Golden State Warriors: 5 Adjustments For Game 2 vs. Cavaliers

5. Closing The Free Throw Gap

To beat the Golden State Warriors, pretty much every little thing has to go your way. You have to dominate them on the boards, you have to hope they turn the ball over and miss a lot of three-pointers, and you have to slow the game down and earn as many extra points as possible from the  foul line.

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Minus the 45-point bench explosion from the Dubs, the Cavaliers did a lot of those little things right in Game 1. Everyone will focus on the Splash Brothers’ poor shooting night, but getting to the foul line was how Cleveland slowed the game down to a grind for the parts of the second and third quarters when they made their runs.

Both teams shot exactly 90 percent from the foul line, but the Cavs doubled Golden State’s production from the charity stripe by making 18 of their 20 attempts compared to the Warriors’ 9-of-10 effort.

During the playoffs, the Dubs have averaged 23.6 free throw attempts per game, and though they’re only shooting 73.8 percent from the line, we saw a bit of this problem in the conference finals as well. In four wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Dubs were a +2 in free throw attempts. In their three losses? They were an eye-popping -38.

This isn’t a huge deal, and it obviously didn’t swing the balance of power in Game 1, but the Warriors don’t even have to get to the foul line; if anything, they want to keep playing fast and avoid a free throw-heavy slog. But if they can do a better job keeping the Cavs off the line, they’ll have another minor advantage in this series, and those tend to add up after awhile.

Next: No. 4