James came within an assist of a triple-double – but it became a quiet 23-point, 12-rebound, nine-assist night because of the noise the Warriors’ bench made and all the noise in the arena.
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Game 2 prediction: Golden State 111, Cleveland 101.
By shouldering the blame, James is trying to shield his teammates from scrutiny. But the Warriors are so good and so deep that this isn’t a team that allows you to hide someone on defense.
Irving made a jumper and a 3-point play and Tristan Thompson scored off a rebound to pull Cleveland within 56-52 early in the third quarter. “I don’t think I need to press to score a certain amount of points, but be more decisive with the ball”. Onetime Net Shaun Livingston scored 20, matching Curry and Thompson combined, and leading the 45-10 bench scoring advantage.
James has won four MVP awards and two titles and has always been considered the best basketball player in the world.
“I’m not disappointed in our guys or frustrated. That’s why we’re here”, Curry said afterward, adding that Game 1 was “weird but fun”. “That’s what won us the game”.
“We’re playing against a half-court defense, they’re switching 1 through 5, they make you stagnant and make you play one-on-one basketball because that’s all you can get”, he said. He was drafted by the Warriors in 2012 and is in the last year of a four-year rookie contract, earning an annual average of $2.2 million.
“We were in the same situation and felt good about ourselves after game one and they came and snatched victory from us in game two”, Bogut said. But they were worse.
An irate Steve Kerr called timeout, smashed and shattered his clipboard, and the Warriors eventually responded with a 15-0 run and outscored Cleveland 40-24 overall.
As he tries to bring a championship to Cleveland, his hometown, James has at least one Hall of Fame supporter: Jerry West, who has no patience for James’ critics. The starting lineup is getting beat. Cleveland needs to find a way to get J.R. Smith and Channing Frye more three-point shots. “It’s hard for me to kind of pinpoint what’s not working and what could work right now”. It’s unbelievable. “He has great timing, great eye-hand coordination, and obviously his wingspan works to his advantage to be able to close that space up”. ESPN drew an 0.6 Hispanic household rating with 124,000 total viewers, making it the most-watched and highest-rated Game 1 ever on the network.
“They’re a great team when you just hold the ball and pound the ball”, James said. There’s some margin for error on these plays – for instance, the cameras will sometimes assign a “nearest defender” who is guarding a different offensive player because the shooter’s defender was so badly lost – but the underlying plays looked just as awful.
Game 2 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) is now Cleveland’s biggest game of the season.
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The Cavs might need to rethink this strategy.
