NO CONTEST
Curry, Warriors take a more aggressive approach and avenge their Christmas loss to the Cavaliers
OAKLAND — During the condensed, grueling NBA season, three days of rest and practice tend to turn talented teams into sharp, lethal world-beaters. The Warriors stewed on the Christmas loss for three weeks, prepared for the rematch for three days and arrived laser focused Monday night in Oracle.
The result: a 126-91 beatdown of the Cleveland Cavaliers to snap a four-game losing streak against their biggest rival and remind the league that, when zipping at full capacity, there’s not a higher ceiling in the league. It’s just about how often they can reach it.
Steph Curry spearheaded Monday’s dominance. The Warriors’ star point guard was
criticized for his quiet 11shot performance in the Christmas loss at Cleveland. He’s ramped up his aggressiveness since and made sure to display that change early on Monday.
Curry attacked and drove right past a sluggish Kyrie Irving on the game’s first possession for a lefty layup. He took three more 3s in the next few minutes, including one of those patented 30-foot, early-inthe-shot-clock transition bombs. Curry missed. But the tone had been set. The Warriors were on the attack. The Cavaliers were on their heels.
Golden State led 7-0 before you could blink, capped by a Kevin Durant leakout dunk, easily beating LeBron James down the court. Curry hit a 3 to give the Warriors a 10-point lead only eight minutes into the game. He nailed another 3 to close the first quarter, bumping the early cushion to 36-22.
But even when the Warriors are at their high-voltage best, carelessness is often a side effect. Golden State played great in the first three quarters a few weeks back against the Cavaliers. But a batch of turnovers kept the Cavaliers close enough to pull off a fourth-quarter comeback.
Not Monday. The Warriors only had two firstquarter turnovers — neither led to Cavaliers points — and four in the first half, allowing them to create enough separation that the vaunted fourth was nothing but meaningless mop-up duty.
Curry finished the first half with 14 points, 10 assists and zero turnovers, capping the explosion with a 28-foot buzzer-beater to put Golden State up 7849. In all, Curry only made seven of his 20 shots, but postgame, his teammates emphasized the 20 and not the inefficiency.
“Love that he took 20 shots,” Klay Thompson said. “When he’s aggressive, we go.”
Thompson had an under-the-radar great game himself, finishing with a team-high 26 points and five 3s. Really, every Warriors rotation player had a meaningful impact, particularly Golden State’s three biggest bench pieces.
In Cleveland, at the end of a three-game, fournight road trip, Andre Iguodala went scoreless in 25 sluggish minutes and committed a crucial turnover down the stretch. But Monday, after a long homestand and three days of rest, Iguodala, looking spry, scored a season-high 14 points, making all five of his shots and both of his 3s to go along with five assists.
“I told Andre on the bench today: ‘You realize the difference in the game?’ ” Draymond Green said. “He said, ‘For who?’ I said ‘For us.’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve got to be more aggressive.’ ”
Iguodala wasn’t alone. David West had six points on 3-of-4 shooting in 15 minutes and Shaun Livingston also dropped in a seasonhigh in points: 13 on 6-of-7 shooting, coming primarily from his old school midrange game. The three veterans combined: 33 points, two missed shots.
“Our bench was great,” Thompson said.
And when the Warriors are getting that kind of supplementary offensive production, it allows their do-everything forwards to showcase their complete skill sets.
Monday, Kevin Durant and Green combined for 16 of the team’s 37 assists — the Warriors have 730 assists from the forward position this season, no other team has more than 485 — and eight blocks. The assisting, with this team, was expected. It had 26 more than the Cavaliers on Monday. But the shot-blocking wasn’t.
Remember back to the beginning of the season when one of Golden State’s supposed weak spots was expected to be a lack of rim protection? It’s morphed into a strength. The Warriors lead the league in blocks per game at 6.1.
Their 11 on Monday included Durant meeting LeBron James on a powerful drive to the rim and completely stuffing a layup attempt, plus Green sending away a career-high five shots to go along with his third triple-double of the season: 11 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists.
“The activity level, when it’s high, we have a lot of long-limbed, active defenders,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We may not be the prototypical big, strong team, but when we’re active, we have guys like KD and Draymond who get their hands on shots.”
But that goes for more than just rim protection. When the Warriors are active and energized, they’re deadly in all areas.
Add three days of rest and dreams of redemption and you get Monday night’s result in Oracle.