Golden State Warriors: 5 Lessons From NBA Finals Game 1

4. Golden State Has A Depth Advantage

When I took a look at the five biggest X-factors for the Warriors in this series, I wrote that Marreese Speights’ return to the lineup could be a potential boost. After all, this guy had been a leading Sixth Man of the Year candidate for half the season. Boy am I glad I remembered to mention Mo.

I won’t get carried away patting myself on the back, since Speights’ eight points off the bench weren’t anything spectacular. But when you frame it in its proper context — that he scored those eight points in nine minutes on 4-of-8 shooting and helped the Dubs claw their way back into the game after falling behind by 14 in the first quarter — it becomes clear he was a significant factor.

In every Finals series, one or two role players step up in the spotlight and make big-time plays. They don’t dominate the games, they don’t completely take over, but they do just enough to to make a noticeable impact. In Game 1, Speights, who hadn’t played in weeks because of a calf strain, was one of those guys. Cleveland didn’t have any of those guys.

But Speights isn’t the only one who stepped up at the opportune moment. We’ll cover Andre Iguodala in a moment, but the Warriors played 10 players to Cleveland’s eight. Leandro Barbosa was mostly bad, but the Warriors’ bench outscored Cleveland’s reserves 34-9.

J.R. Smith might not shoot that poorly again (4-for-13), and Andre Iguodala might not play that well again. But for the time being, Golden State’s depth looks like a major advantage in this series.

Next: No. 3