LeBron James led Cleveland with 44 points and Kyrie Irving added 23,but only Timofey Mozgov's 16 reached more than double digits among the remainder of the Cavaliers.
Game two will be Sunday back at Oakland's Oracle Arena...
Swashbucklings
1) The biggest news was the loss of Kyrie Irving to a knee injury that looked pretty bad as he left the arena on crutches,
That's too bad as the chances of winning this series decreased when Irving left the floor limping badly in the overtime.
Irving was 10 of 22 from the floor,but allowed the Cavaliers the one hope to vary from a LeBron-centric offense.
If Irving is finished for the playoffs (and it looked like that might be the case,at least for a while),
someone is going to have at least come close to the point guard's output and I'm not sure who that will be.
2) Yes,LeBron took 38 shots and yes,normally that's way too many for any one player-no matter the name,but he had to and more often than not,the Warriors had no response for James.
The problem is that because he had to do so much work,he clearly wore down later in the game and that looks to be the Golden State strategy-give James his points and realize he is going to have a lot of them,but try to make him tired in crunch time.
3) The play that may have decided this series came with under two minutes to go when Timofey Mozgov's solid footwork around three Warriors in the paint was not rewarded with two points,but with a traveling call.
Replays showed that Mozgov did not travel and those two points meant the difference in a Cleveland regulation win and a trip to overtime.
That trip to extra sessions led to the Kyrie Irving injury.
It's rare that you truly can circle one bad call as the reason for a lost game,let alone a lost series-you might be able to say that on this occasion.
4) The Cavaliers are going to need more from the bench period,but especially J.R.Smith,who shot an anemic 3 for 13 from the field.
Everyone has bad nights,but with the current situation on the roster-the Cavaliers cannot afford to have too many of those nights from Smith.
5) The difference between these teams is clearly the bench.
Now the Cavaliers missing Kevin Love and others contributes to that,but the Warriors can get quality minutes from 10 players.
Going into next season,the Cavaliers are going to have worry more about adding depth players and less about signing LeBron James's pals.
James Jones didn't score a point in 17 minutes and Shawn Marion along with Mike Miller can't even get off the bench to contribute anything...
6) Tristan Thompson grabbed 15 boards and Timofey Mozgov scored 16 points and eight rebounds,so the Cavaliers weren't totally unsuccessful inside the paint,but the Warriors outrebounded 48-45 and Cleveland is 0-3 in the playoffs when beaten around the rim.
Look for that in game two..
7) David Blatt must have concerns about Matthew Dellavedova's defense matching up against the Warriors as he played just nine minutes and didn't score.
The scrappy Australian doesn't appear to be able to stick with the Stephen Curry's and Klay Thompson's and this looks to be the time that I feared all season-no veteran backup at point guard to bind the Cavaliers through yet another Kyrie Irving injury.
8) I thought Timofey Mozgov needed to bully Andrew Bogut in this series and he did in game one.
Several monster dunks and a 16/8 line against a 4/7 for Bogut.
Win or lose,the trade for Mozgov earlier this year was the key in the Cleveland turnaround..
Back later with a cleaning of the inbox or a boxing challenge for the weekend.
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