2015 NBA Finals (Game 2): The Cavs Strikes Back

Before the start of the game, the Cavs announced that Kyrie Irving will not be playing any more games this season. Surely, this was a massive blow considering they already had season-ending injuries to Kevin Love and Anderson Varejao. But credit to the Cavs for showing up with the same intensity in Game 2 despite losing their no.2 man. It was a game where both teams played terrific defense, but ultimately the Cavs pulled off an overtime victory, 95-93.

As expected, Matthew Dellavedova (pic) was inserted into the point guard position to replace Kyrie Irving. Offensively, he only had 9 points. But it was his defensive abilities on MVP Stephen Curry that was crucial in Cavs’ win on Sunday. Curry had an awful shooting night, hitting only 5 shots out of the 23 field goal attempts and 2-15 from the 3-point line. Perhaps Dellavedova had a pretty good record in this year’s playoffs defending opposition’s point guard. According to ESPN, both Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose struggled when they were defended by Dellavedova. Teague scored 23 points from 9-23 field goal attempts, while Rose only managed to score 15 points from 7-22 field goal attempts when Dellavedova was the primary defender on them.

The Cavs bench certainly performed better today than in Game 1, notching up 21 points in total. James Jones, who had 0 points in Game 1 provide solid minutes and scoring from the bench. The Cavs’ bench outscored the Warriors bench, who only managed to score only 17 points. And for a game that was only decided by two points, the bench production was critical in giving the win for the Cavs. Despite that, JR Smith who scored 13 points made some bad defensive decisions towards the end of the game, committing unnecessary fouls that sent the Warriors shooters to the line to shoot free throws. These mistakes almost caused Cavs the game, and should be avoided at all cost. The Cavs simply can’t afford to have guys fouled out or ejected with a thin bench.

LeBron James and Timothy Mozgov basically carried the same form from Game 1 to tonight’s game. James had a triple double with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. While Mozgov was the team’s second highest scorer of the night with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Tristan Thompson was huge defensively in both games. He defended the perimeter well and as usual, he was aggressive on the board, grabbing 7 offensive rebounds. But he needs to have a better offensive game (0-5 FG) to give the Cavs more offensive options especially paint scoring. At the moment, the Cavs are very predictable in offense even though they won Game 2. And looking ahead of the games, they do need more variety in their offense and do expect the Cavs coaching team to make some adjustments. Keep in mind that despite the victory in Game 2, the Cavs only shoots 32.2% in Game 2.

Talking about Curry’s woeful shooting tonight, surely this won’t happen again. Curry has been shooting 43% from the 3-point line in this playoffs. But tonight he was only 13.33% from the 3-point line. He will definitely need a much better performance to lead the team to victories. The Cavs defended him well, forcing him to turn the ball over six times in this game. They make sure that he was never given an opportunity to get the ball out of Curry’s hand to initiate the offense. But on the other hand, Klay Thompson had a great game, quite possibly the best game he has played in this playoffs and he was the reason the Warriors are in the game despite trailing for most part of the game. Thompson had 34 points from 14-28 field goal attempts. The Warriors will need to combine effort of Curry and Thompson, or known as the “Splash Brothers” to get this team going.

Offensively, the Warriors were not helping each other to score points. According to an unofficial NBA report, the Warriors only passed the ball just 217 times, which was way below the average of 303 they had in the entire playoff. In numerous occasion, Thompson and Curry rushed into pulling up a 3-point shot without any ball movement, turning the ball over and putting their defense into pressure. The team will also need more paint scoring especially from Bogut who only managed 6 points in 2 games. Draymond Green who was huge defensively will need to step up as he only managed to score from two field-goal attempts only. Today’s lack of execution on the offense ultimately caused the Warriors the defeat despite a great effort from their defense.

With the series shifting to Cleveland for Game 3 and Game 4, fans are bound for another exciting final series. Everybody do expect a close game like Game 1 and 2 for the next two games, may the best wins!