Indians option shortstop Jose Ramirez to Triple-A Columbus; Lindor coming soon?
June 7, 2015LeBron James challenges Cavs fans to top Golden State’s
June 8, 2015
Cleveland Cavaliers 95
Golden State Warriors 93
Box Score
NBA Finals series tied at 1-1
In the most Cleveland of Cleveland ways, the Cavaliers won their first NBA Finals game in franchise history. It wasn’t supposed to happen. No, certainly not with all of the injuries. Not on the road. Not against the greatest team of the last decade. But it happened. And oh, it was certainly special.
Game 2 was a rollercoaster of emotions, just as much as Game 1. The difference this time around? The Cavaliers maintained their energy and poise in this game’s overtime period. There was no heartbreaking injury. There were a variety of controversial calls. But the Cavs kept powering forward, somehow.
That’s what makes this team so special and so true to the city. They were the clear underdogs with Kyrie Irving. They were the severe underdogs — perhaps the largest in recent history — without their All-Star point guard. This team, without Kevin Love and Irving, is a shell of the one that finished the regular season on a 40-9 tear.
Yet, the team continues to compete. They’ve played scrappy, ugly basketball that’s been pleasing to the eyes only in very, very brief stretches of play. The “Grit Squad” is a perfect moniker for their success. Mostly, it’s been an orchestrated wrestling match where offensive rebounds and free throw attempts are treasured currencies. Oddly enough, they’ve actually been this defensively dominant with LeBron, sans Love and Irving all year.
Ah, this stat remains pretty crazy. pic.twitter.com/jymndkGOWP
— Jacob L. Rosen (@JacobLRosen) June 7, 2015
There is no better microcosm of the team’s new style than Playoff Hero, Matthew Dellavedova. Delly came up big again in this contest. After a very slow start defensively against Klay Thompson — who was a matchup nightmare, as expected — he matched up against Stephen Curry for the rest of the game. And incredibly, the undrafted backup out of St. Mary’s did a fantastic job against the star MVP. Curry missed more threes than any player in Finals history. He didn’t make a shot when guarded by Delly.
Game 3 will be an incredible evening. For those fortunate enough to be in Cleveland that night, it’ll be one for the ages. It’ll be an atmosphere that hasn’t occurred for this city since 1997. For every Cavs fan out there, you’re floating on Cloud Nine. Many were happy to just be in the Finals — now, there’s a sense of wonderment about what could possibly happen during the rest of this series.
40.3, 7.8 and 12.0. Those are LeBron James’ averages in his last four games against the Golden State Warriors. What more do you really need to say about his play, his leadership, his all-around performance? In three of those games, he had a chance at a game-winner against Andre Iguodala. He made that shot on Feb. 12, 2014, with Miami. By the end of Sunday’s game, LeBron ended with a pretty poor shooting efficiency line at 11-for-34, but nobody seemed to really care about that. He was able to control the offense whenever it mattered most. His pace following defensive rebounds was a difference maker. He moved the ball around to teammates much more effectively than he did in Game 1. Again, he’s demonstrating the kind of postseason dominance he displayed from 2011-14.
19 minutes. Timofey Mozgov didn’t play in the last 19 minutes of this contest, yet he made an impressive impact yet again. Can David Blatt find a way to keep his height advantage and scoring ability on the court down the stretch? He had a career-high 12 free throw attempts en route to his 17-11 line. There was no doubt he out-played Tristan Thompson (-21 in 39 minutes) through the first three quarters. But when the Warriors go small and the final defensive possessions become more crucial, Tristan’s switching ability becomes more valuable. His plus-minus was -18 through halftime. That’s why he then played the entire fourth quarter and overtime despite not making a field goal. And understandably, the Cavs offense still had some issues. If it weren’t for James Jones’ heroics, the Mozgov absence could’ve been a major issue.
21 v. 17. Speaking of Jones, that was the bench scoring advantage for the Cavs. In Game 1, the Warriors bench won the battle 34-9. This improvement was even with the tighter Cavaliers following Irving’s injury and six necessary (yet ineffective) minutes for Mike Miller. Again, players like Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and Leandro Barbosa had their moments. But Marreese Speights missed his three shots. And the Warriors offense sputtered no matter Steve Kerr’s quirky combinations.
32.6% shooting. LeBron finished 11-for-34. The rest of the Cavs finished 18-for-55. Neither number is pretty. LeBron had 11 assists; his teammates combined for only three more. Add it all up, and it’s one of the worst shooting performances in an NBA Finals win ever. The biggest advantage was the 40 free throw attempts against only 25 for Golden State, despite the many foul complaints.
The Cavs shot 32.6% and won. During regular season, teams that made fewer than a third of their field goal attempts won a total of 4 games.
— bill (@BTH_Bill) June 8, 2015
https://twitter.com/WFNYJacob/status/607759473155928064/
5-for-23 and 8-for-35. I’m still in shock at Stephen Curry’s performance in this game (the first stat). I’m still in shock at how Golden State shot from three-point territory (the second stat). There were so many times when I was completely confident that Steph’s off-balance, why-is-he-shooting-that-shot attempts were going to be absolute swishes. His body language, almost as usual, was all over the place. Steph is a flashy player who often goes for the more difficult pass or shot in an effort to pump up the crowd. Somehow, it works more often than not! It’s especially dangerous following a made three or a steal. That type of play can be very risky in the playoffs, however, especially against a Cavs team looking to limit the total number of possessions. There’s no way Steph will do this poorly in Game 3. I could’ve sworn he was going to make that final attempt.
For the Warriors as a whole, Harrison Barnes was 0-for-1, defensive monster Draymond Green didn’t take a three and the team’s bench was only 2-for-3 from downtown. So in a certain sense, their offense became just as predictable as Cleveland’s. You knew that Klay was going to try and use his length. You knew you had to defend against the wide open Curry or Thompson three. Besides that? There wasn’t much else. They’re becoming more and more dependent on Barbosa, Speights or someone to provide some spark of offense. Otherwise, the Cavs might just be able to win this ugly battle on both ends.
6 fouls. There are many things we could say about J.R. Smith in this game. He was again not good. He had at least four truly boneheaded fouls out of his six. Because of his usual inconsistency, perhaps he could do much better at the friendly confines at The Q. But as of now … I want much more James Jones. And this is a real thing I just said about the NBA Finals.
On Friday, I spoke with Hardwood Paroxysm’s Bryan Gibberman and Warriors writer Andy Liu. I was depressed about this season. I was depressed about this series and was already looking forward to how incredible this team could be in 2015-16. I had a feeling the rest of the series would be ugly, and perhaps the Cavs could steal a game somehow. Now? It just “feels” different. The Cavs were right there in both games at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors are unstoppable. Heading back home, with this kind of momentum, it just feels now that this series can go on and on. Yes, it’s a few bounces away from a 2-0 Warriors lead or even a 2-0 Cavaliers lead. But as of now, it’s all tied. It’s a five-game series with three of those contests in Cleveland. Anything could happen. This team has turned me right back around.
74 Comments
Hmmm, by my math, two of the next four matchups are in Cleveland, not three. Game 5 goes back to Golden State, no?
Thank you.
Or since the series is seven games (if necessary) three of the next five are in Cleveland.
Game 1 was the steal attempt game 2 was a much deserved win. By all accounts GS is closer to being down 0-2 then being up 2-0.
Who?
♞♞♞♞♞waitingfornextyear====== —->SEE INFO< <<<< >
♞♞♞♞♞
Ah, got it! 🙂
This team is making this overly rational, logical, analytical, faithless, pessimistic (when it comes to CLE sports) girl find her faith. It equally worries me and makes me excited as all h*ll. I guess when they say ALL IN….. I may have to offer up my last poker chip that was protecting my fragile lil Cleveland heart.
How to earn money with ———- waitingfornextyear … ➨➨➨ kEEP READING
Games 3, 4, and 6 (assuming it’s necessary) are in Cleveland. Thus, three of the next four are in Cleveland.
Not to get involved in the specific discussion, but there was a great piece dissecting FTs and their role in the game of basketball around that Rockets series that was really good. Worth linking to if it can be dug up. I want to say Grantland but could be totally wrong.
The guy whose system that Lebron James is currently running.
1. I still cannot really enjoy last night’s win, because:
a) blowing an 11-point lead with 3 to go? Having to do OT again? That stuff needs to stop, fellas.
b) we could very easily be up 2-0 and maybe even have a functional Kyrie. Because we failed to close things out.
2. Anyone criticizing David Blatt at this point simply won’t even come around on the guy. The changes he’s had to make throughout these playoffs? To lose Love and Kyrie and be 13-3 to this point? That’s Pop-level work, right there. Give the man his due credit.
3. At this point in the playoffs, isn’t it time for the national punditry to stop with the “Cavs roster is 90% chopped liver” narrative? Shump, Swish, Delly, Moz…these guys have each provided BIG performances at one time or another in this run. Again, some credit where credit is due would be great. Unlikely against this opponent, though.
4. My lifetime of Cleveland fandom has me cringing at just how many people are getting, in my opinion, FAR TOO AHEAD OF THEMSELVES after 2 games in a 7-game series. Yes, it is amazing and inspiring to see the Cavs standing in and trading punches with a VERY good opponent. And yes, we COULD be up 2-0. But we aren’t. And there are five games remaining. Golden State has become easy for us to hate because they have been so heavily favored by those “in the know”, and it brings out our already impressive inferiority complex. But they are still a genuinely excellent team with one of the best 1-2 punches anyone in the league can offer in Curry-Klay. Yes, we have shown we belong in this series, but the odds of Curry continuing to struggle with his shot are slim. And Steve Kerr has shown that he, too, can make adjustments in a series (Memphis, anyone?). I love that this is now a best-of-five and we have home court (which honestly may not be all that great a thing for us, but that’s for another time), but this series is far from over. It’s 1-1. Advantage: no one.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/choofed.gif
OY VEY
As usual, your response belies your lack of interest in having a conversation. Have a good one.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/dsb1.gif
The key was always taking one in Golden State. Now that it’s been done – time to focus on winning 3 of the next 5. It seems to me like the Cavs have responded really, really well to adversity all playoffs. When they get punched in the mouth, they punch back harder. I hope to see them Hulk up some more and deliver some W’s. 3 more to go.
Great game. Delly for MVP 😛 If we take the next game I think the post game GS faces will tell how the series will go. I called the Hawks done early after I saw the faves and the defeat on them. The things is win or lose we wont defeat ourselves this team has absolutely NO QUIT!! I agree Brother needs to go not sure what his deal is but obviously there is something there. And WHY IN THE HECK DON’T THEY START THE GAMES IN CLEVELAND EARLIER!!!!!! Some of us have to work:D
I agree pretty much here. But I’ll allow myself to enjoy this win as it was epic. I can simultaneously enjoy the win AND not jump to “OMG print the rings!”. Of course, after game 1, I jumped to “well, we ain’t gonna beat the warriors in a series without kyrie, oh well, next year”… and while that’s not ruled untrue, my percentage of confidence went from 10% back to 50% last night. I think they have a 50/50 shot, and considering the circumstances…. WOW. Go Cavs!
We’re probably going to lose one of these next two home games. And you know what? It’s fine, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. These are the two surviving teams because they are both good under pressure, talented, smart and resilient. “It’s supposed to be hard,” says the fortune cookie philosophy circulating the internet this week. I’ll say this: if we somehow win this it will be the most remarkable 12 months of any of my city’s sports teams in my life time. And if we lose I will still remember it as remarkable, at least after the two week period it takes to lick the wounds.
I believe a split is the best we can hope for over the next two, because I just do not see Golden State losing three straight games to anyone. Just like Games 1 and 2 though, a split is acceptable. I’d just prefer we not miss another opportunity to close one out like we did in the series opener.
A series win really would make the past sports year absolutely stunning. And would make watching the Tribe struggle for .500 and the Browns inevitably being the Browns a whole lot easier to endure. A loss will simply add this season to the “almost but not good enough” list for me. Yes, I appreciate the turnaround from the past few seasons. But that wouldn’t make a missed opportunity at a title any easier to take.
That cookie cutter philosophy is also what she said.
< ▬▬▬▬★★★★.+ zeldadungeon+ *********Reset your job with modvive < Find More='' ……..''
46
I love waiting for next year……
>>>>>>>> ———–Continue Reading>