Promise and Disappointment: Game 1 of the NBA Finals

It was supposed to be a blow out. An easy NBA Finals series similar to the last one we watched just last year. The Warriors have all the historic numbers in their favor, have the current MVP, played the aesthetically pleasing five-man offense and wore the share-the-ball trend better than any other team this season.

Yeah, the Warriors won, but sometimes it didn’t look like they would. In a 108-100 overtime win, LeBron James went full LeBron and Golden State came out with some nerves or whatever you want to call missing a bunch of open shots in the first quarter.

In what seemed like an easy series to predict, the first game was a nail biter.

[Stefon voice]

“This game had everything. A four-time MVP who has been to five-straight Finals. The current MVP. The Splash Brothers. A Russian center. Steve Kerr. A defensive player of the year runner up who looks like Donkey from “Shrek.” Oh, and, it almost had a landing pad game-winner.”

“What’s a landing pad game-winner?”

“It’s that thing, where Iman Shumpert and his flat top that looks like a landing pad for a helicopter takes a shot in the last few seconds of regulation that could win the game but misses so instead the game goes into overtime.”

Those Splash Brothers? Steph Curry had 26 points and Klay Thompson had 21. Golden State’s bench outscored Cleveland’s 34-9 (and all nine of Cleveland’s bench points came from J.R. Smith). Andre Iguodala played as good of defense as you can on LeBron if you’re not named Kawhi Leonard, and Harrison Barnes went 3-of-5 from 3-point range. It ended up being the team effort we expected from the Warriors.

But there was LeBron, doing LeBron things. 18-of-38, eight rebounds and six assists with a usage rate of over 9,000.

He, and a springy Kyrie Irving (23 points, six assists, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks–including this one on Curry that staved off the eventual Dubs victory) kept the Cavs in it. Irving, even on hobbled knees and ankles and all sorts of other things, was a far cry from the Larry Hughes that LeBron dragged to the Finals during his first stint with the Cavs.

Despite all the numbers we in the blogosphere love to burry our heads in, LeBron was putting the team on his back with adequate help from his young point guard. Make no mistake about it, the Cavs could have won this game. This one was a toss up.

Then, Kyrie left the game in overtime after falling on the floor in pain. He asked out of the game and limped off the court–a sight that might have been the final blow to the Cavaliers in what was a young and promising series.

Despite the entertainment value, the sheer drama of this Game 1, Kyrie’s injury was the b**ch that killed the vibe. We’ll await news on the severity of his aggravated injury after he goes through an MRI, but already it doesn’t look promising.

This Game 1 was something special, but it could be all downhill from here. Now, we might get the series we originally expected.