The Warriors Are the Superior Team

Warriors Lead Series 2-0

I hate to say it, but sorry Cavs fans, the Warriors are just superior to your team. Now, I'm not saying the series is over at all. I'm just saying that the Warriors are the better team and the Cavs are going to have a really tough time trying to win against them. Game 2 was a prime example of it. The Warriors wore down the Cavs and the Cavs really just gave up.

The biggest thing I took from game 2 was the Warriors heart and will to win. And what I saw was the Warriors team rebounding. They out-rebounded the Cavs 46 to 34. The Warriors hit the offensive glass hard. The Cavs just didn't seem to want to board and the Warriors did. You could tell what team wanted to win that game.

Something I want to really point out is how underrated of a defender Andrew Bogut is. The guy had 5 blocks last night. Cool, right? But there is a lot more to defense than blocking shots. Bogut's positioning and timing defensively is amazing. He reads the defense so well. You can't forget that this guy also had 2 steals in the game. I also want to point out that Bogut is a great passer. While his own offensive game is lacking. Bogut plays the high post position exceptionally well and sees the floor better than most big men.

Richard Jefferson is honestly probably the best player on the Cavs right now. Now before I get a bunch of hate mail from you Cavs fans, let me explain this. Let this soak into your brains... This guy on defense was really good. Just like Bogut, Jefferson's defense was amazing as far as positioning. He was stopping his guy. He also did an amazing job on help defense and double-teaming. Offensively, Jefferson was just as good. The veteran made great cuts to the basket as he drew the defense towards him in the game. In fact, Rich might have to start from now on. And you might say LeBron James is the best player on the Cavs; well, he's been pretty brutal when he's been on the floor. LBJ had 7 turnovers and gave up a lot of points defensively. I was very impressed by Jefferson's play and I think he should start instead of J.R. Smith. This is for a few reasons. I think J.R. will be much more productive off the bench and he will provide a ton of bench offense. Also, I think that when he comes in to guard Thompson, the Warriors will have more limited options offensively. Richard Jefferson will be a big spark for the starting lineup too. His veteran presence would hopefully start the Cavs off the right way next game.

And let's not overlook just what the Warriors did defensively. They held the Cavs to under 80 points and under 36% shooting. This defensive effort was held out by almost every player on the floor. Draymond, Bogut, Curry, Thompson, and especially Iguodala were just amazing defensively. If they keep this level of defensive play, they are going to be really tough to beat since the Cavs aren't going to be able to rely on their offense to get them to the finish line.

Chicago Takes Down The Cavs On Opening Night

Chicago looked great in last nights game. Their offense hasn't looked that great in a long time. On the other hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers did not look like the championship team from last year and they look very concerning. However, this could just have been from LeBron sitting out most of the game and Kyrie Irving being out from injury. There were bright spots and some bad spot that we saw from both teams, so let's check them out

Nikola Mirotic Looks Great!
Listen, this guy is on my fantasy team, and he just gave me a big boost for opening night. So thank you Mirotic for that 19 points. One thing I noticed is that Mirotic looks better on his shot and he was showing off his handles. He was definitely not afraid to show Kevin Love that he can shoot the 3 ball. He did great attacking the rim, something that Mirotic wasn't known for last year. He gave us stuff we weren't expecting from him and it makes me a proud fantasy owner with this man on my team.

Kevin Love Looked Really Confident
Love really had a lot of confidence in this game and maybe it was a little too much. Anyways, it is good to see Kevin Love getting off a lot of shots, because he really wasn't shooting shots like this last year. I really think Love should have gotten the last shot of the game but didn't as LeBron got stuffed and then with a second chance Jimmy Butler stole the ball. However, Love shot 17 shots last night but only made 6 of them. I'm okay with him shooting like that because you know that he will be getting them to fall soon.

Mo Williams!
This man had 17 points and 7 assists. He was very good. I think many people forget that he scored 52 points with the Timberwolves and won an eastern conference and western conference player of the week awards last year. I think most people forget that he was an all-star back in 2009. Anyways, Mo looks like he will be great for this team and should be having games like this til Kyrie comes back.

Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler Struggled
Jimmy Butler couldn't seem to get a shot to fall and Derrick Rose couldn't finish at the rim. Rose shot just 36% on 8-22 shooting. Butler just really didn't look that well on his jumper. Hopefully, both of these guys pick up on the shooting and do much better in games to come. Another guy that didn't look the best was Pau Gasol. While he shot 1-7 from the field, he did have 6 blocks though and 1 of them saved the Bulls the game.

Other Points

• Tony Snell started in the game and he was anything but disappointing. He showed us his range as he had 11 points on 4-9 shooting and 2-5 from the 3 point line. He will be an interesting player to keep on eye on this season.
• Richard Jefferson looked great as he constantly drove and kicked to open players. He also had a great offensive game last night. He gave us 10 points in just 17 minutes. 
• E'Twaun Moore had a great game. I forgot this man was even on the team. He scored 11 points in just 14 minutes. He looked very impressive and the Bulls look like they have great bench depth. 

I'm concerned for the Cavs, they looked like they thought it was a preseason game and they could just not be ready yet. I just hope that they turn things around. However, the Bulls look really good, and they have a great roster. If they keep this up, they could be looking at the Finals down the road. I know it's just one game, but Fred Hoiberg and the Bulls look very promising.