The Cleveland Cavaliers weren't expecting the Golden Sate Warriors to attack them the way they did in Game 1 on Thursday night.

The plan wasn't to get Klay Thompson a bunch of open looks or to get Steph Curry in position to bury the Cavs with a flurry of 3-point bombs.

The plan was to attack an imminent defensive weakness on their roster, namely Kyrie Irving.

When looking at the Cavs roster, you can look at a couple of things that qualify Kyrie as a defensive liability. Not the fact that he has never made an All-Team Defensive or that he doesn't rank high among point guards in defensive categories, but simple eye test factors.

Do the Warriors feel Kyrie can be heavily exploited on mismatches?

The answer to that is yes. The most glaring of the Cavs problems in Game 1 was Shaun Livingston. Livingston shot 8-10 for 20 points in 27 minutes in the Warriors 104-89 win over the Cavs. Livingston who comes off of the bench is 6'7 compared to Irving 6'3,  which means he is giving up 4 inches and strength on defense that he can't counter.

Livingston easily got position in comfortable spots where he likes to take his signature turnaround jumper with no problem on Irving. This is a problem for the Cavs because it gives the Warriors another player who they can count on to score, or someone who will demand a double team, that will open the floor for their shooters.

Does coach Lue have to change the defensive system to protect Irving?

In short yes, since Irving loses his man on picks, misses defensive assignments, and becomes the wrong side of a mismatch when the Cavs switch, they have to look at sending help constantly.

Kyrie playing any one on one defense almost guarantees you'll see scoring from the man he's guarding. At one point LeBron James took on the task of guarding Steph Curry, which he did well, but that left Irving to guard players like Harrison Barnes, Shaun Livingston, and Leandro Barbosa. These players were huge contributors off of the bench.

One of the most intriguing things about the Warriors bench players, is the fact that they play better at home than on the road, and you'll see Kerr go deeper into his rotation at Oracle to throw everything he can at Irving.

Since the Cavs have stated that they will have to play at the Warriors pace in this series, they'll have to play strong defense to stop the Warriors' depth, shooting, and ball movement.

The Cavs played Game 1 as if they didn't know they would have to really put effort into the series. They used a ton of bad isolation plays that didn't work and the Warriors exploited Kyrie Irving the entire game, which they will likely continue to do until the Cavs find a way to stop it.

Game 2 starts Sunday at Oracle Arena, at 8 p.m. ET.

[button width=”full” button size=”bigger” color=”custom” align=”center” textcolor=”#ffffff” texthcolor=”#ffffff” bgcolor=”#8b0000″ link=”https://clutchpoints.com/cavaliers-struggled-isolation-plays-game-1-finals/”]<strong>NEXT:</strong>Cavaliers struggled on isolation plays in Game 1 of Finals[/button]