For now, they sure seem unstoppable.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers had a few things to tweak after losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.
“If I don’t have the ball, I have to make decisive cuts, I have to set good screens and continue to get movement on the floor to make them make, hopefully, some mistakes defensively and then go from there”, Curry said.
“Everything was about our defense tonight”, coach Steve Kerr said, “and I was pleased with that”.
It isn’t over-confidence if you keep doing the same thing repeatedly. At least in this game, they rolled the dice that he wouldn’t make all those open shots on the offensive end, and they got burned badly.
“Today I can go to China and all over the world and people know my name and know my face”. Game 1 (Curry 11 points, Klay Thompson nine) and Game 2 (Curry 18, Thompson 17) mark the only instances in the 2016 playoffs in which both of the Splash Brothers have been held under 20 points.
“I’m not surprised because we’ve been such a great home team all year”, Thompson said. While they may bounce back, don’t expect the Golden State bench to come close to scoring 45 points as they did in the opening game. “They did a great job picking us up, and, yeah, we just told ourselves we’ve got to be better throughout the series, and I think we’ll respond”.
Now, the series shifts to Cleveland, and James and the Cavs must show up for Game 3 on Wednesday in front of their title-starved fans down 2-0 to the defending champs and with forward Kevin Love dealing with a head injury.
“There’s no question he kept them in the series”, West said about a year ago when the Cavaliers lost Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to injuries.
Barnes hit Love in the back of the head with an inadvertent elbow while going for a rebound in the second quarter. He immediately made a baseline 3-pointer for the Cavs’ first basket in almost 5½ minutes.
He only registered 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
Golden State hasn’t lost to the Cavaliers since, including a 2-0 sweep in the regular-season home-and-home. He went to the locker room late in the quarter after having hit his hand on the rim early and grimacing in pain.
James’ post-game press conference was less callous than the one that followed Game 1, answering every question thoroughly after being short-tempered Thursday night, and taking much of the loss on his shoulders following a game where he said he turned the ball over seven times.
Lue said one area Dellavedova needs to improve is not fall into the trap of speeding up his game when the Warriors put their taller guards, Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, on him. Both the Warriors and the Cavaliers had a game plan in place to counter the opponents’ small ball lineups.
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Tristan Thompson had eight points in the quarter, during which Golden State committed six turnovers and Curry picked up two early fouls. He was placed in the National Basketball Association concussion protocol and is questionable for Game 3, which is scheduled for Wednesday in Cleveland. Green became the fourth player in Warriors history with 500 rebounds in the postseason, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Nate Thurmond and Clyde Lee.
