Sadly, since he’s not on the Knicks anymore and he’s actually on a good team, that’s meant a decrease in his rounds.
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New Cavaliers’ head coach Tyronn Lue has been cagey about his strategy, but he is expected to toss Dellavedova on Curry again with Irving handling the Warriors’ other major scoring threat, Klay Thompson.
This felt like a game the Cavaliers needed to win.
But at that point the Warriors led 96-76 with just under 6 minutes left, Curry and Thompson had combined for only 14 points on 6-for-22 shooting.
“He’s going to need some good treatment tomorrow, for sure”, Curry said only half-jokingly afterward. “In terms of being back here in Game 1, a lot of emotions, but now that Game 1’s over, just ready to attack Game 2”. On Thursday, there were three for the Warriors.
Game 2 is Sunday in Oakland.
They are now just four wins away from a second straight National Basketball Association championship, just when it looked like an early exit was a distinct possibility.
Livingston, who scored a playoff career-high 20 points, Iguodala and Barbosa picked up the slack for the defending champions, however.
If the Cavaliers win, it’s because they have figured out how to stop Curry, Thompson and Green.
“We’ve talked about our depth for the last two years”. “Steph gets a lot of headlines and deservedly so, but we have so many great players that always show up on the biggest stage”.
Considering Livingston made 11 field goals in the entire Western Conference Finals (which went seven games), his production was somewhat unexpected. In the last three occasions of an NBA Finals rematch, the team who lost the series the first time won the series the following season. So we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to take those guys out of the game.
The Cavaliers had staged a comeback in the third quarter, scoring seven straight points to cut the Warriors’ lead to 56-52.
“It’s all a feel, just being aggressive”, Livingston said. “That’s not what I’m playing for”, he said. “But we have a game plan and we have to follow it and be true to it”.
That’s the feeling this game had from the opening tip, with the Warriors threatening to pull away early after leading the first quarter 28-24. For most of the game the Warriors were shooting better than 50 percent (they finished at 49.4 percent), but even still the Warriors only hit 33.3 percent from three on the night.
Even the Cavs’ LeBron James sees Curry and Thompson as a threat to his team in the upcoming Finals and told Fox Sports that the Warriors’ All-NBA backcourt features “probably the two greatest shooters” ever.
LeBron James said the Cavs stuck to their defensive game plan, for the most part.
Love continued to be active in rebounding, and turned an offensive rebound into a layup, which gave the Cavaliers a one-point advantage, 64-63, with 3:57 to play.
Iguodala embraced his return to the bench, pestered James on defense and then stood up for himself when he got hit by Dellavedova to spark the Warriors’ game-changing run. Namely: The Cavs are at full strength as they try again for the franchise’s first championship after losing in six games a year ago.
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But make no mistakes, the Warriors will not let that happen without a fight.
