Normally when the Golden State Warriors beat down teams, it's because of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. For the most part, Curry and Thompson - especially of late - have just been too much for the oppositon handle.
Tonight in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, that wasn't the case. In a 104-89 loss to the Warriors, the Cleveland were done in by Golden State's bench. Led by Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and Leonardo Barbosa, the Warriors' bench outscored Cleveland's 45-10. Meanwhile, Curry and Thompson combined for just 20 points on 8-27 shooting.
Livingston led the Warriors with 20 points, while Draymond Green added 16. Kyrie Irving led the Cavs with 26 points, while LeBron James finished with 23 points while finishing one assist shy of a triple-double.
In the first quarter, the Cavs led in the opening moments before the Warriors took the lead for most of the period. After leading by as many as seven. A quick Cavs run, though, cut Golden State's lead down to four at the end of the one.
At the start of the second, with LeBron playing with an all-bench unit as normal, the Warriors bumped their lead up to eight then led by 10 with 7:18 left to play in the period. From there, with the Tyronn Lue playing different lineups than he normally has to date, the Cavs struggled to cut into the Warriors' lead. At the half, Golden State led Cleveland 52-43 with the Cavs shooting 35.7 percent from the field.
In the third, the Cavs had their best chance to take control of the game. They started off the third by going on a 7-0 and cut the lead down to one with 4:27 left to play. About a minute later, a Kevin Love putback gave Cleveland their first lead since the opening moments after they'd trailed by as many as 14. Golden State, however, finished the quarter on a 5-0 run to take a six point lead heading into the fourth.
From there, Golden State's bench took over. A quick 4-0 run the Warriors with Curry and Thompson on the bench prompted Lue to take a timeout just 50 seconds into the fourth and by 10:50, the Warriors' lead was back up to 12 after Livingston hit a jumper. At one point, Golden State scored 15 straight points between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth.
The Cavs did come back and cut it to as little as nine with some time left to mount one final comeback. But inevitably, Thompson and Curry finally came alive and hit back-to-back threes to give the Warriors a 17 point lead with 2:24 to play.
Game 2 between the Cavs and Warriors in on Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.