Tip-off: Sunday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: Golden State -8.5, Total: 221.5

The Cavaliers will be hoping to even up the series in Sunday’s Game 2 against the Warriors.

After a long wait for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Warriors absolutely destroyed the Cavaliers. Golden State won the game 113-91 as a seven-point favorite, and it was pretty much a blowout once the second quarter started. The Warriors could have been up around 20 at the half, but they ended up missing a ton of layups and open looks. They still shot 42.5% on an absurd 106 shots from the floor, yet the Cavaliers were just 30-for-86. Cleveland also turned the ball over a miserable 20 times, which is something that the team absolutely needs to clean up heading into Game 2. The Cavaliers also need to find a way to make plays defensively, as they recorded zero steals in the entire game. The Warriors, meanwhile, had 12. The trends in this game don’t necessarily favor Cleveland either. The Cavaliers were just 13-18-1 ATS this season when coming off of a regular season loss. They’ll need to find a way to bounce back. Fortunately for them, they are 12-2 SU and 7-5-2 ATS in the postseason. They’ve consistently been excellent and will still be confident in their ability to execute here.

If the Cavaliers are going to find a way to tie this series with the Warriors on Sunday then they will need more from their supporting cast in this one. SF LeBron James (32.2 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 7.1 APG, 2.0 SPG, 1.4 BPG; all player stats are postseason stats) did everything he could in Game 1, finishing with 28 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists in the loss. PG Kyrie Irving (24.5 PPG, 5.4 APG, 1.3 SPG) wasn’t great, but he still scored 24 points. PF Kevin Love (17.0 PPG, 11.1 RPG), meanwhile, was a monster on the glass, but can definitely afford to play better offensively. But the story in this game was Cleveland’s role players failing to show up. C Tristan Thompson (8.6 PPG, 8.9 RPG) and SG J.R. Smith (6.4 PPG) scored just three points combined in the first game of this series. Those are two of the team’s starters, and that simply cannot continue. The Cavaliers also need SG Kyle Korver (5.9 PPG) to get it going moving forward. He was 0-for-3 from the outside in Game 1, and his looks were all open ones. And while you can say the team didn’t lose the game because of three missed shots from a bench player, the Cavaliers can’t afford to miss out on any opportunities to steal momentum. Also, Cleveland needs to find a way to defend better overall. The team was miserable in transition and also switched too often. The Cavaliers can’t afford to let smaller defenders switch onto guys like Kevin Durant, as that will pretty much be an automatic bucket.

I think it’s safe to say that SF Kevin Durant (26.4 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.1 BPG) missed playing in the NBA Finals. Durant was the best player on the court in Game 1, finishing with 38 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in 38 minutes of action. Durant was 3-for-6 from the outside in the game, and he really didn’t take many contested looks either. A lot of that had to do with the attention that PG Stephen Curry (28.5 PPG, 5.9 APG, 5.5 RPG, 2.0 SPG) commands. The Cavaliers were constantly sending extra defenders in Curry’s direction when the Warriors were in transition, and that resulted in a couple of wide-open paths to the basket for Durant. Cleveland knows that leaving Curry at any point is probably the most dangerous thing that the team can do. Despite Durant’s insane numbers, Curry also had 28 points and 10 assists on 11-for-22 shooting from the floor and 6-for-11 shooting from three. His explosiveness from last season is back, and he does not look like the injured player he was during last year’s playoffs. Expect him to continue to play well in this series. Also look for SG Klay Thompson (13.8 PPG) and PF Draymond Green (13.5 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 6.8 APG, 2.0 BPG, 1.9 SPG) to play better offensively. Both guys did not do much on that end in Game 1, but they are too good to continue to struggle. And they also were both responsible for playing shutdown defense, which is actually more important for this Warriors team.