NBA Finals has highest rated Game 1 since 2001

LeBron James is a wondrous defender. Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving, center, shoots against Golden State Warriors forward Anderson Varejao, bottom, and guard Shaun Livingston (34) during the second half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals in Oaklan.

The Cavs return home to Cleveland for Game Three on Wednesday when they will try to make their first telling impact in what has been a disappointing mismatch to date.

“I wouldn’t say revenge”, Lue said.

When asked what it would mean for James to win this in Cleveland, Bryant said, “It’s very important for him, just on a personal note to win a championship” with this team. Foster, in particular, has a quick trigger for handing out technical fouls, something Draymond Green – and all the players on both teams – need to be aware of Sunday night. Curry was 3 of 8 on 3-pointers and scored 11 points. With the exception of the game at Houston when he sprained his knee, it matched the fewest number of field goals he had made in a playoff game. But Game 1 was a struggle.

“Yeah, I missed some shots, didn’t get a rhythm, but the way they defended I’ll be able to find some adjustments for Game 2 – not anxious about that”. The Warriors capitalized too, scoring 25 points off of those turnovers to Cleveland’s 12 off of 9 Golden State turnovers. And Curry got a postgame treat: He exchanged jerseys with Barcelona and Brazil soccer star Neymar.

“Bad shooting nights happen”, Thompson said.

“It’s amusing, we showed the team that today”. “So if we pick up the pace and play with a faster tempo offensively, I think we’ll be fine”. James played in his 194th post-season game, passing Karl Malone and Danny Ainge (193 each) for 10th place on the career list.

Several Cavaliers players reportedly passed on buying NBA Finals tickets for Games 1 and 2 because Golden State raised the ticket prices. Should no changes be made but are obviously needed, then that is Cleveland’s head coach Tyronn Lue‘s fault.

“We can do all of that on Sunday and they can make everything”, Curry said, shutting off excess swagger.

Insofar as experts’ predictions tell us anything, the Cavs have a tough task ahead of them. “You can’t dribble for eight or nine seconds. We’ve been through this and we understand you can’t let up ever”.

“Kyrie is the one guy that we have that can break guys down off the dribble”. Rather than shifting away from what has worked for the Cavaliers until now, though, James said he and his teammates have to rely on each other as opposed to him shouldering a bigger load. “So it has to be a little faster”. Headed into overtime with the scored tied at 98, the Warriors shut down the red-hot James (44 points) and went on to win 108-100.

“He’s (J.R. Smith) a huge part of our success, and we’ve got to do a better job of trying to get him some looks early on and just to keep him engaged throughout the whole game”, James said. “Both defenses are definitely created to kind of limit us of feeling comfortable”.