The Warriors, on an National Basketball Association record 14-game playoff win streak, lead 2-0 in the best-of-seven championship series entering Wednesday’s third game at Cleveland.
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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) shoots against Golden State Warriors forward David West (3) during the second half in game two of the 2017 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. That Kevin Love (who played a strong all-around game) had to force some things has a lot to do with the fact that Golden State is one of the best ever at closing out to perimeter shooters.
Steve Kerr, following his surprise return to the bench, aptly described the Warriors’ Game 2 win as a “talent” victory. Cleveland even lost Game 2 of the 2016 finals by 33 points, a bigger margin than Sunday night’s defeat. He was basically considered a Top 15 player in the National Basketball Association.
“Oh, we have got a plan in Cleveland, we’re going to shut him down. That’s what he does”. These Cavaliers are probably a more complete team than the one that brought a championship to Cleveland previous year thanks to the additions of Kyle Korver and Deron Williams, while the Warriors – breaking news – added Kevin Durant.
“They probably already know because they’re all on their phones all the time”, he said. Game 1 it was the Cavs with this problem but with two days of film to watch and surely having had the message hammered home, the giveaways were held to a minimum, a total of eight for the first half.
Golden State improved to 14-0 this postseason to keep alive a chance of becoming the first group to go unbeaten all the way to a title.
Kevin Love scored 27 points, and still the Cavaliers were blown out. It was his eighth career triple-double in the NBA Finals, tying Magic Johnson for the record.
“Right now, it means nothing, but it will mean something”, said James.
The two combined for 66 points in Game 1 and 65 points in Game 2.
Next – Game Three will be played in Cleveland on June 7. Somehow. Maybe they hope the Warriors will get all confused with the time-zone changes and all that.
He was even seen huffing and puffing as he went to the bench at one point in the third quarter.
Now Kerr is back, facing the very team that stormed back from a 3-1 deficit in last year’s Finals to steal a championship.
Green eventually had a deliberate, even more thoughtful answer than his original reaction to the question, which was worded pretty oddly even if you could sort of understand where the reporter was trying to go with it.
Cleveland, down 0-2, must rely on LeBron James’s knack for figuring out the opponent.
At halftime, the coach asked Stephen Curry to stop worrying about his turnovers and play with joy and passion.
It didn’t matter in the end. Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below and be sure to check back in with FanSided each and every day for our continuing coverage of the 2017 NBA Finals.
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“(He’ll say), ‘We’re better than that, we need to do this, we need to do that.’ It’s whatever needs to be said.
