What improvements do Dubs need to knock off Cavs?
Golden State looks for boost of pride after losses Christmas Eve, Game 7
OAKLAND — Come May and June, Monday won’t matter. But for a boost of pride and bragging rights until then, the Warriors get a chance at temporary redemption. Just 22 days after the fourth-quarter collapse on Christmas in Cleveland, the Cavaliers come to Oracle Arena for the first time since Game 7 of last year’s Finals.
Many factors will determine whether Golden State can snap a four-game losing streak against its biggest rival. But the three areas to monitor are the three that led to that letdown three weeks back: poor defensive rebounding, too many turnovers and Stephen Curry’s lack of aggression.
Cleveland had 18 offensive rebounds on Christmas. LeBron James had five. Tristan Thompson had six. The Warriors held the Cavaliers to 39 percent shooting for the floor, but often failed to complete the final step of a successful defensive stand.
Numerous times, the Warriors let a more aggressive re-
bounder blast by or through them and hustle to an important loose ball. It’s been a theme in their losses this season. The Spurs had 21 offensive rebounds in the opener. Memphis had 14 last week.
“When the shot goes up, you can do one of two things: You can stare at the butterflies in the sky or you can go find a body,” Kerr said. “We look at a lot of butterflies.”
But they’ve recently trended in a positive direction. The past three games, the Warriors only gave up one, five and nine offensive rebounds to DeMarcus Cousins’ Kings, Hassan Whiteside’s Heat and Andre Drummond’s Pistons. Now they must hold the Cavaliers off the glass, while also protecting the ball.
The Warriors had 19 turnovers in Cleveland. Five crucial ones came down the stretch. Curry had an unnecessary behind-the-back blunder in transition. Draymond Green had three bad passes in the fourth quarter. Andre Iguodala threw away a potential game-clinching dunk in the final minute.
“The simple leads to the spectacular,” Kerr said. “That’s one of my pet sayings. There’s always a balance with this team. We’re a little loose. That’s who we are. I accept that and embrace it. But I know when to draw the line and understand what will make a special play is four or five simple actions.”
But all was not negative for the Warriors in Cleveland. An encouraging trend sprouted from the adversity. In December, Curry slumped into the offensive background, taking only an average of 15.5 shots per game and averaging 21 points. Against the Cavaliers, he took 11 shots, scored 15 points and essentially looked like a glorified role player.
“There was a pattern over a couple games where he was shooting in the teens, low teens in shots,” Kevin Durant said.
The loss on that national stage shined a bright light on an already-forming problem. Criticism rained down. Curry recognized it, publicly asked for more pick-and-roll and offensive control and then became aggressive in finding and taking more shots. In six January games, he’s averaging 29.2 points on 21.7 field goal attempts.
“I’ve always told him to shoot the ball,” Durant said. “I like when he comes across half and pull up for the 3 or when he comes off the pickand-roll and shoots it with no pass. It’s a good shot. It’s a great shot. Shooting 11 shots one game, 13 shots one game, that’s not him and he knows that.”
But of late, Cleveland has defended him well. The Cavaliers dog him with a defensive-minded shooting guard — it’ll be Iman Shumpert on Monday — bump him on every cut through the lane and try to force him to become passive. In five of the past eight games against the Cavaliers, Curry has scored fewer than 20 points.
“We can definitely do a better job of getting Steph involved,” Kerr said. “We probably went away from him too much (on Christmas). That’s my fault. I think he probably looks back at that game and feels he could’ve been more aggressive. I think he’ll be more aggressive.”
If that’s the result — and Curry’s aggressiveness helps flip the momentum back to Golden State in this titanic but recently lopsided clash — then you can chalk up the Christmas Day crumble as a net positive for the Warriors.
“Over the course of a season you’re going to learn a lot of lessons,” Curry said. “That was definitely a moment . ... You got to understand what went wrong in those games and get better.”