Warriors take Game 1 from Cavaliers 104-89

OAKLAND - In the couple days leading up to the NBA Finals, we all wondered aloud whether Stephen Curry was back in MVP form, and whether his fellow shooting star, Klay Thompson, would continue his postseason hot streak. Or would the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love be too much for the defending champions?

As it turns out, we were asking the wrong questions.

All of those marquee athletes struggled to varying degrees on Thursday night at Oracle Arena, making Game 1 of the finals a battle of the benches. And that was no competition at all. The Warriors reserves outscored the Cavaliers reserves 45-10, turning a tight game into a runaway and powering Golden State to a 104-89 victory.

“Don’t matter what you do with Steph and Klay, don’t matter what you do with Draymond (Green),” James said afterward. “Give up 45 points off the bench and 25 points off turnovers on the road, it’s not a good ingredient to win.”

The Warriors played 11 guys before halftime, and some of them wound up being the difference makers. In particular, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa had nights to remember.

Livingston, the backup point guard, hit 8 of 10 shots and finished with a career postseason-high and team-high 20 points, wrecking Cleveland with his mid-range jumper. James suggested Livingston should get the game ball.

“He’s a very smart player, so he knows how to get behind a defense and find openings,” Green said of Livingston. “And all that stuff helps his team out, and him stepping up the way he did tonight was huge for us.”

Iguodala, meanwhile, was the defensive stopper we have come to expect. He had started Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals instead of Harrison Barnes, but the veteran came off the bench again against the Cavaliers. When he did, he immediately went to work on James. He also spent some time on Irving, the point guard. At one point in the third quarter, Iguodala stripped each of those guys on consecutive trips down the court.

He also posted 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

“Andre Iguodala is a brilliant basketball player,” Kerr said. “He doesn’t get enough credit. … I think Bob Fitzgerald, our TV guy, calls Andre the adult in the room for us. He is the adult in the room. He always settles us down, and he knows exactly what’s happening out there.”

And there was Barbosa, the 33-year-old Brazilian who shows he has a little Blur left in him. He came off the bench to start the second quarter and looked like he had borrowed Russell Westbrook’s legs. Barbosa banked a crazy runner over Matthew Dellavedova to put Golden State up 30-24 and forced a Cleveland timeout a moment later with a driving layup.

Barbosa’s 3-pointer from the right corner pushed the Warriors’ lead to 39-28. He worked so hard that he tweaked his back and went to the locker room for treatment, though he returned to the game later and finished with 11 points in 12 minutes.

The key moment began late in the third quarter. The Warriors went into the second half with a 52-43 advantage, and proceeded to fritter it away with missed shots and turnovers. By the 3:57 mark, the Cavs had taken the lead 64-63 on a Kevin Love putback. Finally, after some back and forth, Curry gained some breathing room with a floating bank shot to put Golden State up 71-68.

Then Dellavedova made the mistake of getting Iguodala angry. Trying to strip the ball from behind, the Aussie guard instead smacked Iguodala in the private parts; the two men went nose to nose and had to be separated. Eight seconds later, Iguodala drained a 3-pointer.

With their lead at 74-68, the Warriors picked up where they left off and started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run. Iguodala, Livingston and Barbosa scored all eight points during that game-sealing burst.

All of it was needed, because Curry and Thompson had a hard time finding their strokes Thursday. Curry, the two-time NBA most valuable player, scored 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Thompson, the hero of the OKC series, scored just nine, going 4 of 12 and rekindling memories of his struggles against Cleveland in the 2015 finals.

“I missed some shots and didn’t get a rhythm, but the way that they defended, we’ll be able to find some adjustments for Game 2,” Curry said. “Not worried about that.”

James, as usual, was a bear to defend early in the game. The Warriors put Barnes on him, then Iguodala. Both had their struggles, and James had a game-high eight points in the first quarter. But he slowed down, partly due to Iguodala’s tighter defense. James went scoreless in the second despite playing the entire quarter, and didn’t take a shot over the final 9:17 before halftime. He finished with 23 points.

Irving had a game-high 26 but was just 7 of 22 from the field. Love had 17 points and 13 rebounds. Cleveland just wasn’t deep enough to stick with the Warriors.

Lest the Warriors celebrate their Game 1 win too joyously, though, they might recall that they won the opener in last year’s finals, too, then dropped back-to-back games to the Cavaliers to fall behind 2-1.

“We have that memory in our mind,” Kerr said. “We’ve been through this now, and we understand you can’t let up ever. Sunday is obviously a huge game. We’d like to go take care of business and get out on the road with a 2-0 lead.”

If they do, the Warriors will have their backups to thank for at least half of that lead.