Cavaliers need to make some adjustments

Draymond Green loved watching Durant do his thing easily down the middle in his first Finals game for Golden State. Having to settle in, whether it’s after the first quarter or first half, first game, whatever it is.

Kevin Love, who did the dirty work in Game 1 with 21 rebounds to go with 15 points, delicately said some players had a case of stage fright.

That’s the plan for the defending champions Sunday night and will be key if they want to even the best-of-seven series and look respectable after the Warriors whipped them 113-91 Thursday night.

Love gave the Cavs a needed second offensive threat with 27 points but against a team filled with a pair of former MVPs in Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, two other 2017 All-Stars in Draymond Green and Klay Thompson and several role players who have made key contributions, it wasn’t been almost enough.

Although the Cavaliers can exploit the mismatch by giving Kevin Love the ball on the block, Curry did just enough to buy Green the time he needed to pick the pass off in the air.

Durant scored nine points, which matched the nine Cavaliers small forward LeBron James posted in the period. But the underlying reality is this: The Cavs’ margin for error against the Golden State Warriors is nil, and that point was blasted home as the Warriors took a 2-0 lead with a 132-113 win.

Turnovers are particularly costly against a Golden State team that thrives in transition basketball, either finding one of their sharp-shooting guards for a three-pointer or driving to the basket for an easy lay-up or dunk.

James converted four of his five looks at the basket on the way to eight points in the quarter. Curry recorded his first career playoff triple-double with 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. Dahntay Jones scored seven points in garbage time.

Despite a similar final game differential to Game 1, the two games were actually radically different.

There is quite a bit of familiarity between the two teams given that they’re meeting for the third consecutive Finals, but as we saw in Game 1, adding Durant to the equation might pose too big of a problem for the Cavs to overcome.

Curry wore his emotions for everybody to see, willing the unblemished Warriors even when Cleveland went on a third-quarter run after that play.

The Cavaliers spent the first two and a half quarters answering Warriors runs to stay within striking distance. The Warriors were the more physical team in Game 1, something that isn’t acceptable.

Here on the same floor, but on the opposite end from where he swatted Andre Iguodala’s layup last summer in what was perhaps the signature defensive play in NBA Finals history, LeBron James caused another loud reaction in Oracle Arena.

The Golden State Warriors won that game to take a 3-1 series lead. Guard Stephen Curry had a triple-double of his own but also committed eight of the Warriors’ 20 turnovers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going back to black. “. The team was just totally falling apart at the seams so I just had to get back to make sure we righted the ship”. “So we just got to figure out how we can be better in Game 3”.

The issue is this: If the reigning National Basketball Association champions don’t show some toughness – especially at the rim – soon, they won’t be reigning National Basketball Association champions much longer.

While Durant insists there’s no revenge factor in play from the 2012 Finals, he says losing to LeBron made him a better player. Also, the Warriors outscored the Cavaliers, 18-13, in second-chance situations, and, 27-9, on the fast break.

Draymond Green is one of the NBA’s best defenders and here’s some of the best images to support that.

“It’s not a question who were the better teams; I think it’s more of a question when to end the season”.

Be a part of the conversation during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals by using the hashtag: #3Cavs.