
So anybody have any ideas on how to get JR Smith and Channing Frye open shots?

I feel as if we need some off ball screening for Smith. The Warriors are not going to send help from those corners or even the wings for that matter. They stayed attached all night. Seems as if all the help they sent came right off the top of the key.
 
So anybody have any ideas on how to get JR Smith and Channing Frye open shots?

I feel as if we need some off ball screening for Smith. The Warriors are not going to send help from those corners or even the wings for that matter. They stayed attached all night. Seems as if all the help they sent came right off the top of the key.

It might help if we ball screened with someone else who can make a play or hit a shot. We do it with Thompson all the time, but GS is not a good matchup for him. He should stick to being inside trying to get those rebounds. Do it with LeBron, Love, or Frye. Frye and RJ just need to get more playing time here. Will they play well? Who knows, but you have no idea if they never get on the floor.
 
I think, philosophically, they didn't want to abandon the iso stuff that worked last year in totality.

That the Cavs were going to try and outscore them 125-120 narrative clearly didn't materialize, nor did the want to try.

It appears they thought, let's play similarly, but with Kyrie and Kevin, we'll have enough offense to eek it out. Not a horrible idea. Ideally you have perfect timing, and zig when they zag, and alternate uptempo play with dragging the game into the mud when it benefits you.

When it doesn't work, it's horribly disjointed, and you get an offensive mess like that.

It feels like Lue needs to think in terms of units rather than forcing square pegs. We did a lot of things right on defense, but I don't think you can really replicate in practice how tiring it is to play good defense against Golden State and then try to score effectively.

I saw a lot of guys looking dead after just 4 and 5 minute stretches. There is a formula in there with alternating tempo with iso and good defensive switches, but it's going to require quicker subs and giving guys a breather. We need some tighter hockey style rotations where Lebron is on 3 of 4 lines but everything else is flexible.
 
Could've sworn I saw a tweet that said the Cavs missed 28 shots at the rim. Anyone see that?
 
Could've sworn I saw a tweet that said the Cavs missed 28 shots at the rim. Anyone see that?

Yeah nobody could finish. I think it was 29 actually. Lue said that and the bench were the reasons we lost this game. He doesn't expect that to happen again.

But then again, we didn't expect KD to miss so many open shots either. He did.
 
Man really disappointed Lue tried to go with the same defense as we did vs. Lowry and Derozan. GS's role players are too good to give them wide open 3 after wide open 3, plus back cut after back cut.

Even more disappointing was TT and Love not properly being in position to guard the paint. You're making 200 mil between the two of you, figure out how to play defense.
 
If Cavs is focus on getting Irving and Love some shots on the 1st quarter

Might as well play JR as part of the 2nd unit where the team needs more scoring power, let Iman deal with the defense on Klay.
 
In theory Lue's gameplan did work. We just missed a lot of shots and the GS bench went the fuck off.

We took our Curry and Klay and we ran an offense that trusted it's stars and in theory should've given us a breather from how hard we worked on D.


I'm still not convinced that bench will catch fire like that again. Would I make NO adjustments? Hell no. But the only one I'd make next game is that Shaun Livingston needs height on him. No way in hell he has anybody but Smith, Shump, LeBron or Jefferson on him next game.


With that said were gonna have to live with Kyrie or Delly on Barnes/Iggy. They attacked that matchup but I think more good happened from our worrying in helping Kyrie rather than the guy actually scoring on Kyrie one on one
 
For me to abandon Kyrie on Barnes/Iggy they are gonna have to post him up ALL GAME for like 30 points on above 50%. Neither dudes are post up scorers and we shouldn't be afraid of them even with Kyrie on them. If they turn into Hakeem on us then so be it but let's not guard them like they are Hameem before they do it.
 
In theory Lue's gameplan did work. We just missed a lot of shots and the GS bench went the fuck off.

We took our Curry and Klay and we ran an offense that trusted it's stars and in theory should've given us a breather from how hard we worked on D.


I'm still not convinced that bench will catch fire like that again. Would I make NO adjustments? Hell no. But the only one I'd make next game is that Shaun Livingston needs height on him. No way in hell he has anybody but Smith, Shump, LeBron or Jefferson on him next game.


With that said were gonna have to live with Kyrie or Delly on Barnes/Iggy. They attacked that matchup but I think more good happened from our worrying in helping Kyrie rather than the guy actually scoring on Kyrie one on one

Mozgov.
More Moz.

In the '91 Finals, the Bulls got their first ring by figuring out that Pippen in the passing lanes would stall the Showtime O.

I hope this first-game loss was more Lue figuring it out and feeling it out. Belichick would do this in games--the first quarter the team would play passive and just let the other team do their thing, then counter their adjustments--when he was with CLE and NE.

Even if we don't win this year as long as we have Lue and LeBron we have a shot of making the Finals each year as long as ATL and DET and MIA are beatable...

And GSW may run into a better OKC or SA team next year.
 
Honestly hats off to you guys who remain confident.

I'll feel a lot better closer to Sunday.

For real. After sleeping on it I still am nowhere near to being confident or optimistic about where we stand. The best I can do is avoid being pessimistic. I'll watch the next game with an open mind, but will be honestly surprised if we actually win it.
 
For real. After sleeping on it I still am nowhere near to being confident or optimistic about where we stand. The best I can do is avoid being pessimistic. I'll watch the next game with an open mind, but will be honestly surprised if we actually win it.

1. The cavs played poorly
2. The warriors role players played amazing

There is certainly reason to be optimistic that we can play better. Confident? I mean, we are HEAVY underdogs, but of course we can get hot and win a road game. Hell, we had a lead late in the 3rd quarter.
 

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