Hooley: Well, that was ugly

LeBron had too many turnovers, but otherwise he was fine. The same can't be said of much else in Cavs Land

Breaking down Game 1 of the NBA Finals can cause a breakdown if you're a Cavs fan.

Sure, the Cavs can tighten up more than few things:

# Don't allow eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

# Don't give the Warriors 42 points in the paint in the first half or 56 for the game.

# Don't hand Golden State 20 turnovers to fuel its fast break.

But the most sobering part of Cleveland's 113-91 loss in Game 1 at Oracle is that the Warriors can also play much, much better than they did in winning easily.

If you knew ahead of tipoff that Klay Thompson would shoot 3-of-16, Draymond Green would go 3-of-12, the Warriors would convert only 43% of their shots and that despite Kevin Durant's 38 points and Steph Curry's 28, Golden State would shoot just 12-of-33 from beyond the arc, you'd have surmised the Cavs would steal Game 1.

But they did not. And they did not come close.

The reasons why are many.

Yes, Cleveland must devise a way to defend the Durant-screening-for-Curry action on offense, which left J.R. Smith or Kyrie Irving helpless against KD way too often.

Figuring that out may be easier than determing how to get something out of an aging, limited bench that gave the Cavs virtually nothing in the Series opener.

Zero points from Kyle Korver in 20 minutes? Deron Williams, also going scoreless in 19 minutes? Iman Shumpert going 2-of-6 from the field? Derrick Williams getting only garbage time minutes?

All of that has to change for the Cavs to win this series, or even make it competitive.

Game 2 tips off at 8 p.m. Sunday on 1057 The Zone.


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