The Golden State Warriors won Game 2 of the NBA Finals in a convincing manner 122:103 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The guests tried a lot, but in the end they had no means against the show of Stephen Curry.
No breakdowns or dropouts were necessary this time so that the Warriors could also secure Game 2 of the finals. It wasn’t the performance of the referees, even though Tristan Thompson, among others, claimed this – there were of course false calls, even conspicuous ones, but on both sides. The usual. The foul ratio was 25:15 – from the hosts’ point of view. This was certainly not the basis of a conspiracy.
The Warriors won Game 2 because they were the better team – this time they played from the start with the intensity they showed in Game 1 only in overtime. They used their own strengths more consistently and had more movement in their offense, not least thanks to the inclusion of JaVale McGee (this is an X-factor in the finals). Defensively it was especially with Kevin Durant a difference like day and night compared to the start of the series.
The final MVP of 2017 invested much more energy in his own basket, took in LeBron James early and made him work so hard for his numbers that Andre Iguodala would also have been satisfied. In the last quarter Draymond Green took over the LeBron service and made it even better.
“LeBron had felt very comfortable in game one. Today, at least we managed to make it a little uncomfortable for him,” said Steve Kerr. “I mean, all you can do is try your best and put pressure on him. You know he’ll still have 30 points and a triple double because he’s so good. But at least we made it harder for him today.” This was true and was of course a very important key to the clear 122:103 victory in the end.
The other key was named Stephen Curry, especially in the last quarter. That he scored nine triples and thus set a new final record is one thing, but probably even more important than the absurd number, was the timing and sometimes the type of throws he hit.
After just under a minute in the last run LeBron scored a three-pointer, which was 7 points behind and briefly gave the Cavs hope of a comeback. Curry answered with a threesome, collected the next rebound after Jeff Green’s miss, made Larry Nance look old for the second time – and sunk the next longball. It was 13 again.
Three more bombs followed, including a curious buzzerbeater from reverse against Kevin Love and a 4-point play, also against Love. Within a few minutes, an open game turned into a blowout. “He hit every important shot when we needed one,” Kerr praised after the game and summed up the game quite adequately.
Especially the Buzzerbeater against Love was a killer: The Cavs had actually defended well in this posession and Curry even lost control of the ball, and he was several meters behind the triple line. Nevertheless, he found nothing but a net with the litter. “It’s hard. He can hit things like that. When he sees the basket, he usually hits it,” a crunched Ty Lue put on record.
“We played very good defense for 23.5 seconds and then he turns around and hits a magic throw,” said Love, shaking his head. Similarly, the Cavaliers had already reacted on the court. But who would blame them? When Curry is hot in the Oracle Arena, it looks like the Warriors have six players on the court.
On the days when he meets such litters, the dubs are actually unbeatable. The Cavs know this after three duels in the finals – but it seems as if Curry wants to remind them again.
Curry shouldn’t have much to prove anymore. The man is a double MVP and double champion, he was the team’s best player with the most regular season wins in NBA history. He is well on his way not only to beat all three records, but to powder them. He’s the best shooter the league’s ever seen. Hardly anyone questions the latter any more.
When something is questioned with curry, these are rather different things. Toughness and defense, for example. Each team is now trying to replicate the recipe of the Cavaliers from the 2016 finals against him: Curry is defended physically hard, no matter by whom, and defensively attacked permanently after the switch.
In the conference finals, the Rockets’ offense consisted largely of forcing Curry into a defensive one-on-one against James Harden, and now the Cavs are once again pursuing a similar strategy with LeBron. The most important player of the Warriors (sorry, KD) should be made their weak spot at the same time.
Curry, however, is taking up this challenge even more than in recent years and is not afraid of confrontation. In the overtime of game 1 he had a little battle of words with James, this time it was Kendrick Perkins at the end of the third quarter, with whom Curry exchanged a few words.
“It’s okay if it gets a little hot. That wasn’t a big deal,” he said afterwards, but the fight seemed to spur him on, the last quarter was much better (5/8 FG, 5/5 threesomes) than the previous three (6/18). Basically, Curry seems to want to dispel the prejudice that he could be pushed around. It almost seems personal.
With his threesome Curry pushed the Cavs around in this game. “You can definitely see it in their faces when he meets some of these litters,” said Green. “It was one dagger at a time. They play great defense, then he goes up and hits a threesome in your face. This will have an effect on the other team.”
From the Cavs the will gradually gave way, while the effect with the Warriors was logically quite different. Again it became clear that this team is best and most explosive when the offense runs over curry and KD is increasingly used as off-ball weapon deluxe.
Of course, Curry can be overexcited from time to time, but Golden State is best when Curry gives his creativity free rein and continues to rock himself, his team and his arena with throws that only he is allowed to take and hit. And demoralized the opponent even more.
“To hit such litters is what he does,” James said, “so you shouldn’t be surprised or even intimidated. Take the ball out, go forward and try to play through your next action cleanly.” However, this is easier said than done.