Skip to main content

2015 NBA Finals (Game 1): First Blood by Warriors



Warriors and Cavaliers, both teams were not picked by most basketball fans at the start of the season to make it to the final are now a step away from being the NBA Champion. For the first time ever since 1998, a final won’t feature either Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, or Dwayne Wade. The Warriors are making their first NBA Finals appearance since 1975, while the Cavs are bidding to win their first ever NBA title in franchise history. Perhaps an interesting thing about this series is that we have two rookie coaches on both teams, Steve Kerr and David Blatt.

The Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1, winning 108-100 in overtime, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead in the series. The Cavs had the early lead in the first half, 51-48. But Warriors with the home advantage, came back and leveled things up in 48 minutes of basketball forcing an overtime. To the neutrals, it was certainly an entertaining game and a fantastic opening to the series.

The game was evenly matched until overtime when Warriors managed to turn up a gear and win the game. The Cavs almost fired blank in overtime until LeBron’s layup with less than 30 seconds on the game clock. Key players from the Cavs suffered from fatigues after logging massive minutes during normal time. LeBron James (45 minutes), Tristan Thompson (47 minutes), and Kyrie Irving (43 minutes) all played more than 40 minutes in Game 1 causing them to misfire badly in overtime. On the other side, Steph Curry was the only Warriors that played more than 40 minutes. David Blatt might want to consider making some adjustments to that for Game 2. Perhaps giving more minutes to James Jones or Matthew Dellavedova who only played 17 and 9 minutes respectively in Game 1. Or thinking of going deep in the bench. Shawn Marion, Mike Miller or even Kendrick Perkins who had experience of playing in the NBA Finals could perhaps provide the experience for the team going forward.

The Warriors defense has been solid in the whole game. Andre Iguodala (pic) did a great job defending LeBron James, not allowing him to drive to the rim and settling for jump shots. The only slight concern for the Warriors for the coming games is to limit Tristan Thompson’s ability to grab offensive rebounds. Do expect the Warriors to keep the same defensive game plan in Game 2. Offensively, the Warriors might want to think of some adjustments. The smaller lineup with Draymond Green at center has proven to be effective especially in overtime. A high chance that the Warriors might play with this lineup for a longer period in Game 2.

Regular season MVP Steph Curry had a good game: 26 points, 8 assists, 10-20 shooting. But this Warriors team will need better production from the other guys. Klay Thompson, who has been struggling with his shooting in this playoffs has 21 points from 5-14 shooting, nailing only 3 three-pointers from 9 attempts. Andrew Bogut, who was the key for this Warriors defense will need to start scoring more points. In Game 1, it was the combined effort of Andre Iguodala and Marcus Speights who gave this Warriors team the offensive lift when the team were behind by more than 10 points during the first half.

For the Cavs, bench production was an issue in Game 1. JR Smith was the only contributor to the bench with 9 points. There were outscored by the Warriors bench by a total of 25 points. Dellavedova and Jones, who both had zero points will need to step up their game and start scoring for the team. This Cavs team simply can’t expect LeBron to put up another 44 points game in the next few games. They will need to make some adjustments to execute better. Tristan Thompson will have to give the team more low-post scoring with the offensive rebounds he created. Timothy Mozgov will have to continue his great form in Game 1. While LeBron might want to think of settling for fewer jump shots and create more opportunities for the shooters.

But for LeBron, losing Game 1 in the final is not unfamiliar territory. He lost the first game in the last three finals appearance. And, he led his team and came back to win two of those. Regardless of the injury situation of Kyrie Irving, LeBron will surely be fired up to push this Warriors team to the limit. Hopefully we will have a few more entertaining games ahead.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Badminton] Marching to Rio

Victory in Malaysia means Lee Chong Wei is back on track, but the race to Rio remains wide open. As the shuttle from Chen Long sailed long behind the backline, Lee Chong Wei raised his arms high into the air, signalling to the home crowd the moment of the victory. His 11th Malaysian Men’s Singles title, a timely boost for his confidence after suffering two early exits in the last two tournaments. Although it wasn’t a competitive match as many predicted, nevertheless it was a comprehensive and convincing win for Malaysia’s badminton superstar. The victory over Chen Long also means that Chong Wei has levelled their head to head record to twelve a piece, having also won the last two meetings at China and Hong Kong in November. While Sunday’s performance wasn’t the best from Chen Long, struggling badly with the drift inside Melawati Stadium, the three victories over Chen Long signals that Chong Wei might have found the exact game plan to expose Chen Long’s weaknesses. Similar to victor
1 comment
Read more

Brazil's Painful Postmortem

Losing two straight matches, conceding 10 goals in the final two matches isn’t the way you want to end your World Cup especially when you are playing at home. Tears of sorrow, the voices of disappointment surrounded every Brazil fans all around the world. It was a massive let down for the Brazilians considering they had high hopes for this team to win the World Cup for the sixth time. Now, it’s all done and dusted. Considering how eventful it was leading up to this World Cup, this certainly wasn’t a football festival the Brazilians have wished for. After all those horrific moments on the pitch, now it’s the time to sit down and analyze what could have been undo to get better results. At the end of the day, we need to face the truth - This Brazil team is not good enough. It’s unfair to say this is the worst Brazilian team by judging on their 1-7 defeat to Germany. But this team is definitely not the best they had over the years. Let’s start with their manager. Luiz Felipe Sc
1 comment
Read more

After My Test

          By this time of my life, I had already encountered hundreds or possibly thousands of exams, tests, quizzes or whatever similar to these. Of course before the exam, you studied hard hoping to score a good grade in the test. But often the reality doesn’t sound like that. Sometimes you did better than you expected, sometimes worse than you expected. I guess the scenario of the latter happens more often than the first one for me.           Of course, you wait for your results of the test. After your test paper is being distributed by your instructor back, you take a look at the score then flip it through and see what are the mistakes being made then you just stuck your paper into the bag. Does that sound familiar?           These actions above are what most students did nowadays including me. Well, recently I have this professor that allows you to resubmit your test to get extra credits. How it works is that he will first mark your paper after the examination. If you have m
1 comment
Read more