Game 1 of the NBA finals was hardly the best litmus test for this series. It was the Raptors’ first finals appearance in franchise history. Scotiabank Arena was going bonkers. Toronto played with some extra juice. The Warriors had 10 days off, fresh off a perfect sweep of the Blazers in the Western Conference finals. It’s their fifth straight trip to the NBA finals. Some of the sheen has inevitably waned; this is just what they do.
Golden State’s performance was slathered in rust and complacency. The devastating cutting, high tempo and genius-level passing, all came in fits and starts, but it didn’t sustain. There was always Curry launching a no-look pass into the first row to bail out any onslaught.
The two teams’ three-point percentages were near identical (Golden State’s 38.7% to Toronto’s 39.4%), as were the number of rebounds (38 to 36). The big difference came in turnovers. The Warriors had 10 turnovers in the first half alone, finishing the game with 17. Toronto finished with 10 total. In a game where the final scoring margin was less than double digits, it was the difference.
But turnovers have always been a part of the Warriors game as much as that beautiful, motion offense. Throughout their championship run they’ve ranked as a middling team in turnovers during the regular season – they finished 21st in the league this season with 14.3 turnovers per game. Those numbers balloon in the playoffs. Against better opponents, they don’t hone in, they’re just as audacious.
Basketball is a game of habits. And the Warriors habitually give their opponent extra possessions, as though they’re trying to make the thing an even contest. Curry is often the main culprit. He prances down the court with a prince’s swagger, surveying his land, knowing he can pull up from anywhere on the court and do just about anything. As much as his passing and movement are infectious, so to can be his bone-headed decision-making.
Yet Curry is good enough to overcome it. The rest of the team, sans the presently injured Kevin Durant, are not.
Toronto deserve a ton of credit for forcing bad decisions. They built a defensive wall, pushing up and pressing any ball-handler, particularly Curry, high up the court, as far away from their own basket as possible. They are big and they are long. Among the forest of arms, finding the right passing lanes can be tough.
General manager Masai Ujiri deserves credit, too. He constructed a team comprised of All-Defensive team caliber players: Kawhi Leonard is a former defensive player of the year; so is Marc Gasol; Danny Green, a throw-in in the blockbuster Leonard deal, has made an All-Defensive team; Pascal Siakam will make one in the next couple of the years; Serge Ibaka can help guard all five positions; Kyle Lowry is a moving fire hydrant who bumps and thuds will all the intensity of a running back bursting through the hole.
Monday night belonged to Siakam, though. He finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists, logging 40 minutes and playing spicy defense. Siakam has been, to be polite, up-and-down in the playoffs. Long, wiry, with decent twitch, a soft touch, and the ability to step out and shoot threes (he was 2-for-3 last night) he’s the prototype of a modern wing. But a lot of his regular-season excellence was based on effort. Everybody tries in the playoffs; effort isn’t such a special skill. How he plays was always going to be a good bellwether. In Game 1, he played like a burgeoning superstar.
Game 2 will be different. Once the Warriors get rolling, like really rolling, they can blow anyone off the floor. Their movement and rhythm forces teams to think rather than react. In the split-second it takes a defender to understand his job and what he should do, the Warriors have drained another three-pointer.
They will still be confident they can win the series, with or without Kevin Durant. Siakam won’t play like that again. Perhaps Danny Green’s shooting slump returns. We will better engage on defense, they’ll say – coach Steve Kerr bemoaned on ABC’s broadcast the open shots the Warriors gifted early in the game because of late, lazy rotations, another example of the team’s rust.
And it will probably be true. Nobody doubts the Warriors ability to barnstorm any opponent on the road. But there will be a different issue moving forward: Kawhi Leonard. The Raptors star finished Game 1 with 28 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Good, not great numbers. He was solid, if unspectacular – just the way he likes it. But he didn’t put the team on his back the way he has throughout the playoffs. He saw Siakam was rolling and moved out of his way.
Leonard nursed an injury in the last round and was bound to be feeling some level of fatigue (do machines suffer from lactic acid?) heading into this series given his workload on both ends of the floor. The fact he didn’t have to carry the offensive burden alone was a big plus. He was able to rest up on some possessions. The finals schedule itself will afford him extra rest.
Kawhi’s finals moment is coming. That the Raptors didn’t need it in Game 1 is a worrying sign for Golden State. If he delivers a one-man show in Game 2, the Raptors will only need two more wins from the next five games to clinch the title. Home court advantage means they will play two more games at home if needed.
Can the Warriors win four out of six games, with two on the road? Sure. Particularly if Durant is back at some point. But against this Raptors team with this defense and this star, it’s a monumental task. It sounds like hyperbole, but the outcome of this series will likely be determined by the result of Game 2.
