Durant makes emphatic opening statement
Warriors ride 38 points from newcomer to ‘thrilogy’ to take Game 1 from Cavaliers by 22 points
LeBron James needed only two letters to answer what stood out to him from Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “KD,” he said. He was asked to expand about Kevin Durant, the player he guarded for most of the game, after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-91 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
“I mean, you take one of the best teams that we had ever assembled last year, that we saw in the regular season and in the post-season, and then in the off-season you add a high-powered offensive talent like that and a great basketball IQ like that, that’s what stands out,” James said. “I mean, it’s no if, ands, or buts. It is what it is. We got to figure out how to combat that.”
This game, the site of the Warriors’ Game 7 humiliation to the Cavaliers last year, was supposed to be the first time the Warriors felt any real resistance this postseason. Instead, this game felt like the start of a coronation for this reloaded superteam from Oakland.
“We could be a lot better than we were tonight,” Durant said, without a hint of irony. “But in The Finals, you get the W, we’ll take it.”
“I’m only as good as my teammates,” he added. “Steph and Klay [Thompson] and Draymond and Zaza [Pachulia] and the rest of the guys, we just complement each other, try to complement each other and try to make the game easier for each other. And I only can get in transition because we got stops and rebounding.”
In their nightmares the Cavaliers will see Durant sprinting down the middle of the court, and slamming down an uncontested dunk. Durant unleashed the fury of nine years with no championships, with one lopsided NBA Finals appearance.
Durant finished with 38 points, 30 points in the first three quarters, 23 in the first half. He added eight rebounds, eight assists and no turnovers. Warriors guard Stephen Curry finished the game with 28 point, 10 assists and six rebounds. LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 28 points, 19 in the first half.
“To have a game like that when he’s playing that way, it’s tough to beat,” Draymond Green said. “Thirty-eight, eight, eight, zero turnovers? I mean that’s – we’re real tough to beat when he’s doing that... We’re going to seek him out, get him the ball, and guys got to defend him. He was amazing tonight, and I expect nothing less in the rest of the games.”
Never before had the same two teams met in three consecutive Finals.
The Warriors won 4-2 in 2015 for the franchise’s first championship in 40 years.
The Cavaliers won a seven-game series in 2016 after trailing 3-1 in the series. It was the first team to ever recover from a 3-1 deficit in the finals. It was the first championship for any Cleveland professional team in 53 years.
This year, the showdown seemed inevitable.
The Warriors didn’t lose a single game in the first three rounds of the playoffs, becoming the first team since the 2000-01 Lakers to enter the Finals undefeated. They were the first team in NBA history to begin the postseason 12-0, dispatching Portland, Utah and San Antonio.
The Cavaliers dusted their opponents as well. Neither the Pacers, nor the Raptors nor the Celtics had a chance, though Boston at least put up a fight, winning a game.
Both teams entered Thursday’s game with more than a week of rest.
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr watched the game from the locker room, unable to take the sideline due to complications from a back surgery that has sidelined him since the first round of the playoffs.
The first quarter seemed worthy of the lofty status both teams had earned.
Durant and James matched each other in a feisty duel. Once during the first quarter, Durant toppled James as he blew by him, then drove in for a dunk. Durant feasted when the Cavaliers overcommitted to the Warriors’ three-point shooters.
“When Kevin Durant has the ball, you don’t want to leave him and get to shooters,” Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue said.
By the end of the first quarter, the Warriors led 35-30, had 22 points in the paint to the Cavaliers’ eight. They led Cleveland in second-chance points, too, 12-5. And they’d only turned the ball over one time.
In the second quarter they extended that lead to eight.
In the third quarter they began treating the Cavaliers just like the teams they faced before them. The Cavaliers didn’t score for the first three minutes and 56 seconds of that period, while the Warriors went on a 13-0 run.
It was all too much for Cleveland to overcome, at least for one day. They got two days off to decipher what happened and do what no team has done yet this postseason: fix it.