The Cavs bench let them down in Game 1

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. Blame for the loss should be spread evenly throughout the team, but the Cavaliers’ reserves left much to be desired.

The Golden State Warriors dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Finals. In the coming days, Cleveland will need to evaluate their plan of attack if they hope to tie the series at one on Sunday night.

The Cleveland bench should be the focus of some of that planning.

Scoring woes

In Game 1, the Cavaliers bench was responsible for only 21 of the 91 points the team scored. Richard Jefferson led the bench with 9 points and the reserves were frigid, shooting 25.0 percent from the field. The Cavs will need a much better effort from their bench in Game 2, and for the rest of the series. One of the Cavs’ strengths in this year’s postseason has been their bench, and in particular the three-point shooting it provides.

For comparison, the Golden State Warriors’ bench scored 24 points on 40.0 percent shooting. This is a marginal improvement on the surface but it tells a deeper story. The Warriors played every player on their active roster in Game 1. Only one, Patrick McCaw, failed to score a single point.

The Cavaliers played all of their players except for Channing Frye.

Four of the seven bench players didn’t score. Those players were Kyle Korver, Deron Williams, Derrick Williams and James Jones. Together, they average 13.7 points per game in the playoffs.

Those points would have been a positive for the Cavs on Thursday night. Perhaps they would have helped stall some of the momentum Golden State seemed to have for much of the game. In any case, three players who play a significant amount of minutes (Frye, Korver and Deron Williams) not scoring is a cause for concern.

In order for the Cavaliers to be competitive against Golden State, their shooters will need to find their touch, starting in Game 2. The Cavaliers’ bench shot 15.4 percent from three-point range in Game 1 and were unable to give the starters a scoring boost to close the gap.

LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love all played well, combining for 67 points and 39 rebounds. They’ll need a greater amount of support from their teammates going forward, particularly the reserve units.

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What did you think of the way the Cleveland Cavaliers bench unit played? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.