Warriors Second Unit Proves Too Much For Cavs in Game 1
During the regular season, ESPN’s Hannah Storm was sent to the Bay Area to film another compelling episode of “NBA Face to Face,” a segment in which Storm meets with some high profile NBA personalities and conducts several informal, in-depth interviews.
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Shifting from a multi-interview special to just focusing on one specific team, Storm met with some Golden State Warriors personnel, including Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.
Oh, and Andre Iguodala was in it, too. Can’t forget about Dre.
It was in the middle of the episode that Iguodala touched based on what his experience was like as he adjusted to a bench role, also acknowledging how he understood the importance and necessity of having him lead the second unit. When asked by Storm what it would mean if the Warriors won a title, Iguodala jokingly answered,
"“If we win a championship, that will save me from kicking Steve Kerr’s ass for making me come off the bench.”"
Fast forward two months later, and the Warriors may possibly be on their way to their first NBA title in 40 years; more importantly, Kerr’s backside seems to be in the clear. At least, for the time being.
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The Warriors won their Game 1 NBA Finals matchup 108-100 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday, deciding the game in overtime. Despite James dropping 44 points at Oracle Arena, the Warriors proved to be the better team down the stretch after struggling mightily to start the contest.
Curry led the Warriors with 26 points, also dropping in a game-high eight assists to go with his four rebounds. His fellow Splash Brother tallied 21 points, Green added in 12 and Barnes added in 11. Andrew Bogut also showed a great deal of heart in his effort to keep the younger and more athletic Tristan Thompson off the boards, in addition to Timofey Mozgov.
But ask anyone that watched the game, and they’ll tell you that it was through the two-way play of Iguodala and the rest of the bench unit that won their series opener against the Cavs.
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While it took both Curry and Thompson to match the numbers that James was putting up for Cleveland, the battle between the Warriors second unit and the Cavs second unit — which had been on quite a roll leading up to Thursday evening — was completely one-sided for much of the game.
For the Cavs, it was J.R. Smith‘s 9-point game that headlined their second unit. The rest of their bench guys — Matthew Dellavedova, James Jones — dropped a couple of goose eggs and were complete non-factors the entire night.
As for the Warriors, each player that played more than a minute scored in the game, with the Warriors’ second unit outscoring the Cavs’ bench 34-9.
Leandro Barbosa, though proven a bit wild at times during the game, dropped in a bucket during his nine minutes on the floor, and center Festus Ezeli dropped in five points and five boards.
Ezeli played crucial minutes over the course of the game, coming in at certain checkpoints to help alleviate Bogut. He even started overtime in place of Bogut before the coaching staff decided to go small.
"“Our strength is in our depth,” Ezeli said after the game. “The next guy comes in, contributes; the next guy comes in, contributes. That’s what we do as a team.”"
Big man Marreese Speights, who has been out the past eight postseason games with a calf injury, really added a needed boost in his first minutes back, finishing with eight points in nine minutes. He was certainly a welcome surprise for a team that’s missed his midrange prowess and ability to space the floor.
And adding in four points and three assists within his 16 minutes was Shaun Livingston, who played some solid minutes when the Warriors decided to rest Curry. He was asked after the game about the importance of the Warriors’ second unit against the Cavs.
"“It can be anybody’s night,” said Livingston. “We all feed off each other, and we try to give our starters a good break and just rely on our depth.”"
But probably the most important thing that Livingston did was flip Iguodala’s scoring switch:
Livingston, in fun, told Iguodala in the first quarter that he had in fact been completely open underneath the basket on an inbounds pass. To the frustration of the fans, Iguodala had decided to throw away the initial pass, utilizing a touch pass to get the ball back outside for no apparent reason.
Iguodala would begin to play more aggressively after that, going on to finish the night with 15 points. It all started with an emphatic slam, a sequence that featured him blowing past James after the latter bit on a stepback up-fake.
Iguodala later even hit a corner three despite having just lost a sneaker on the court. All in all, he was truly the maestro to the Warriors’ grand orchestra, controlling every bit of the game with masterful precision. It was his play on both ends that got the Warriors back in the game after their rough start.
"“I think we were a little nervous to start out, but I think the second unit did a great job of getting the tempo back at our pace, settling us down a little bit,” Iguodala told KNBR after the game. “We talked about strength in numbers all year. They got us going.”“Every regular season game, every playoff game is a prep for this moment, and we showed that we were ready for it tonight."
However, the reason the Warriors went out and gave Iguodala a four-year, $48 million deal in free agency wasn’t because of the numbers he can put on the stat sheet, but for the difference he makes off of it.
Per ESPN
Iguodala made a number of key defensive plays, including a steal from James that resulted in a 73-73 tie game to end the third quarter.
To force overtime, Iguodala was able to goad James into a stepback three from the left-wing, which nearly missed the rim completely. While James was able to keep Cleveland afloat with his 44 points, it was mostly due to Iguodala that James took 38 shot attempts to do so.
"“I thought he was fantastic,” Kerr said of Iguodala in the postgame press conference. “Andre is one of the smartest defenders I’ve ever seen. I mean, he understands angles, he understands where everybody is on the floor. You know, it’s funny to say when a guy gets 44 points that the defender did a really good job, but I thought Andre did extremely well.”"
Bogut, who earned All Defensive Second-Team honors this year, also had quite a bit of praise for his veteran forward.
"“Andre has been huge for us this whole playoffs,” said Bogut. “People just noticed it tonight because he scored, but he does a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. His defense on LeBron at the end of regulation was huge. But he was scoring tonight, he was aggressive, he had a couple of dunks, he hit some threes. He looked like the Andre from Philly.”"
Now rewind back to April when ESPN’s Hannah Storm was in Oakland to film her new episode of “NBA Face to Face.” Iguodala is talking about how important his role on the bench is to the Warriors’ team dynamic.
"“If the first unit starts off a little slow, I know I gotta be in it a little more aggressive, looking to shoot the ball,” Iguodala said. “It’s just the bench taking care of the starters, and the starters taking care of the bench.”"
Judging from how well Kerr’s decision has worked out, it might be pretty safe to say already that Iguodala won’t be kicking his coach’s ass anytime soon.