TODAY’S GAME
Warriors at Cavs, 8 p.m., TNT
“It’s everything now, espe- cially since they have Steph (Curry) back, he puts them in a whole different category,” Kevin Love said. “Gonna have to scrap, going to have to fight, use our home court to our advantage ... and leave it all out there on the floor.”
Actually, Curry missed two games with a sprained ankle, including Friday’s win over Milwaukee. But Curry was out when Golden State beat the Cavs on Christmas because of a severe sprain, and in his five games played between then and now he averaged 35.2 points and made 33 3-pointers.
The Cavs were in a great place when they last saw the Warriors. They’d recently won 18 out of 19 and arrived in the Bay Area with quiet confidence.
Cleveland lost 99-92 essen- tially on poor shooting — a season-worst .318 from the floor. They didn’t know it then, but the loss that day was the start of this very bad stretch.
In the Cavs’ past seven losses (starting with the Warriors), they’ve only scored more than 100 points once.
“I just thought offensively we didn’t play well,” coach Tyronn Lue said of the Christmas game. “It kind of started on that trip offensively, just haven’t been making shots, haven’t been playing with a lot of pace. We’ve just got to get back to doing that.”
As previously mentioned, the Warriors have a penchant for embarrassing the Cavs on MLK Day. Last year, in Oakland, Calif., the Warriors won 126-91. The year before, in Cleveland, it was 132-98. David Blatt was fired by the end of that week.
The Cavs would seem to be set up for a similar fate, given how things have gone lately. After an initially smooth entry, Isaiah Thomas’ transition has been rocky. He’s shot 5 of 23 in his past two games and 0 of 17 in the first half.
Thomas didn’t play against the Pacers. Today will of course be his first game with the Cavs against the Warriors.
Lue recently said the Cavs were playing with “agendas,” which he’s explained to both the team and reporters to mean that the players lately haven’t been moving the ball or helping on defense.
“If the coach sees that, that’s what he sees,” J.R. Smith said. “I don’t think that’s the case. We’re too talented to play for agendas.”
Smith said he believes the Cavs are “fine” and will even- tually pull together because of James and of players with rings and playoff experience on Cleveland’s deep roster. But he said now is the time for the Cavs to be working on themselves, instead of any one opponent, because of the newness of Thomas in the lineup and other players coming and going due to injury and rest.
“Tough to get a groove for one another and it’s going to be like that for quite a little bit,” Smith said. “We can go on a winning streak, still doesn’t mean we know each other. But it’s all right. We’ll get better. That’s what the regular season is for.”
Batten down the hatches, folks. Here come the Warriors.
“Now it’s time to get back to the Q, get back home,” Lue said. “Get our fans behind us. We need them and start from there.”