Bogut off the board in Warriors’ chess gambit
MATTHEW Dellavedova, suffering leg cramps, was courageous, but a smaller, faster Golden State Warriors squad bounced back to take game four of the NBA Finals.
The Warriors, making a surprise move of pulling Australian centre Andrew Bogut from the starting line-up, defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-82 to lock up the best-ofseven series 2-2.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said he wanted to go with a smaller, more mobile squad, inserting forward Andre Iguodala as a starter and also going to another forward David Lee off the bench in favour of Bogut.
Bogut played less than three minutes, was scoreless and had just one rebound.
“The move changes the chess board,” said Kerr, who decided to bench Bogut in the morning before the game and lied to reporters at two pregame press conferences.
“It was important to get better spacing.”
The Cavaliers looked weary after their epic game-three victory on Tuesday, with Dellavedova and James receiving treatment during breaks and timeouts.
Dellavedova, hospitalised with exhaustion after game three, had 10 points from 33 minutes.
Despite hitting two consecutive three-pointers in the third quarter, Dellavedova’s shot was off with 3-14 shooting, including 2-9 behind the threepoint line.
“He played his heart out like he always does,” Cavaliers’ coach David Blatt said of Dellavedova.
“He gave us 100 per cent of what he had.”
LeBron James, suffering a large cut on his head after being fouled by Bogut and crashing into a cameraman, had 20 points and 12 rebounds.
Cavaliers’ Russian centre Timofey Mozgov, without an opposing centre guarding him, had a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds. Dellavedova still performed a solid defensive performance on the Warriors’ best shooter Stephen Curry, but the NBA MVP still managed 22 points on 8-17 shooting.
The star for the Warriors was Iguodala, who not only guarded James but had 22 points and eight rebounds.
The series now moves to the Warriors’ home court in Oakland for game five tomorrow. glad to have Darling back but is keen to see his third-placed team bounce back from last Sunday’s loss to North Melbourne in Hobart.
“For the second week in a row we come up against a team that has its back against the wall, but we’re pretty desperate ourselves at the moment,” he said.
Essendon arrive in Perth fresh off a horror loss to Geelong in which they didn’t score a goal in the first half, and slipped to 13th position with a 4-6 record.
Coach James Hird is glad to welcome back captain Jobe Watson and to give a debut to Shaun Edwards.
“Jobe’s such an important player for us and Shaun Edwards . . . gets his first game for the club after seven weeks of VFL where he’s been outstanding,” he said.
“But we didn’t need wholesale changes.”
Jack Darling