Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for only 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, and yet the Golden State Warriors rolled the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-89 just the same. When something like that happens, there are obvious reasons: Golden State?s bench played out of its mind, and Cleveland?s offense fell in a hole. Those things will probably even out as the series goes on, but the Cavs should be more concerned that, on a night when the Warriors? biggest guns went quiet, the holes in their defense were already glaring.
Coming into the series, the basic bargain of this season?s Cavaliers compared to last year?s was an improved offense producing enough to cover for an inferior defense. The Cavs? shots didn?t fall in Game 1 as often as they normally do, and a lot of the shots that went in for the Warriors? bench were absurdities ? Leandro Barbosa fading away to his weak-hand baseline isn?t on the scouting report. But Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, the two Cleveland stars playing in this series who combined to miss all but one game of last season?s Finals, were worked over exactly as expected.
On 18 shot attempts in which Irving was the nearest defender, the Warriors had an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 66.7, according to data from the NBA?s player-tracking cameras. On the 13 shots in which Love was the nearest defender, the Warriors had an eFG% of 61.5. Both of those numbers are very bad. There?s some margin for error on these plays ? for instance, the cameras will sometimes assign a ?nearest defender? who is guarding a different offensive player because the shooter?s defender was so badly lost ? but the underlying plays looked just as terrible.
rest here....https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kevin-love-and-kyrie-irving-got-eaten-up-against-the-warriors/
Coming into the series, the basic bargain of this season?s Cavaliers compared to last year?s was an improved offense producing enough to cover for an inferior defense. The Cavs? shots didn?t fall in Game 1 as often as they normally do, and a lot of the shots that went in for the Warriors? bench were absurdities ? Leandro Barbosa fading away to his weak-hand baseline isn?t on the scouting report. But Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, the two Cleveland stars playing in this series who combined to miss all but one game of last season?s Finals, were worked over exactly as expected.
On 18 shot attempts in which Irving was the nearest defender, the Warriors had an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 66.7, according to data from the NBA?s player-tracking cameras. On the 13 shots in which Love was the nearest defender, the Warriors had an eFG% of 61.5. Both of those numbers are very bad. There?s some margin for error on these plays ? for instance, the cameras will sometimes assign a ?nearest defender? who is guarding a different offensive player because the shooter?s defender was so badly lost ? but the underlying plays looked just as terrible.
rest here....https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kevin-love-and-kyrie-irving-got-eaten-up-against-the-warriors/
