The Golden State Warriors survived in Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning 124-114 in overtime.
For many, the Golden State Warriors were supposed to cake walk through this year’s NBA Finals with Kyrie Irving being traded to Boston and LeBron James having to do most of the heavy-lifting for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But if the Warriors seemed disinterested going into the series, you can be sure that James’ Game 1 performance has definitely captured their attention. The greatest player of this generation poured in a Finals career-high 51 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. It was a herculean effort by James, but the Cavaliers could not get enough defensive stops to steal home court at Oracle Arena.
The first quarter went back and forth with Golden State and Cleveland trading blow for blow. It also included a scary moment for Warriors fans when Cleveland’s J.R. Smith slid under Klay Thompson crushing his left leg underneath him. Thompson grabbed his leg and immediately went back to the locker room to get examined by the team’s medical staff.
Here’s the video of Smith sliding under Thompson:
Luckily for the Warriors, who were already without the services of swingman Andre Iguodala, Thompson returned to the game and scored 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 29 points on 11-of-23 shooting, including 5-of-11 from the three-point line. Curry attacked the rim off the switches onto Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson. He made timely three-point shots, including this one from 35+ feet out to end the first half. It’s almost like a layup for him.
You can watch it here:
Kevin Durant scored 26 points on only 8-of-22 shooting, including a dismal 1-of-7 from the behind the arc, but shot 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. Some of his OKC-esque isolations seemed to hinder Golden State’s rhythm, but he eventually withdrew back into Steve Kerr’s system.
The “heartbeat” for the Warriors, Draymond Green, had another stat-stuffing game with 13 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, in addition to five steals and two blocks. He went 5-of-9 overall, notably hitting a huge 29-footer with just a 1:36 left in overtime.
But as we all know, the most significant differences Draymond makes on the court normally doesn’t show up in the box score:
Just an amazing sequence from Draymond Green: He goes from guarding Kevin Love at the 3-point line to blocking George Hill at the rim, to getting the assist on Klay’s 3-pointer pic.twitter.com/cTikRwGttF
— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) June 1, 2018
Perhaps, the most intriguing story of the game for Golden State was coach Steve Kerr’s insertion of center JaVale McGee in the second half. McGee provided a much-needed energy boost after the Warriors looked like zombies in the first half. He scored four points and was active on both ends of the floor.
Whether the Warriors like it or not, this is a series. If they want to overcome the greatness of James, they have to play engaged basketball to ensure they don’t play another close game like this.
The biggest story, however, was J.R. Smith’s brain fart at the end of regulation, which will likely go down as the deciding factor in this series:
Some miscellaneous notes:
Stephen Curry is now the Warriors' all-time leader in postseason free throws with 379, passing Rick Barry (378) on the franchise's all-time list.
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) June 1, 2018
Klay Thompson (293 career playoff threes) has passed Kobe Bryant (292) for sixth place on the NBA's all-time postseason threes list.
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) June 1, 2018
Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday, June 3 at 5:00 p.m. PDT.