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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
DJ Gallo and Arielle Retting at Oracle Arena

NBA finals Game 1: Cleveland Cavaliers 91-113 Golden State Warriors – as it happened

Draymond Green reflects the Warriors’ mood for the evening
Draymond Green reflects the Warriors’ mood for the evening. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Thank you for following along with the liveblog of Game 1. Check for more coverage on The Guardian tomorrow and we’ll be back with another liveblog of Game 2 on Sunday night. In the meantime, here’s Arielle Retting’s game report:

Updated

Some positives for Cleveland: they matched Golden State from long-range and had the rebounding edge. That’s encouraging. And surely they can’t finish with zero steals again in Game 2 to Golden State’s 12 or lose the turnover battle 20-4. The Cavs can play better.

But so can the Warriors. Golden State looked every bit like the heavy favorite in Game 1.

The Warriors are now 13-0 in the postseason, with 11 of those wins coming by double-digits.

Kevin Durant led all scorers with 38 points tonight. He also had 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Not too bad for the new guy.

It’s true that Cleveland also lost big in Game 1 (and Game 2) of the Finals last year. But that may be apples and oranges. Last year’s Golden State team didn’t have Kevin Durant on it.

Final score: Warriors 113-91 Cavaliers

Golden State opens these much-anticipated NBA Finals with a blowout, 22-point victory. These teams will meet again on Sunday night for Game 2.

Warriors 113-89 Cavaliers, 1:11 4th quarter

Matt Barnes just hit a three for Golden State. This is just getting cruel now.

Warriors 108-84 Cavaliers, 3:28 4th quarter

There’s another three by Durant. Yikes.

And here is the highlight of the night for Cleveland:

Warriors 105-84 Cavaliers, 4:09 4th quarter

And there it is. Durant hits a three -- giving him 35 points on the night -- and we have a timeout. Game over.

Warriors 102-84 Cavaliers, 5:00 4th quarter

A Kyrie Irving runner gets it to 18 points. This is kind of the game. A bucket or two by Golden State will clear he bench.

Cleveland needs more superstars.

Warriors 100-80 Cavaliers, 6:07 4th quarter

We’ve reached the point of the game where the Cavaliers look like they’re kind of just playing it out. LeBron is still in the game, though, so miracles could still happen.

Warriors 96-76 Cavaliers, 8:35 4th quarter

Not to panic Cleveland fans any more than they already may be due to tonight, but the Warriors are up 20 points and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are a combined 5-for-24 from the floor.

Warriors 96-74 Cavaliers, 9:35 4th quarter

So much for the quick early run to open the 4th quarter. There’s another turnover for the Cavs. They now have 17 to Golden State’s 4.

Hey, Ross. Not cool!

But I guess there aren’t blowouts in spelling bees, huh?

End of the 3rd quarter: Warriors 93-72 Cavaliers

Draymond Green and Kyrie Irving trade threes to close out the quarter. Look for the Cavaliers to make one push at the start of the 4th quarter and then rest LeBron if they don’t chip into deficit much.

Not to toot my own horn -- I don’t even own a horn! -- but in The Guardian roundtable previewing the NBA Finals, I said the Warriors would win if they made shots.

Make shots. The story of the Warriors losing their 3-1 lead in the finals last year was that their field goal percentage dropped from 46.7% in the first four games of the series to 38.7% in the final three games. Undoubtedly that had a lot to do with Cleveland’s defense and LeBron James using his lightning-speed superpower to execute chase-down blocks. But the Warriors also missed open looks. If that changes, so will the outcome of the series. DG

On the other hand, my “bold prediction” was that Kevin Durant wouldn’t play well. So just ignore me.

Warriors 87-68 Cavaliers, 1:46 3rd quarter

Durant now has 30 points and Curry is up to 26 on his sixth three-pointer.

Warriors 80-68 Cavaliers, 3:00 3rd quarter

Richard Jefferson has a bucket off the bench and is at 6 points for the night. He will be playing in the NBA long after we’re all gone.

Updated

Warriors 80-62 Cavaliers, 4:30 3rd quarter

Klay Thompson hit a jumper. He’s now 3-for-13 on the night. If you’re playing a game tonight where you take a shot when Klay Thompson hits a shot ... you’re still not really all that drunk.

Warriors 78-60 Cavaliers, 5:50 3rd quarter

There’s another Curry three. He’s got 23 points and is 5-for-9 from three.

Warriors 75-60 Cavaliers, 6:22 3rd quarter

LeBron gets his 24th point of the night on a dunk. He also has 15 rebounds. And the Warriors call a timeout. It seems they’re disappointed with this 15-point lead.

Warriors 73-58 Cavaliers, 7:17 3rd quarter.

Curry hit a three, then LeBron, then Kevin Love. Nine quick points.

Warriors 70-52 Cavaliers, 8:45 3rd quarter

Curry hits an open three on a great pass from Durant and Cleveland hopefully packed some white towels on their trip to Oakland.

Warriors 67-52 Cavaliers, 9:59 3rd quarter

A jumper by Steph Curry leads to a Cleveland timeout. There’s a chance we’re about to have the 198th* blowout of these NBA playoffs.

*approximate figure

Warriors 65-52 Cavaliers, 10:53 3rd quarter

Zaza Pachulia gets a bucket inside and Cleveland follows with an offensive foul on J.R. Smith. This score could turn ugly fast if the Cavs don’t get things under control.

2nd half underway!

Cleveland turns the ball over on their first possession -- whoops! -- and Durant follow up with a three. So everything the Cavs wanted to stop in the second half happened in the first 15 seconds.

J.R. Smith is never not entertaining.

Klay Thompson is 2-for-10 in the game so far, dropping his postseason field goal percentage down even farther to 37.2%.

I feel like James Harden doesn’t get enough credit for not showing up when it matters.

Kevin Durant was the best player on the court in the first half with LeBron James a close second.

Both teams are fairly even in field goal percentage and rebounds so far, with the Cavs actually holding a big advantage in 3-point percentage. But the story on the stat sheet so far is turnovers. The Warriors only have one while the Cavs have 12. For all the talk about their offense, Golden State can also play good D.

Halftime: Warriors 60-52 Cavaliers

Kyle Korver missed an open three with a few seconds left in the half and the teams head to their locker rooms.

Warriors 60-52 Cavaliers, 0:39 2nd quarter

After LeBron hits two free throws, Durant gets one after finding himself one-on-one with Kyrie Irving and drawing a foul in the paint. Durant has 23; LeBron has 19.

Warriors 57-48 Cavaliers, 1:44 2nd quarter

Steph Curry takes Kevin Love to the basket for two points. That’s bit better than he did last year against him in Game 7, huh?

Here’s your clip of Kyrie’s 4-point play:

Warriors 55-45 Cavaliers, 3:15 2nd quarter

Another uncontested dunk for Kevin Durant in transition after a LeBron turnover. Durant has 20 already.

But it hasn’t been all bad for LeBron:

Warriors 49-43 Cavaliers, 4:33 2nd quarter

Well, that helps. Kyrie Irving gets the 4-point play and cuts the lead in half just like that.

Warriors 47-39, 5:20 1st quarter

The Warriors have their lead up to eight points on another bucket for Durant. He’s got 16 points. So much for him shrinking on the big stage.

Warriors 43-36, 6:22 2nd quarter

Durant with another monster dunk down the lane as both he and LeBron are back on the court. LeBron has 17 points and 8 boards on the night.

Kyrie Irving has 9 points on 4-of-9 shooting, but Klay Thompson has kept him close all night so far.

They need to let Javale McGee shoot threes to see if he can break this.

Warriors 41-34 Cavaliers, 8:40 2nd quarter

Kevin Durant is also taking a breather for the Warriors after the stars went all-out in the first quarter. This will give us a good look at how these teams’ retooled benches match up.

Warriors 39-32 Cavaliers, 9:34 2nd quarter

Golden State has their biggest lead of the night after Ian Clark hits two free throws. LeBron James is now exiting the game for the first time tonight.

Here’s a remarkable shot of the opening tip. It looks like it’s part of a photo shoot.

End of the 1st quarter: Warriors 35-30 Cavaliers

LeBron leads all scorers with 13 points. Durant has 10 points and 5 assists and Curry suddenly has 10.

And here’s Javale McGee:

Warriors 30-26 Cavaliers, 1:06 1st quarter

Javale McGee doing work on the boards leads to another Curry three. He has 4 points, 5 boards, a block and an assist so far in 4 minutes.

Warriors 27-24 Cavaliers, 1:55 1st quarter

Curry nails a long three to give the Warriors the lead. And here’s Durant’s baseline dunk after driving by LeBron:

Warriors 24-24 Cavaliers, 2:30 1st quarter

We have a media timeout, so let’s update you on the scoring leaders: LeBron has 11 and Durant has 10. Draymond Green and Tristan Thompson are scoreless, while Steph Curry has 2.

Warriors 22-22 Cavaliers, 3:03 1st quarter

Durant went by James again and then dished it to Javale McGee for an easy dunk. But LeBron responded with a three to tie the game back up.

Warriors 20-17 Cavaliers, 4:15 1st quarter

Durant now to 10 points after he drives by LeBron along the baseline for a monster dunk.

Warriors 18-17 Cavaliers, 4:44 1st quarter

I wrote early in the liveblog that Durant getting off to a good start would be huge for taking the pressure off of him and the Warriors. After a dunk down the line, he’s already got 8 points.

Cavaliers 16-14 Warriors, 5:33 1st quarter

Durant hits a long jumper to give him 6 points on the night. Kevin Love follows that up with his second airball of the night, but he leads the Cavs so far with 5 points.

Cavaliers 12-12 Warriors, 6:43 1st quarter

Cleveland is having success targeting Steph Curry on the pick-and-roll, same as they did last year. Golden State hasn’t quite figured that out yet.

But they won’t need to if Zaza Pachulia is now the best player in basketball. He’s got 6 points and 3 rebounds so far, on pace for 48 points and 24 rebounds for the game. G.O.A.T.

Cavaliers 10-8 Warriors, 7:46 1st quarter

Arielle says that the bracelets the fans are wearing lit up when Durant dunked on Golden State’s last possession.

Cavaliers 5-5 Warriors, 8:57 1st quarter

Zaza Pachulia has passed up a few easy shots so far and just now decided to shoot and missed an easy lay-in. Durant also missed a short shot, leading to Cleveland hitting LeBron in transition. He was fouled and hit 1-for-2 from the line.

Warriors 4-3 Cavaliers, 9:36 1st quarter

Kevin Durant is on the board after hitting a runner in the lane. He’s 1-for-1.

Warriors 0-0 Cavaliers, 10:30 1st quarter

Some early jitters. Kevin Love through up an airball and Klay Thompson missed an easy lay-in.

Tip off!

The Warriors control the tip and ... the NBA season has officially begun.

A reminder for those who always point out that the Warriors will win this year because last year they lost Draymond Green to suspension for Game 5 and then the whole series changed: the Cavaliers played the 2015 Finals without Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green.

We still don’t know for sure how these teams match up at 100-percent for a full series.

Perhaps a nice consolation to the loser of this series is this fact:

In my mind, LeBron’s legacy as the greatest player of his generation and one of the greatest players of all-time has long been secure, no matter what happens in this series.

Steph Curry and especially Kevin Durant are not yet in that level. And even with a win, some might refuse to give them much credit for being on what is essentially an All-Star team. But a ring is a ring.

As for the league, this specific series is huge for the NBA. Whether having only two legitimate contenders year after year is good for the league long-term is something we’ll continue to debate.

Hard to argue with the commissioner here. But if the Warriors would happen to win this series in four or five games, expect some noise about the league needing to prevent teams with that much talent from forming.

Steve Kerr won’t coach tonight. But it was a decision that was made very late in the day and one that Mike Brown oddly didn’t seem to know much about.

The new character added to Cavs-Warriors 3 is, of course, Kevin Durant. He will get a ton of attention from the Cavaliers and probably even more from the media. LeBron cemented his “legacy” last year by bringing a title to Cleveland, so that makes this year the Durant Legacy chapter of Cavs-Warriors.

Getting off to a good start in Game 1 will lessen the pressure on him and allow him to play more naturally. It would also likely spell doom for Cleveland’s hopes of repeating.

There’s a lot of basketball to talk about and we’ll get to that. But the pregame is a big part of the show in the NBA, so here’s a taste of that.

First we have JaVale McGee sporting an old-school Shaq hat on the way into Oracle Arena.

And here are Steph Curry’s new shoes that he is debuting tonight.

Feel free to call them the greatest or ugliest shoes ever. There can be no in between.

After 1,230 NBA regular season games and 74 more playoff games, we’ve finally reached what seemed inevitable all along: Cavaliers vs. Warriors for the 2017 NBA championship.

The playoffs so far haven’t been much of a showcase for the NBA, with little drama and a lot of blowouts along the way, but we’ll all quickly forgive and forget if this series lives up to the hype for the third time.

Thanks for following along with the liveblog. You can participate by tweeting me at @DJGalloEtc or e-mailing to dj.gallo.casual@guardian.co.uk. Here we go. Cavaliers-Warriors: Part 3.

The Cavaliers may be the defending champions, but head coach Tyronn Lue says it’ll be a tough battle.

“They’re a tough team to play, and we understand that.”

He also acknowledges that it’ll be a bigger challenge now that the Warriors have added Kevin Durant to their roster.

“Some of those things we did, we’re not going to be able to do that any more with Durant on the floor. ... They’re already a tough team to stop. We’re excited and we’re ready to go.”

Another finals, another free gold shirt, and the Warriors make their intentions clear with this one:

But wait – there’s a wristband! They’ll light up later.

Steve Kerr won't coach

Steve Kerr will not be coaching the Golden State Warriors tonight, acting coach Mike Brown confirmed at a pre-game press conference.

Kerr – who has been sidelined with a back injury – is in the arena and was meeting with Adam Silver.

“This team is the champion, and in order to take it we’re going to have to be at our best,” Brown said of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Updated

DJ will be here shortly, in the meantime here are our writers’ predictions for the series:

This year’s winner will be ...

Golden State Warriors, 4-2. Les Carpenter

Golden State, 4-2. DJ Gallo

Golden State, 4-3. (Note: this prediction is partly based on the fact that we need a dramatic seven-game finals just to salvage this utterly forgettable postseason). Hunter Felt

Golden State, 4-2. Bryan Graham

Golden State, 4-2 Arielle Retting

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