The NBA Finals are underway. The Golden State Warriors took a 1-0 lead on the Cleveland Cavaliers with a Game 1 victory on Thursday night, but the contest was much closer than most people anticipated. LeBron James dropped 51 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, but it wasn't enough, as the Warriors escaped with the 124-114 overtime win.
Here's a look at the full playoff bracket, with an NBA Jam theme for the vintage video game crowd:
NBA Playoff bracket. Igor Mello/CBS Sports
Click for full breakdowns:
NBA Finals
No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. No. 2 Golden State Warriors (series preview)
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After getting pushed to seven games in the Western Conference finals, there was some chatter about the Golden State Warriors being vulnerable, that the Houston Rockets might have provided the blueprint to take down the champs.
Only the Cleveland Cavaliers aren't the Rockets. And they don't appear to have the pieces to emulate -- or execute -- that template.
Houston's physical and switching defense, which ranked sixth in the NBA during the regular season, pushed the Warriors out of their comfort zone at times and sent them into more of an isolation approach. That's what the switch-everything defense is designed to do: take away the Warriors' strength and disrupt their free-flowing away-from-the-ball movement.
But it also requires constant communication -- a season-long problem in Cleveland -- along with like-sized players, stingy individual defenders and good habits.
The Cavs were the second-worst defense during the regular season. While they've shown some growth during this playoff run, that's had more to do with their most recent series against the erratic and short-handed Boston Celtics, lifting those numbers into a deceiving realm.
It takes discipline and decisiveness against the surgical Warriors.
Given that, it's tough to see the Cavaliers being able to match the quality of defense Houston showed in last series, one where -- for all their supposed struggles -- the Warriors still had the playoffs' best offense.
The postseason is about matchups. This one isn't favorable for the Cavs.
Kevin Love, the team's second-leading scorer, has struggled against Golden State in the past and will be relied on more than ever after clearing concussion protocol on Thursday. Either that, or he will get knocked out of the rotation, forcing head coach Tyronn Lue to go with a player possessing a different skill set entirely.
Kyle Korver -- who is third in scoring during the postseason, averaging 9.8 points on 44.9 percent from 3-point range -- has been bothered by Golden State's length, athleticism and defensive versatility.
George Hill is playing in his first Finals and it's tough to know what to expect from him given his home/road splits throughout the postseason.
Rodney Hood got booted from the rotation, looking overwhelmed by the physicality and pressure of the moment this time of year.
Without Kyrie Irving, it's tough to see how Cleveland will consistently generate quality offense against the team boasting the postseason's No. 1 defense. Yes, the Warriors have that ranking despite playing against explosive New Orleans and the high-powered Rockets.
The Cavs deserve plenty of praise for getting back to the NBA Finals, overcoming the numerous challenges that led to LeBron James actually doubting Cleveland's chances at one point. That uncertainty truly began last summer with the Irving trade. That loss, while it hasn't prevented them from making another title push, will truly be felt against the Warriors.
Irving tormented Golden State. The stage was never too big. The defender didn't matter. He forced tenacious two-way guard Klay Thompson to expend a bounty of energy trying to slow him down, which sometimes affected Thompson's offense. Irving -- like Houston's James Harden and Chris Paul -- had the necessary one-on-one package to break down Golden State's switch-everything defense.
Even Lue understands what his team is missing going into this series.
"You know that they switch a lot of stuff," Lue said on his conference call Tuesday. "They switch everything actually, so you have to have very good one on one players. You gotta have ball movement, sharp cuts. But Kyrie, you know, with him playing, he allowed us to go one on one against the mismatches and can't nobody stop him one on one. We're gonna miss that but we're just going to have to play a different style of basketball without him being here."
That's what the Cavs are up against. Beating the Warriors once is difficult enough, let alone doing it four times in seven tries. It will take something unforeseen, just as it did in 2016 -- and that title was in the B.K.D (Before Kevin Durant) era -- when Draymond Green's suspension, Andrew Bogut's injury and both the health of Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry opened the door for Cleveland's historic comeback.
Iguodala's uncertain status provides a glimmer of hope. He's the Warriors' stabilizer on offense, getting the team into sets and settling them down when things get frantic. He's also the Warriors' best LeBron defender. But even that doesn't seem like enough for the Cavaliers.
There's a reason this is considered one of the greatest mismatches in Finals history.
James obviously represents the Cavaliers' best chance. He's capable of making the improbable possible. He will likely look for ways to put Curry through a variety of pick-and-rolls, hoping to attack him, wear him down and perhaps even get him into foul trouble. James should also be aided by Iguodala's absence and Jeff Green's ability to defend Durant for long stretches.
Only James has never won a title without a secondary creator, the piece that sometimes makes even the best defenses look helpless, the piece the Cavaliers lost when Irving requested his trade last summer and the piece that will keep them from making this a competitive series.
Warriors in 5.
