LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers had their hearts broken on Thursday. They came as close as they possibly could to upsetting the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena, but a bunch of strange things -- a reversed charging call, George Hill's missed free throw and the worst decision of J.R. Smith's career -- happened, and the defending champs dominated them in overtime.
James played the finest game of this postseason, which is really saying something. On Saturday, he called it "one of the toughest losses I've had in my career." Now, the challenge is to move on and try to put themselves in a similar position at the end of Game 2, rather than acting as if something was taken away from them.
"You don't want to think about it," Hill said. "You have to forget about it. It's gone. There is nothing we can do about it now. Unless someone has a time chamber, I'm sure they'd let us in there so we can go back and maybe I'd hit my free throw, if you guys have a time chamber or something. Other than that, I have to forget about it."
There is a line of thinking that Cleveland blew its best chance when the Warriors were uncomfortable, and that its margin for error is so thin that this will be insurmountable. That's understandable, given the talent on the opposing end of the floor, but Golden State coach Steve Kerr reminded the assembled media that some of them declared the dramatic, seven-game Western Conference finals over after his team took a 1-0 lead. It is easy to overreact to series openers.
From the Cavs' perspective, Sunday's game is an opportunity to change the feel of the Finals. Here are a few reasons they should be confident:
1. LeBron makes everybody feel warm and fuzzy
You can walk with a pep in your step when you know the best player in the world is alongside you. James has seen too much to let Game 1 affect the way he attacks Game 2, and there is no indication that the Warriors have any good answers for him.
"It's like the ultimate security blanket," Cleveland big man Larry Nance Jr. said. "You know night in and night out he's going to bring it -- and I mean, really bring it. Fifty-one points in Game 1, and you just kind of get the feeling that he's just getting started."
Let's say that Hill and Smith have yet to forgive themselves for their mistakes. They know that James will continue to create open shots for them and trust them enough to pass them the ball. They also know that James will shoulder most of the load offensively and simplify the game for everybody else.
This is the biggest reason why the Cavs should be able to remain calm. If is as if they have a superhero on their side.
"There is just so much confidence in that player amongst the group," Kerr said. "That's how it was with Michael [Jordan]. If we lost a game, you go back to the hotel, you're upset and then you go, 'Oh, yeah, we've got Michael. We're going to win Game 2.' That's the kind of confidence he inspired in the group. Then, the way he carried himself, it was the same way. Like, 'We've got this,' you know? It's a huge asset to have guys with that kind of confidence. We've got that on our team. I know they've got it with LeBron. And that's why we're both in the Finals."
2. Injury luck could be on Cleveland's side
Andre Iguodala, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP, missed Game 1 because of a knee contusion and bone bruise, and he is still listed as doubtful for Game 2. Klay Thompson suffered a high left ankle sprain in Game 1, and, while he was able to play 45 minutes and score 24 points, he did not seem especially pleased with the state of the injury on Saturday.
"Once you stop playing and you slow down and you're not out there with the adrenaline, it's naturally going to swell up a little bit," Klay Thompson said. "If you don't move as much as you were, it's going to stiffen up. So just got to keep it loose at this point."
Thompson said that, if the next game had been scheduled for Saturday night, he didn't know if he'd be able to play and he was "happy that's not the case." He said he would do everything he could to play Sunday and was claimed to be optimistic about it, but it sounded as if there is a decent possibility that the Cavs could catch a break.
The Warriors are not a deep team, especially on the wing, and being down two-fifths of the Hamptons 5 would present a problem for Kerr. Shaun Livingston can probably handle much more playing time than the 18 minutes he saw in the opener, but it's possible that Nick Young and Patrick McCaw could see more minutes, too. I don't need to explain to you, dear reader, the difference between those guys and the Thompson-Iguodala duo.
3. Game 1 was mostly encouraging
For those of us who thought Cleveland would have trouble just keeping it close in this matchup, Thursday was a bit of a shock to the system. The Warriors barely turned the ball over, the Cavs missed a ton of wide-open 3-pointers and the game still went to overtime. Nance said that the loss "actually gave us some confidence," as they showed that "we can hang with them, and we can hang with them in this building."
"I expect us to come and play with the same grit that we had in Game 1," James said. "And we made a lot of mistakes in Game 1. I expect us to be better."
I would quibble with the assertion that Cleveland made a lot of mistakes. There were some miscommunications on switches, especially in the first half, but aside from the obvious blunders -- including Smith leaving Stephen Curry open for a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the first half -- the Cavs were sharp. While they had some issues in transition defense, they made up for it by dominating the glass. Tristan Thompson and Nance provided the energy that Cleveland counts on. Kevin Love owned his space, as coach Tyronn Lue likes to say. Jeff Green competed defensively and George Hill did better than you'd think against Kevin Durant on switches. Kyle Korver had Golden State's attention, even if he only got three shots up.
The Cavs have to be telling themselves that they are capable of playing with the same intensity in Game 2 and tightening things up a bit. James is certainly capable of another superb performance, and his teammates are capable of making more of the open shots he creates. The Warriors could be better in the second game, too, but if Cleveland plays with discipline, this could be much more interesting than a lot of us predicted.
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