After an extremely tough loss in game one, Cleveland will have to dig deep to get back in these Finals.
Few individuals believed at any point that the Cleveland Cavaliers could win these NBA Finals. An electric 51/8/8 performance by LeBron James had every appearance of being enough to pull off a game one upset. It was not meant to be.
The final sequence of regulation could not have gone much worse than it did for Cleveland. They got a good free throw shooter to the line, but he missed the second attempt. An offensive rebound by JR Smith was wasted as well as he dribbled away pointlessly, unaware of the score.
Understandably deflated, the Cavs got drubbed in overtime by the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
Already underdogs, a game one victory on the road could have turned the tables in this series. Instead, the Warriors get another home game tonight, up 1-0 in the series.
Mentality will be paramount for both teams in game two
For the Warriors, it may be easy to relax a bit after stealing back the game one victory. They need to maintain a "killer" mentality and keep their feet on the gas to try and put away the Finals as quickly as possible.
They had better, because they are still playing LeBron after all.
Cleveland probably hung their heads for a while after the tough loss. If that is still going on, they had better snap out of it. A lot of that starts with their leader, LeBron James. He said that game one was one of the toughest losses of his career.
“It’s one of the toughest losses I’ve had in my career as well because of everything that kind of went on with the game and the way we played. It was a tough 24 hours not only for Hill and for myself but for our whole ballclub because we put ourselves in a great position to be successful.”
James is one of the most scrutinized players of our generation, constantly being compared to the greats. For the sake of his legacy, he must rally his troops and get them into the same position they were in in game one. Maybe this time, there will be a different outcome.
The game will be nationally televised tonight at 7:00 PM (CT) on ABC. Tune in for more great basketball.