The Golden State Warriors took Game 1 of the NBA Finals 104-89 to take a 1-0 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday. It's just one game, and there's a lot of series left, but the Warriors have established themselves after Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson shot 8-of-27 and they still, for the most part, cruised. Here's a look at where the series stands after Game 1.

BIG PICTURE

BIG STORY OF GAME 1: The Warriors' subs were superb. Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston combined for 31 points on 13-of-15 shooting. Livingston feasted on the smaller guards assigned to him, finally free of the Thunder's length and athleticism. Barbosa.... just went crazy. Barbosa's performance is the kind of thing that makes you hang your head if you face the Warriors. You shut down Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and Leandro Barbosa goes ballistic? How does that work? Barbosa was hitting runners and tough shots and the Cavs just didn't have the firepower to counter that kind of unexpected production.

The Warriors' defense rediscovered itself. Very quietly this season, the Warriors weren't quite as good defensively. Even in the playoffs, they gave up higher levels of efficiency to teams like Houston and the Blazers, and then were really challenged on that end by Oklahoma City. They rose to the challenge as championship teams do, but a crack in their defensive facade seemed evident.

Then they brought the war hammer to the Cavs Thursday night.

The Warriors held Cleveland to a 93.9 offensive rating, which is 26 points worse per 100 possessions than their regular season mark.

There is a phrase players use to describe helping the helper most effectively, "playing on a string." You help a teammate, a teammate helps you on your guy, another teammate helps that guy, etc. There's a level that teams can get to in the playoffs, with the help of preparation and scouting, that enables teams to jump ahead of the ball and anticipate.

That's what the Warriors did.

Here Kyrie Irving passes up a good shot, but also pay attention to where Thompson is when the ball arrives in Kevin Love's hands. The Kyrie-Love skip pass was D.O.A.

The Cavaliers had just four secondary (or hockey) assists -- passes that lead to an assist-- compared to nine for the Warriors.

The Cavaliers made 25 3-pointers in their record-breaking performance vs. the Hawks in the second round. In Game 1, they attempted just 21. Despite the Warriors not getting hot from the perimeter, the Cavaliers couldn't make the 3-point line an advantage. Throw in how they defended at the rim, and you've got the Cavs' recipe for disaster, cooked up by the Warriors' chefs.

LeBron James had the worst 23-point near-triple-double you can have. That sounds crazy, I know, which is why I wrote a column on it. LeBron wasn't nearly as effective as his line would indicate. And Kyrie Irving, who led all scorers with 26? His numbers were similarly deceiving.

The Cavaliers had a good set of tactics to defend Klay Thompson and Steph Curry... and still lost. Ken Berger broke down how the Cavaliers set their defense to force the Warriors' role players to beat them, and Golden State did just that. That has to be discouraging for the Cavs. The Splash Brothers' combined 20 points was the lowest they've scored in a win this entire season. Translation -- don't expect that to happen again, even with the Cavs' solid defensive strategy against those two guys. If you lose by 15 with Curry playing to a minus-1, you are probably in trouble.

WARRIORS ADJUSTMENTS

Be cognizant of forcing LeBron to switch off Curry. You're not going to stop Curry if he's on. It's just impossible. But James did a terrific job (in the midst of a subpar game) of contesting and staying with Curry. In the clip below, he not only bodies him, but then when Curry faces up, James goes wide in his stance with a hand up, crowding him, not letting him get by him if he tries to drive, and contesting the shot.

If Curry's hot, it won't matter, he's Steph Curry. But to make sure to put Curry in the best position, the Warriors need to make sure James gets switched off of him. Kevin Love and even Kyrie Irving did some good things vs. Curry but they don't have the size or length to crowd him, which is what bothers Curry. Golden State needs to get him clear.

Continue to punish Irving with Livingston. Two of Livingston's buckets came with Irving defending. Two were good closeouts from Thompson and Love, Livingston just made the shot. (Channing Frye also just watched him pull up for a jumper with no hand-up, anything, so that's how that's going.)

Kyrie just doesn't have the length to contest Livingston at 6-foot-7. That's a matchup the Warriors can continue to hammer.

Keep dominating the glass against the Cavs' bigs. The Cavs gave up a 29 percent offensive rebound rate to the Warriors in Game 1 with Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love on the floor. That's two good rebounders who the Warriors absolutely smoked. If the Warriors win the battle for the offensive glass (where they got pounded against OKC), they're going to roll through the Cavaliers. Cleveland can't defend them on consecutive possessions, especially in the chaos of offensive rebounds.

More of Iguodala, playmaker. The Cavaliers didn't show much concern for the reigning Finals MVP; again, because they were so worried about Thompson and Curry. But Iguodala racked up six assists and had free reign to make plays. Iguodala gets up for this matchup, and Cleveland doesn't have a counter for him. Enabling him will free up shots for their shooters off screens, even if Curry needs a healthy diet on-ball.

Just do that again. The interior defense, the passing, the flow, the pace, all of it, even without Curry and Thompson getting going, was great. The Cavs' stars got numbers while the Warriors played a wholly superior team game. Repeat that performance going forward and the Cavs are sunk and this series won't go six games.

CAVALIERS ADJUSTMENTS

Get Tristan Thompson a Red Bull. The Warriors tore Thompson to pieces in Game 1. Three of Iguodala's assists came with Thompson as the primary defender, with Thompson not using his length to disrupt Iguodala's vision and letting him make plays all over the floor. Two of Livingston's buckets were against him, including this play where he does a good thing (helping on the roll inside) but does it for too long while neglecting his man.

Thompson gave up offensive rebounds to Iguodala and Bogut, and was blocked at the rim by Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. That can't happen. Cannot happen for a guy you paid $82 million to last summer. Thompson must play better in Game 2.

Throw out the fast-pace stuff, and give serious consideration for when you're going to abandon the small-ball nonsense. The Cavs were gassed by the second quarter trying to keep up with Golden State's racehorse pace, and the Warriors looked positively unlocked by not having to face the Thunder's length and athleticism. Cleveland is not going to beat this team trying to outrun them on offense, and they don't have the defensive awareness or athleticism to contest them getting up and down the floor.

Take that idea, and bury it deep, deep in the desert.

It's also time to start considering dusting off Timofey Mozgov. Mozzy fell out of the rotation hard this season, and has been pretty much left for dead after being a big part of the Cavs' model for success last year. Then there's this:

The Cavaliers had this idea that with all their offense, they would be able to beat the Warriors at their own game. It is becoming readily apparent that is not the case. It's only one game, so I'm fine with Cleveland trying to improve how they play with small-ball units and not just abandoning it entirely until they get down 2-0. But if that happens, it's time to give up the ghost and get desperate. They've yet to win any of their matchups playing small-ball and Channing Frye is not coming in to play savior. Mike Miller ain't walking through that door for LeBron either.

Stick with the defensive plan. The plan, itself, was not bad. They held Curry and Thompson in check. Even if those guys make more shots, the strategy itself was sound. The Cavs dared -- nay, begged -- Draymond Green to shoot 3-pointers, which is exactly what you want. He shot 2 of 6 and they stuck with it after he made shots. They got bad games from the Splash Brothers and bad perimeter shooting from Green. They outplayed the Warriors with Bogut (minus-8) on the floor.

Offensively, they need to take a serious look at their effectiveness in the post. Via The Cauldron's Nate Duncan:

The idea makes a lot of sense. LeBron James is physically superior, so he should be able to draw doubles and then kick out. But two things:

  1. You do that, and James has his back to not only the basket... but the other side of the floor. He can't see what's happening to make reads. It limits how many options for passes he has. If you move them into his primary and peripheral view, you mess with spacing.
  2. Iguodala is able to reach in and steal the ball regularly on James. You spend time off the clock just trying to get him the ball so that Iguodala can make him work ridiculously hard.

James scored six points on five post-up possessions, which is a good, high number. But that doesn't factor when he had to give it up because of undue attention. If the Warriors left Iguodala in one-on-one coverage vs. James? Sure, feed him and let him work. But it's never one-on-one coverage.

Make more bunnies. The Cavs missed 28 shots in the paint. They should not do that. They should make more shots at the rim and in the paint. That's called analysis.

J.R. Smith needs his spinach. Whether it was the possible hand injury he suffered diving for a loose ball, or another bout of confidence failure in the Finals, Smith once again came up small in Oracle. They need him to fire away, Instead, he took three shots in Game 1. They need him to play at a high level and turn the tide, not be the minus-13 that he was. I don't know if you can really rely on Smith, but the Cavs have to. That's the choice they made in the role they gave him.

THE NUMBERS

  • The Cavaliers were outscored by 99 points per 100 possessions with Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa on the floor together. It was just ten minutes, but that's more than a fifth of the game where they were annihilated.
  • The Warriors opened as 6.5-point favorites in Game 2, up from 5.5 in Game 1. Their series price to win has jumped from plus-280 to plus-390.
  • NBA teams with homecourt advantage in a series who go up 2-0 have gone 25-3 in the Finals. Only three teams in the history of the Finals have come back after going down 0-2 on the road.
  • Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson gave up a 29-percent offensive rebound rate to the Warriors when on the floor together.
  • Matthew Dellavedova was a minus-19 in just under 11 minutes. But you know he managed to get in a cheap shot.

GOING FORWARD

It's just one game. The Cavaliers win Game 2 and all of a sudden, you say "You know, if Livingston and Barbosa don't go off in Game 1, the Cavs could be up 2-0." The entire series turns if they win on Sunday. But as stated above, their odds of coming back to win the series after going down 0-2 are abysmal.

Sunday isn't the Cavs' last stand, not technically anyway, but it's the line in the forest they cannot surrender. It's pretty much a must-win, if only Game 2. Even if they win Games 3 and 4, it still puts the Warriors in a position to re-establish control in Game 5, with very little tilt. The Cavs would just be digging their way back into a series, as opposed to knocking the Warriors off-balance if they actually win Game 2 and steal the home court.

Winning every game in the Finals is of course important. But the Cavaliers have to not only carry over the success they had in Game 1 while playing better in nearly every facet of the game, but really catch some significant breaks to shatter the Warriors' apparent hold on the matchups.

For Golden State, life looks a lot sunnier than it did after Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, and not to get ahead of ourselves, but the hard part of their fairytale season may already be over.

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The Warriors made life tough for LeBron James in Game 1 USATSI