Cavs vow to make adjustments in Game 2, but Warriors plan to be prepared

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OAKLAND -- With the Warriors running away with Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, Cleveland is vowing to make a few changes, specifically regarding hustle and muscle.

The muscle aspect is self-explanatory; the Cavs say will be more physical. The hustle is being emphasized because they realize it’s imperative to do a better job of defending the Warriors’ transition game, which destroyed them in Game 1.

“That's what stuck out in film the past two days was that we have to be able to stop the ball,” Cleveland forward Kevin Love said Saturday.

“We have to stop the ball,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “That's the most important thing.”

If the Cavs are able to keep this pledge in Game 2 on Sunday, the series should become more competitive.

It will, however, be difficult to follow through.

The Warriors, mostly Kevin Durant, were effective in Game 1 by sprinting down the middle of the court in transition to a basket left unprotected because Cleveland defenders were spreading out to the sides to prevent open 3-point attempts by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

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The Warriors outscored the Cavs 27-9 in transition points and 56-30 in paint points.

“I'm pretty sure that won't happen tomorrow,” Durant said. “They will be way more physical.”

Acting head coach Mike Brown also expects to see much better transition defense from Cleveland.

“They're going to do a better job of stopping the ball and getting out to our shooters,” he said.

“But the biggest thing, and they even said it, they're going to try to amp up the physicality of the game. They're going to grab a little bit more and try to knock us off our routes and do what they can to disrupt whatever we try to do offensively.

Curry and Thompson aren’t going anywhere, though, and they will continue to be long-range threats. If Durant --or Draymond Green -- is able to grab-and-go in transition, both guards will continue to run the wings and become live threats on the break.

The goal for the Cavs will be to get to the ball first and then, if possible, hustle out to defend the arc. But trying to guard both the bucket and the arc creates a dilemma.

The Cavs will have to make some tough choices.

“You need to be more aggressive, and you need to have a better attitude; if it were that easy, we would all do it,” LeBron James said. “It's not that simple, especially when you're going against such a well-oiled machine in Golden State.”

Whatever the Cavs bring in the way of adjustments, Warriors guard Stephen Curry says they’ll be prepared:

“If we can kind of carbon-copy what we did Game 1, maybe finish better in the paint when we had opportunities, to finish possessions on the offensive end, and do a great job rebounding the basketball off of their misses and turn that into transition opportunities for us, we should be in pretty good shape.”

 

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