Stephen Curry wasn’t greeted by the scent of champagne in the visitor’s locker room, but he and the rest of the Golden State Warriors were able to celebrate a 34-point victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Quicken Loans Arena nonetheless. The Dubs rode hot shooting and relentless defense to torch the Eastern Conference’s best team in a game that they led wire to wire. Want to know what reeks for the Cavs? Losing to the Warriors (38-4) five straight times.
1) Warriors fans with their arms in the air can put them down now; the sky’s not falling on the Dubs’ season. After lackluster performances that led to two losses in three outings, the Warriors came out focused and energized for this rematch of last season’s Finals. The team had it going early, connecting on their first five attempts for a 10-2 lead. Led by Curry’s 16 first quarter points on 6-of-7 shooting, Golden State finished the first frame with a 13-point advantage. The Warriors never looked back on its way to 132 points on 54-percent shooting against the NBA’s fourth-best defense.
2) That was one of the best Stephen Curry games in a while. On a big stage with big names and big talk, the reigning MVP wanted to make a statement of his own. Obviously miffed that he had to clarify the champagne quote, and also bothered by the off-season “what ifs” regarding the Warriors’ championship run, Steph was in Assassin mode all night. He ended the evening with 35 points on 12-of-18 shooting and outscored Lebron, Kyrie, and Love combined … in only 28 minutes.
3) The Warriors defense was like the Devastator Decepticon: a cohesive unit of five individuals all working in unison to form a larger-than-life destroyer. That five-man defense-on-a-string confounded the Cavs into 16 turnovers and a combined 27 points on 11-of-32 shooting from the Cavs Big Three. Kyrie Irving was a minus-21 for the game and Lebron James finished with a career-low minus-34. The defensive help was on time and effective, the switches were swift, and the Warriors hands habitually got into passing lanes and Cavalier space, so much so that I felt like I was witnessing a crime at times.
4) Cleveland got pick-and-rolled to death. No team has a sustainable answer for the Steph-Draymond pick-and-roll, but the Cavs, especially with Kevin Love on Green, was abysmal all night. At one point, Love was running around so aimlessly on D that he resembled a guy trying to hit his minimum steps on a Nike FuelBand. If Love isn’t scoring lights out against the Warriors, his slow feet and limited athleticism on defense leaves the $110-million man borderline unplayable at the end of games.
5) A regular season win in January doesn’t legitimize a championship, but coming into this season there was a lot of talk from Cleveland on how had they been healthy, it would’ve been Lebron and Co celebrating in June. Well, now that the Ws have won two games straight against a full strength Cavs squad, are there any hypotheticals left?
6) Lebron’s blatant shove earned him a foul, but Steph’s grab did force the issue. Warriors fans (rightly) complain about the abuse Curry takes from opposing defenses, but Curry isn’t a choir boy, he gets in on the grabby play too. (By the way, you can’t just throw Steph to the ground without consequence. The MVP drilled a three on the next possession.
7) Andre Iguodala is so sure of this Curry three that he’s just out there doing stretches.
8) Maybe JR Smith didn’t deserve a Flagrant-2 for making like Patrick Willis and running straight into Harrison Barnes in the third quarter, but when you remember he did the exact same thing to Draymond in Game 5 of the Finals, and that he has a long history of this stuff, maybe he did.
9) Matchups are key in the playoffs and the Cavs clearly don’t match up well with the Warriors. Cleveland’s bigs are too slow to keep pace when the Dubs go small, and their smalls can’t guard the Warriors all-6″6′-and-Curry unit. Luckily for the Cavs, by virtue of playing in the East, they get to watch the Warriors, Spurs and Thunder battle to the death during the playoffs and then try and pick off the leftover carcass of a team that emerges from that Death Fight.
10) The tough stretch continues with games against Chicago, Indiana, San Antonio and Dallas. The Warriors could again play uninspired ball during that span and drop a game or two, but I wouldn’t be too concerned. The team not playing with its best effort in January is a problem that can be fixed come the playoffs, the team’s best effort not being good enough (as is the case with the Cavs) is far more serious. As they showed again last night, these Warriors can uncork a beat down when it matters most, even if there’s nary a hint of champagne to celebrate with.
You guys forgot to post the obligatory .gif of Lebron’s face after Steph stole the ball.
That was a sad face like 🙁
http://thesource.com/2016/01/19/lebrons-face-when-stephen-curry-steals-the-ball-from-him-says-it-all/