When will Curry and Thompson show up?
Hours before the walls of the Quicken Loans arena would cave in on the defending champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally putting up a fight in a Game 3 rout of the Golden State Warriors, their mystified MVP was asked a question that would prove to be quite poignant.
“Can you win here without you or Klay [Thompson] having a big night?” the reporter asked Stephen Curry. He shrugged, then replied. “Hopefully we don’t have to answer that question.”
The Warriors have two days to come up with the answers now. The Splash Brothers, who were outscored 50-29 by the revived Cavs back-court of Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith, are officially sinking.
This dynamic duo that torched the nets all season had spent the first two games of the Finals playing with fire, the two best players on the league’s best team coming up short in every way on the biggest stage. Their depth had masked the struggles, the Warriors winning Games 1 and 2 big in large part because of the rising-tide-lifts-all-ships effect of their mere presence.
The Cavs had made it their top defensive priority to dry Curry and Thompson out, yet forgot to put their fingers in all the other Warriors dykes that flowed so freely. From Shaun Livingston to Andre Iguodala to Leandro Barbosa and the rest, there was plenty of cover from criticism because, well, they won.
Still, Curry and Thompson’s production had essentially been cut in half, with Curry averaging 14.5 points in the first two games on 42.3% shooting while Thompson averaged 14 points on 40%. Curry, even more than Thompson, had failed to play the kind of all-around game that his foes have come to know (just 10 assists to nine turnovers and zero steals).
“Those guys can get it going in bunches ... so just having our antennas on the defensive end, but as well as making them work on the offensive end while we’re just being aggressive,” Irving said of Curry and Thompson.
Curry’s outing, one in which he was outscored 16-0 by Irving in the first quarter that Cleveland won 33-16 and finished with six of the Warriors’ 18 turnovers, was more puzzling even than Thompson’s (10 points on four of 13 shooting).
“Unfortunately, it was all me,” Curry said. “They were playing aggressive defense and they came out with a big punch. I didn’t do anything about it or play my game, and for me to do what I need to do to help my team, I have to play a hundred times better than that, especially in the first quarter, to kind of control the game, and I didn’t do it.
“I’ve just got to be aggressive and play better, and be more assertive in my scoring positions and my playmaking positions on the floor. Yeah, there’s a sense of urgency knowing how big Game 4 is on Friday, and I need to be ready.” (USA Today/TNS)