Warriors’ bench too much for Cavs
OAKLAND, California – Stephen Curry realizes every last man on the bench can mean so much to winning a championship.
As he and Klay Thompson endured rare off nights that even featured Curry tossing his mouthpiece in frustration, the MVP’s “Strength In Numbers” supporting cast made all the timely shots and all the difference for the defending champions in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Draymond Green had 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, Shaun Livingston scored a personal postseason best of 20 and Golden State’s bench came up big as the Warriors beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-89 on Thursday night to move three wins from a repeat title.
The Splash Brothers? They totaled – gasp! – 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting, each knocking down a late 3-pointer.
“You don’t win championships without the entire squad coming in and making an impact on games,” Curry said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Golden State’s bench outscored the Cavs’ reserves 45-10 in the opener of this finals rematch, which the Warriors reached even with Curry missing six games with injuries in the postseason.
Game 2 is Sunday night back at Oracle Arena, and James knows Cleveland must adjust immediately.
“When you get outscored 45-10 on the bench and give up 25 points off 17 turnovers, no matter what someone does or doesn’t do, it’s going to be hard to win, especially on the road,” James said. “Don’t matter what you do with Steph and Klay, don’t matter what you do with Draymond.”
In a series with so much star power on both sides, this was a night for Livingston and fellow reserves Leandro Barbosa and Andre Iguodala. Barbosa returned from a minor back injury to shoot 5 for 5 on the way to 11 points, while 2015 finals MVP Iguodala had 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists and some stingy defense on James.
“We play a lot of people, and we feel like we have a lot of talent on the bench that can come in and score when we need it,” coach Steve Kerr said. “So it’s a great sign, obviously, that we can win in the finals without those two guys having big games, but it’s not really that surprising to us. This has been our team the last couple of years.”
It made for a strong start while surrounded by those thousands of golden yellow “Strength in Numbers” T-shirts worn by the raucous fans throughout sold-out Oracle.
“That’s our motto. That’s what we believe in,” Livingston said. “We pick each other up. We believe in each other and we just fight.”
James kicked off his sixth straight finals with 23 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, but cold-shooting Cleveland went 38.1 percent from the floor. Kyrie Irving, lost to a devastating knee injury in a Game 1 overtime defeat last year, scored 26 points, 11 on free throws.
Iguodala had moved into the starting lineup Monday for the Game 7 clincher against Oklahoma City with a primary duty of defending Kevin Durant, but went back to the bench and played 36 minutes Thursday. He shook his head in delight after a two-handed slam off a pass from Curry with 5:44 left and didn’t let an aggravating, hard hit to the groin by Matthew Dellavedova derail his focus for the final quarter.