The Daily Dose: Dose: Andre 3,000

There are a lot of things you can do in eight days. You can celebrate Hanukkah, you can watch about 77 basketball games without fast forwarding the DVR, or you could have just waited for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Well, our eight-day wait was over on Thursday and it was totally worth it.

The Warriors had a team effort in their overtime 108-100 triumph over the Cavs at home. All week long we all heard about how it was the better team against LeBron James, and clearly the better team had the upper hand. They finished the game on a 10-2 run and their depth was a big advantage all night.

Sadly, the big news from this game is Kyrie Irving suffering a left knee injury in overtime. He did not return and had to leave the arena on crutches. The Cavs will give him an MRI today and will have a prognosis following that exam. He said his knee never felt like this before and he didn’t limp quite as much back when he suffered the knee injury against the Hawks. Irving played a whopping 43 minutes, scoring 23 points with seven rebounds, six assists, four steals, two blocks and two 3-pointers.

Kyrie was amazing up until the injury. He played great defense and successfully kept Stephen Curry from getting open looks. He also had a huge block against Curry on Golden State’s last possession in regulation. As much as Kyrie has been maligned for his defensive lapses, he was very good out there tonight. The Cavs are in trouble big time. Also, all the morning shows will be blasting the Cavs for playing Kyrie so much. But seriously, if he didn’t hurt himself late, he would’ve been a hero. It wasn’t all LeBron because Kyrie was a superstar.

Speaking of LeBron, he got his in the loss, scoring a Finals career-high 44 points with eight rebounds, six assists, four turnovers and two 3-pointers. He made 18-of-38 from the field for the most field goal attempts he’s ever had in a playoff or regular season game. LeBron posted up a ton in this game and he went to his jump shot in the lane quite a bit. The Warriors didn’t bring early doubles against LeBron and it kind of worked out. Yes, he dropped 44 points, but he had just a 51.7 true shooting percentage. As a reference point, LeBron had an average 62.2 true shooting percentage over the last four regular seasons, so he wasn’t anywhere close to his normal efficiency. His usage rate was a whopping 45.3 in this game despite having just four turnovers. Here’s what his shot chart looked like:

The Warriors will take this kind of shot chart all day. He only had four shots at the rim, which is by far where he’s most deadly. The Warriors really kept him from driving and kept him in the 5-15 feet area of the court. Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green all did solid jobs on him. LeBron was able to back down Andre and Barnes, but needless to say keeping him away from the rim is a job well done.

Taking it a step further, here is a look at LeBron’s shot types.

Yeah, 30 jumpers is not a good thing. You’ve heard it 100 times: LeBron is easier to stop when you make him a jump shooter. The two other things of note here are LeBron not getting any dunks and he also had a few drives. The Hawks and Bulls both would cover LeBron higher in isolation and try to force him left more, but it didn’t matter. He basically muscled his way through their coverage. He’ll have to figure out get a head of steam going to the basket.

Looking ahead, he’s going to have to be even busier. When Kyrie and Kevin Love are on the bench, LeBron has a usage rate of 49.4 — enough to make Russell Westbrook blush. Expect his time of possession to be so high he’ll have to take a drug test. Seriously, ‘Bron is going to need either a 50-point game or a 35-point, 18-dime game to get a win sans Kyrie.

The Cavs got a lot out of Tristan Thompson (two points, 15 boards, one assist and one block) and Timofey Mozgov (16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one block in 33 minutes). The 33 minutes from Mozzy were a big surprise because he hasn’t logged over 30 minutes in consecutive games since Jan. 21. The rest factor could have helped, but Mozgov really earned his minutes. He wasn’t great on the rim protection and he was actually better on offense. While the Warriors focused on LeBron, Mozzy was able to get some great offensive looks. As for the defense, the Warriors do get their share of shots at the rim, but the way they do it isn’t like what the Cavs have seen. As for Thompson, he was doing his thing crashing the boards, but he was negated elsewhere. While his six offensive boards were big, the Cavs somehow were just 1-of-11 from the field on their second-chance shots. That hurts.

The Warriors told J.R. Smith to pipe down on Thursday. He made just 3-of-13 from the field for nine points in 34 minutes. Smith was hot to start with a couple makes, but the Cavs didn’t really go back to him and that may have messed with him. He actually didn’t score at all after halftime. If Kyrie is going to be out, Smith is going to need to score 20-30 points to help LeBron. Expect him to get more shots than anyone else not named LeBron. Iman Shumpert just missed a buzzer beater at the end of regulation, finishing with six points, two rebounds, four steals and two 3-pointers. He’s probably going to have to guard Stephen Curry a lot more.

Matthew Dellavedova is going to have to play a lot more. He played just nine minutes on Thursday, but didn’t take a single shot. He’s seen his usage rate rise to 17 before tonight in the postseason, so he’s clearly been more involved. He’ll probably be a catch-and-shoot option to help give LeBron space. On the defensive side, Delly’s off-ball defense is really going to tested. He hasn’t faced anyone remotely close to Curry and he might be better on Klay Thompson. For what it’s worth, Bradley Beal said Delly is one of the toughest defenders he’s ever faced.

Hey so how about the winners? Andre Iguodala was the MVP of the night. He did a fine job on LeBron, putting up a stat line of 15 points with three rebounds, two assists, one steal, one block and two 3-pointers on 6-of-8 from the field in 32 minutes. That’s a marvelous efficiency and he more than doubled his points per game from the Houston series (7.0).

As mentioned, his defense was the key. To be able to keep LeBron away from the restricted area without the use of double-teams is huge. Even with Irving now hurt, the Warriors may be inclined to double LeBron a little later in the plays. Although, playing him straight up held their team defense together. Obviously, it’s hard to expect Iggy to have a repeat performance, but it’s safe to say the Warriors would have lost tonight without Iggy playing this well.

The Warriors didn’t get MVP Stephen Curry or third-team All-NBA Klay Thompson — a testament to how valuable Iggy was. Curry made 10-of-20 from the field for 26 points with four rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two 3-pointers. He only had six attempts from deep, which is the fewest he’s had in any playoff game this year. The Cavs made it abundantly clear they didn’t want to get beat with treys, so Curry took his game to more of a mid-range type. The Cavs being aggressive around the arc really caused a lot of breakdowns, so they might not want to be so obvious about their coverage next time. That said, Curry only having a 55.0 effective field goal percentage (eFG%) isn’t terrible. He had a 64.9 eFG% against the Rockets, by the way.

Klay Thompson played 39 minutes and his concussion didn’t seem to be a problem. Thompson didn’t shoot the ball well, making 5-of-14 from the field for 21 points with six rebounds, one assist, one steal and three 3-pointers. He looked like himself and he had a lot of open looks. They just didn’t go down. Shooting guard is the most inconsistent position when it comes to efficiency, so Klay gets a pass. Still, he could use a 30-point game to give him more buzz. That said, he has a very good 57.0 true shooting percentage in the postseason.

Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green didn’t have big impacts on the stat sheet, but they were great as the back line of defense. Stepping up when LeBron James attacks is usually the proper call and the two bigs seemed to be all over that. These two are by far the toughest PF-C defensive combo the Cavs faced. Green put up a line of 12 points, six boards, three assists, two steals and one turnover while Bogut had four points, seven rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks. Bogut was huge to start the game and help set the tone for their defense. Harrison Barnes also had some nice stints, finishing with 11 points, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and three 3-pointers. Marreese Speights also returned, provided a nice spark in the first half and scored eight points in nine minutes.

A lot will change if Kyrie is somehow healthy enought to play, but the Warriors have to like their chances for a title. We’ll see what happens on Sunday!

Taking it a step further, here is a look at LeBron’s shot types.

A lot will change if Kyrie is somehow healthy enought to play, but the Warriors have to like their chances for a title. We’ll see what happens on Sunday!

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