Golden State Warriors: 3 takeaways from Game 1 steal vs. Cavs

The Golden State Warriors nearly didn’t win Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals, but they did just enough to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 124-114 in overtime.

Here’s three things we can take away from Thursday night.

Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals confirmed what we’ve known for quite some time now: the Golden State Warriors are indeed an incredibly lucky team. Just like Draymond Green said after Thursday night’s 124-114 win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers:

“Sometimes, you need a little luck. It’s good to be lucky sometimes, so I’ll take it.”

Because let’s be real: the Warriors should have lost that game — at least, in regulation. Instead, they’ll head back to Oracle Arena on Sunday with a 1-0 series lead, which they’ll more than likely push to 2-0 before heading to Quicken Loans.

Much like how this team came into existence, Thursday night at Oracle Arena was simply a perfect storm of unlikely events. There’s absolutely no denying that. It just so happened to work in Golden State’s favor.

In the following slides, I’m going to attempt to break down a few of the things that went right and a few other things that went wrong for the defending champs, as well as what kind of impact we can expect Game 1 to have on the rest of the series.

3. Rebounds, turnovers and threes could prove the difference in Game 2

The outcome of the game can be traced to three separate situations: the charge call on Kevin Durant, the brain fart from J.R. Smith and the overtime segment.

So to be fair to the Cavs, it’s likely the Warriors would have lost had Durant’s offensive foul not been overturned.

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At the time, the Warriors were having trouble controlling the defensive glass, giving up six offensive boards in the fourth quarter alone.

By the end of the game, the Cavs had won the battle of the boards 53-38, and everyone knows that the team that best cleans the glass normally ends up on top.

Cleveland stole 19 rebounds away from the Warriors way too easily, and that kind of effort could prove problematic for the Dubs as the series progresses.

But to Golden State’s credit, they relied much less on isolation plays compared to their Western Conference Finals performance, recording 31 assists while committing just seven turnovers.

Cleveland, on the other hand, dished out just 18 assists and coughed up 11 turnovers.

The Warriors also shot relatively well from behind the arc, going 13-of-36 as a team (36.1 percent), whereas the Cavs went 10-for-37 (27.0 percent).

If the Warriors can keep their turnovers down and limit Cleveland’s effectiveness from three, it may be just enough to make up for their rebounding deficiencies.

2. Warriors need to focus on stopping “the others”

LeBron James may very well end his career as the greatest to ever do it. While he may not be the “freight train” he once was, he remains one of the most unstoppable players in the NBA.

So Golden State’s strategy for the next three games is simple: don’t try to stop LeBron; stop the other guys from being much help.

James played 48 minutes on Thursday, finishing with 51 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, one steal and one block on 19-of-32 shooting (59.3 percent). Furthermore, he shot 3-of-7 from behind the arc (42.8 percent) and 10-of-11 from the free throw line (90.9 percent).

If he really is the G.O.A.T., then he should be able to sustain those numbers. I highly doubt he can, however, considering the fact he’s already played major minutes in the past three rounds.

In the likely case he’s unable to put together another 50-point game, the question becomes which other Cavs player steps up to carry the load.

Kevin Love dropped 21 points and 13 rebounds in Game 1 so he’s the most likely candidate, but guys like Larry Nance Jr., Jeff Green and George Hill have just as much potential to become considerable X-Factors.

If I’m Steve Kerr, I focus my team’s efforts on Cleveland’s supporting cast and invite LeBron to beat us by himself.

1. The culmination of four-years worth of emotions is gonna be fun

This is the fourth consecutive NBA Finals for both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, so it’s safe to say the core of both of these teams know each other pretty well.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before one party got frustrated enough to start crying about something.

Thankfully, it was Tristan Thompson who threw the only physical blow in the altercation and not Draymond. While I consider Dray equally at fault for instigating the situation in the first place, you have to admit there’s some irony with Draymond being the one baiting Cavs players into unnecessary suspensions.

What I’m trying to say, however, is that in a series most fans have chalked up as a Warriors win, this is exactly what we wanted to see: fiery emotions running amok, drama on and off the court and highly competitive basketball.

And when none of that is going on, we can at least take solace in knowing JaVale McGee, Nick Young and J.R. Smith each have the potential to set off some kind chain reaction through NBA Twitter:

Next: 2018 NBA Finals Game 1 Recap