The good news is that, despite being given multiple opportunities to feel sorry for themselves and completely pack it in, a team that's proven to be more mentally weak when faced with controversy than Tristan Thompson is when faced with extra-marital affairs continued to fight throughout the vast majority of an uphill battle. The bad news is that the result of their version of resilience was not anywhere close to being enough to overcome an absolute avalanche of threes from Steph Curry.
Admittedly, as it pertains to the Cavaliers' resolve, the bar was set pretty damn low during a tumultuous season in which they quit on themselves more times than a smoker trying to kick the habit while working the line at the Marlboro factory. Still, I couldn't help but feel like they flashed some in avoiding the cold, unforgiving touch of certain death that's typically a byproduct of coming out after halftime against Golden State. In case a wasted 50+ point effort didn't highlight how above and beyond the Cavaliers have to go just to keep this thing close then consider the fact that they actually won a third quarter in the building that usually uses that time to form the world's biggest circle jerk....and still remained down by double digits headed into the 4th quarter. Other than J.R. Smith being particularly terrible in a way that makes you think he left his game in the same spot in which he forgot the score, it somewhat amazingly didn't look as though Cleveland was feeling ill effects, that figured to be inevitable, of blowing Game 1 in such a disheartening fashion. Instead, it honestly just looked like they were overmatched by a far more talented team that was inspired to be better by the realization that they were extremely lucky to be up in the series. I obviously don't think LeBron James or the Cleveland Cavaliers played to their peak, but if Kevin Durant is going to miss merely 4 shots while Steph Curry is adding another record to his resume then it doesn't really matter what they do anyway. To put it comparatively, what ever lasting impact was made by J.R. Smith choosing the final seconds of a tied game to run around with the ball aimlessly like the basketball equivalent of a chicken with his head cut off was probably matched by watching a desperation heave leave the goddamn stratosphere only to hit nothing but net as it came back down out of orbit. That's bad news as much as it good news, but such is reality for a Cavaliers team that's being reminded why they were given next to no chance to beat this juggernaut. Things could change in Cleveland, but home court advantage alone isn't going to offset the disadvantages that LeBron and company are at in trying to keep up.
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