It may have gotten lost in the shuffle of an absolutely phenomenal Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals (until Kyrie made us sad, and the Cavs crapped the bed in overtime), but did you notice how Timofey Mozgov kept throwing down enormous dunks on people? Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green are two of the best defenders in the NBA, and look at what the big Russian does to them:
I mean, this is the guy who Blake Griffin dunked on so hard that his last name became a verb that meant “to be dunked on” for a while there. Yeah, he’s 7-foot-1, but the man’s got bounce. Look at him go up and get this alley-oop from Kyrie Irving!
Cavs coach David Blatt also left Mozgov in for much more of the fourth quarter and overtime than he normally does, as the Cavs rightly wanted to force the Warriors to keep size on the floor to avoid getting pulverized on the glass. And Mozgov provided just enough offense to keep the Cavs right with the Warriors:
Look at Mozgov’s quicks when he rolls to the rim! He fell apart in overtime like the rest of the Cavaliers, but he was still an extra-fun part of an already-pretty-dang-fun first game of the Finals. Let’s hope Kyrie’s okay enough to keep the series as interesting as it started.
