After rattling off three straight wins in elimination games to win their second straight Western Conference Championship, the Warriors fought through offensive struggles from their starting backcourt to earn a 104-89 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland Thursday night.
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“We’ve got to keep our focus and our edge and hopefully get two more”, said Stephen Curry, who had 18 points and nine rebounds.
Cleveland’s misery was compounded in the third quarter when forward Kevin Love had to leave the game feeling dizzy after taking a blow in the second quarter.
But, past year the Warriors won game one in Oakland and then lost the second in overtime when they could not match the inspiring 39 point, 16 rebound and 11 assist effort from the Cavaliers’ LeBron James and intensity and key plays by Australian guard Matthew Dellavedova.
Nobody is expecting the Warriors to be led by Shaun Livingston in scoring come Game 2 however they shouldn’t need him to if Steph and Klay can have slightly better games.
Such was the case in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, in which the Warriors thrashed the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Then, the Warriors built the lead back up into the double digits and never looked back.
Draymond Green led the way with 28 points.
The impressive Green, who finished with 28 points, helped the reigning champions run away with the contest in the final two quarters and they head to Cleveland on Wednesday with a 2-0 series lead. That’s the longest winning streak by any team against a LeBron James team. He followed up his 16 point, 11 rebound and seven assist performance by going off for 18 points in the first half on Sunday. After spending nearly two minutes on the floor, Love convinced the Cavaliers staff he was OK to continue.
“What we’ve done the last few years, everybody, every night has an impact”, Curry said. They sped things up in the second quarter, and it bit them. Curiously, J.R. Smith not only scored just three points in Game 1, but he only shot the ball three times in 36 minutes.
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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. The Cavaliers pushed the Warriors previous year because they overpowered them – a return to that strategy may be the only chance they have.
