The NBA Finals began Thursday night in Oakland, as the Cavaliers looked to steal a road game from the Golden State Warriors.
Cleveland’s Big Three of LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving did about as much as one could ask of them to put the team in position to win, but the Cavs’ role players failed to show up.
On the flip side, the Warriors’ two best players, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were both off their games, but the team’s depth was on display, as the role players carried the way to a 104-89 victory.
From the first quarter, it was apparent that LeBron was ready to do some of the heavy lifting, scoring 8 points in the quarter.
Love and Kyrie added on to that total, combining for 19 points between the three, but the Cavs trailed 28-24 after one.
For the Warriors, Thompson went scoreless in the first quarter, while an unlikely hero, Harrison Barnes scored 7 points in the quarter.
Curry scored 6 in the first quarter, but was held scoreless in the second.
The defense of Andre Iguodala on LeBron held James 0-for-4 from the field in the second quarter, but Irving and Love both picked up some of the slack, keeping the Cavs within nine points heading into halftime, despite Cleveland shooting just 36 percent from the field in the first half.
Cleveland’s Big Three combined for 34 of the team’s 43 points in the first half.
For Golden State, Curry and Thompson were held to just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but the Warriors’ bench scored 17. Cleveland’s bench scored 5.
The Cavs came out with energy in the third quarter, going on a 7-0 run and eventually trading leads back and forth with Golden State.
LeBron, Love, and Irving combined for 19 points in the third quarter, while Tristan Thompson added 6.
The Cavs would lead 68-67 with 2:17 left in the third quarter.
It was all Warriors the rest of the way.
The Warriors went on a 15-0 run from that point forward, as their bench scored 13 of those points.
The Cavs tried to fight and claw their way back, but Golden State’s lead continued to grow, as Shaun Livingston was unstoppable in the fourth quarter, scoring ten points with ease.
The Warriors would increase their lead up to 20 with 5:44 left.
Cleveland cut it back to an 11-point game, but the Splash Brothers knocked down back-to-back daggers with just over two minutes left to remove any hope of a Cavs comeback.
LeBron finished an assist shy of a triple-double with 23 points and 12 boards.
Love posted a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Irving finished with a game-high 26 points, shooting just 7-of-22 from the field, but hitting 11-of-12 from the line.
Thompson made some big plays, posting a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
J.R. Smith made his first basket of the night with 4:43 left in the game. He finished with 3 points.
Channing Frye, who has blossomed in the playoffs, was nowhere to be found, as head coach Tyronn Lue only played the stretch forward for seven minutes of action on the night. Frye scored 2 points.
Curry and Thompson combined for just 20 points on 8-of-27 shooting. It was their lowest combined scoring of any game in the last two seasons, including playoffs and regular season.
Draymond Green had a productive all-around game, scoring 16 points, hauling in 11 rebounds, dishing out 7 assists, and grabbed 4 steals.
Livingston led the Warriors with a team-high and playoff career-high 20 points.
Iguodala was productive on both ends, coming off the bench, scoring 12 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and dishing out 6 assists.
Barnes scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Leandro Barbosa made a big impact off the bench as well, scoring 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
The Cavs bench was outscored 45-10 by Golden State. 5 of those Cavalier bench points came in garbage time when the game was out of reach.
Cleveland’s Big Three combined for 66 points.
Seven Warriors finished in double-figures scoring.
Game 2 is Sunday night at 8 PM in Oakland.
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