“We played a little bit too much random, trying to dribble drive, get guys looks, and then we started settling a little bit for the three-point shot when we kind of got down”.
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Shaking off days of scrutiny over his subpar play, Curry responded with 38 points to lead a 108-97 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.
Golden State finally got an MVP-type game from Stephen Curry, who finished with 38 points and had six assists to help his team to a 3-1 lead as the series shifts back to Oakland on Monday night.
The pace of the game was much quicker than what’s been dished up so far this series as the second quarter followed a similar pattern to the first – the two teams staying neck and neck for the majority before the Cavs pulled away slightly to go into half-time with a 55-50 lead.
The Warriors hit an NBA Finals-record 17 three-pointers, with 11 of them coming from Curry and Thompson.
Teams have come back from 3-1 deficits in the National Basketball Association postseason. Now, with quiet as the backdrop, Golden State prepares to win just one more. “I’ve seen this man make 25 threes in a row in practice”. There’s no small-ball like the Warriors’ small ball, and it’s one win away from another championship.
Almost 15 years ago today, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson stepped over the Los Angeles Lakers’ Tyronn Lue after a made shot in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on the way to one of the most surprising upsets of the playoffs.
James appeared to step on Green’s hand after first walking over him, while the Warriors starting power forward lay on the hardwood between half court and the top of the three-point arc.
“We’ve got to be aggressive”, James said. And if the series somehow goes seven games, two of the next three games would be on the Warriors’ home court. They were unable to contain the Warriors guards, however.
His second ring in 2013 with Miami came when the Heat needed to win two elimination games in the finals to oust the San Antonio Spurs in what became a dramatic seven-game matchup, highlighted by Ray Allen’s overtime-forcing 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6.
When James was introduced before the game, he went through his usual handshake ritual with his teammates before telling Irving, “Be special”. “I don’t think there’s any doubting that we can do it. We’ve just got to ball out”. Well, yeah. At that point, they already had – the Cavs were down 86-83 at that juncture, and had Thompson made slightly above his average on those five freebies, Cleveland would be working a tie game. It’s a hard thing to ask for near-perfection from defenses playing Golden State, but it’s a reality.
“It’s probably going to be even more intense on Monday”, Curry said.
But for the Cavaliers there was no way to defuse the Curry and Thompson time bomb that exploded again on Friday. We haven’t played that well. “I think up 2-0 we came in here and, for whatever reason, we thought, OK, we’ve got this”. After he went through a rigorous pregame workout along with assistant coach James Posey, Love ran off the floor, where a Cleveland fan had a stern message for him. C Anderson Varejao, who spent 11 seasons with the Cavs before he was traded in February, had three offensive rebounds and made two free throws during a four-minute stretch late in the third quarter.
Irving and James took turns dribbling through isolation sets in the second half, particularly the fourth quarter, with little success.
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“If you can’t get up for that there’s something wrong with you”, Thompson said. Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith each had 10 points, all in the first half.
