NBA Finals Game Two: Cavaliers at Warriors

Cavs at Warriors
7:00 pm CDT
ABC

The story of game one was the excellent play of the Warriors bench, which helped them defeat the Cavaliers despite limited production from their star shooters. Warriors reserves Shaun Livingston (20), Leandro Barbossa (11) and Andre Iguodala (12) all scored in double figures while Cleveland's bench produced only a combined 10 points.

The Warriors defense also held the Cavs to 38% shooting overall, including 48% in the restricted area, where the Cavs average 64% shooting. They will have to be better around the rim if they want to turn things around tonight. They will also have to be more aggressive defensively and force Golden State into mistakes--turnovers are one of the Warriors few weaknesses, but they only committed nine in game one. They shoot the ball too well for that, and if the Cavs can't force more turnovers, they have little chance of outscoring the Warriors.

The Cavs need production from players outside of their big three, who accounted for 66 of their 89 points in game one (though none of them were particularly efficient). J.R. Smith scored only 3 points on 3 shot attempts in 36 minutes in game one, while Channing Frye was only on the floor for 7 minutes (2 points). They have relied on those guys to be floor spacers and to generate points from the arc all playoffs, and will need real contributions from them to compete in this series.

The Warriors will count on bigger nights from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson tonight in an attempt to take control of the series before it heads to Cleveland for games three and four.

Expected lineups

Cavs

Kyrie Irving
J.R. Smith
LeBron James
Kevin Love
Tristan Thompson

Warriors

Stephen Curry
Klay Thompson
Harrison Barnes
Draymond Green
Andrew Bogut

Enjoy the game. Chat here.