Golden State Warriors: What went wrong in Game 1 of the NBA Finals?

The Golden State Warriors were left a bit shell-shocked following their Game 1 defeat in the NBA Finals. Here’s everything that went wrong for the team.

Don’t look now, but the Golden State Warriors are down 1-0 in the NBA Finals after a very disappointing showing against the Toronto Raptors in Game 1. Now, this isn’t necessarily a cause for panic, but it definitely is something to be concerned about.

Something clearly went wrong — in fact, a lot of things went wrong.

Sure, the Warriors entered the game pretty banged up with Kevin Durant still out nursing a calf injury and a half-hobbled DeMarcus Cousins playing his first game back since tearing his quad over a month ago. But injuries cannot and do not tell the whole story.

The Warriors got beat on Thursday night, and this wasn’t a fluke.

The Raptors out-shot the Warriors, outhustled them, and simply outplayed them. In a cruel twist of irony, Golden State was merely outmatched.

There’s still plenty of time to turn this series around and anyone who’s watched the Warriors at any point over the past five seasons knows that they are very well capable of doing so. But what exactly happened and what needs to be fixed going forward?

Perhaps the most egregious issue concerning the Warriors in Game 1 was their tendency to commit untimely turnovers. Golden State committed a total of 16 turnovers which led to 17 points for Toronto. It was during these fast-breaks in transition that the Warriors really struggled.

It was the presumed NBA Most Improved Player Award recipient who really dominated in this facet of the game. Pascal Siakam was an issue for the Warriors on Thursday night — a big issue.

Siakam finished an incredible 14-of-17 from the floor and led the way for the Raptors with 32 points and eight rebounds. While it’s unlikely he continues to shoot with such efficiency, it’s a lot easier to shoot over 80% when more than half of your buckets are open shots in transition.

On top of that, the Raptors are one of the few teams who can match up with the Warriors in terms of length and athleticism. That proved troublesome for Golden State on both ends of the floor as they struggled to switch effectively on defense and had a difficult time creating open looks on offense.

As a whole, the Warriors need to play much more sound team defense in Game 2 and for the remainder of the series. Perhaps they weren’t totally familiar with their matchup assignments, but that’s hardly an excuse for a team that’s won three NBA Championships in four years.

The Warriors surprisingly did a good job of limiting Kawhi Leonard who had been the Raptors postseason savior to this point. Leonard shot just 5-of-14 from the field as Golden State frequently double-teamed the three-time NBA All-Star.

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However, while that added attention helped slow down Leonard, it freed up Siakam who clearly made the most of his increased open looks. The Warriors will need to put more of a focus on defending Siakam going forward as it’s clear they didn’t anticipate a 30+ point outing from the 2016 first-round draft pick.

Some of that blame should fall on Draymond Green who — despite becoming just the third player in NBA history to record a triple-double in three straight playoff games — struggled defensively against Siakam. Still, this can’t solely be attributed to Green as the team’s transition game and overall team defense lacked as a whole.

Also despite Leonard’s slow day shooting from the field, he still managed to finish with 23 points thanks to his 10-of-12 performance from the line. The Warriors need to do a better job of limiting their fouls as they finished with a whopping 27 in Game 1.

Ultimately, the Warriors just need to shoot better than they did Thursday night. Golden State shot just 43.6% and saw just one player shoot over 50%, that being Kevon Looney who went 4-of-5 coming off the bench.

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The likes of Andre Iguodala — who will likely play in Game 2 after aggravating his calf injury in the waning minutes of Game 1 — and Draymond Green must shoot more efficiently as the series progresses. The duo shot a combined 5-of-16 from the field and went 0-for-6 from three-point range.

Stephen Curry continued his streak of 30+ point games putting up 34 in defeat but even he shot just 8-of-18 throughout the contest. His splash brother partner Klay Thompson shot slightly better going 8-of-17 but finished with only 21 points as he couldn’t get to the line nearly as effectively as Curry.

At the end of the day, the Warriors are going to need scoring output from more players especially while Durant is out and Cousins is still receiving minimal minutes.

This series is far from over, but the Warriors were challenged in Game 1 and they came up empty. With their backs against the wall, expect this team to come out firing on all cylinders and look to even up the series before heading home to Oakland in Game 3.

The Warriors may very well come back and win this series, but Game 1 certainly wasn’t a fluke and it’s going to take all hands on deck to right the ship from here on out.