National Basketball Association

Warriors' depth, D -- not just Splash Brothers -- beat Cavs in Game 1

Published Jun. 5, 2015 2:23 a.m. ET

foxsports

LeBron James scored 44 points, a career-high in the Finals. Cavs teammate Kyrie Irving looked like a veteran of championship battles, scoring 23 points and menacing Steph Curry on defense all Thursday night. The Cavs jumped to a 13 point lead near the end of the first quarter, for a time snuffing the noise, hope and home-court advantage out of Oracle Arena.

And still the Golden State Warriors found a way to win.

On a night when nerves clearly set in, when Golden State's Klay Thompson was inefficient and Cleveland's King James lived up to his moniker, that same grittiness that powered the Warriors to 67 regular-season wins won out.

With a 108-100 overtime win, Golden State pronounced a clear message: Even the greatest player on Earth at his offensive best may not be enough.

All season, the Splash Brothers commanded the headlines. It was Curry's mesmerizing offensive genius and the 3's that rained down as a result, that came to define the Warriors in the eyes of most around the country.

But it was their less sexy greatness — their No. 1 defensive efficiency rating, their incredible depth — that anchored their excellence.

And on Thursday, that engineered the win.

Talking about overtime, Curry said: "They only scored two points, and it was at the very end. Andre (Iguodala), Draymond (Green), Klay, Harrison (Barnes), Festus (Ezeli) when he was in there during that overtime period, all compete."

That's putting it nicely, Steph. They — and you — dominated. It was a defensive clinic against an all-time great.

Before that, LeBron had his chance. With the game tied and time winding down, he missed what would have been another buzzer-beater. Teammate Iman Shumpert grabbed the rebound and nearly did the same.

But, like that, the Cavs' chance in Game 1 blinked out of existence.

The depth that helped carry the Warriors on a night when Steph started slow and Thompson wasn't himself went to another level in overtime. It may have put the Warriors inexorably on the path to a championship.

Seventy-percent of teams that win Game 1 of the NBA Finals go on to win it all. The Warriors will now enter Game 2 convinced their excellence up to this point remains unchanged under the harsh glare of the Finals spotlight. In overtime, Irving appeared to re-injure his knee. He later left the Cavs locker room on crutches, a blow that would be devastating.

The Warriors' mood afterward was as confident as Cleveland's was somber.

"If we win every game at home, we'll be all right in the series," Curry said. "So that's a start."

Bill Reiter is a columnist for FOXSports.com, a radio host in Los Angeles and regularly appears on FOX Sports 1. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at foxsportsreiter@gmail.com.