Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Warriors
By Chris Conner
2. The Cavaliers looked mentally defeated
The Cavs never really appeared to recover after Game 1. Throughout the series, they appeared functioning and ready to fight Golden State — just not in the same way they did in the opening game of the series.
Facing a juggernaut isn’t fun by any means, and if Cleveland wasn’t suffering enough mentally from the effects of Game 1, a report came out that a hand injury for LeBron James resulted from the heartbreaking loss.
LeBron James says he sustained a "self-inflicted" injury to his hand after the @cavs' frustrating loss in Game 1 of the #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/sOu3emuoZc
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) June 9, 2018
The true severity of the injury is unknown at this time, but the Cavs never looked the same. LeBron’s 51-point performance was his best of the series and his playoff run. Kevin Love finished with a similar double-double in Game 2, but defensively, the Cavs just couldn’t muster enough consistently.
They appeared to know their season was over in Game 4. It would have been interesting to see how they would have looked without the traumatizing ending that was Game 1.