Same start but different story, Warriors say
With Durant, this team is markedly better
You would think we’d know better by now.
A year later, the Golden State Warriors are dominating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals again, and pundits far and wide are ready to hand them LeBron James’ crown. A year later, with the Warriors up 2-0 and Game 3 in Cleveland on Wednesday, it’s as if we’ve all forgotten how the Cavs clawed back to win it all after trailing 3-1 in the series (and 2-0 before that).
But for all the well-deserved acclaim the Cavs received for their unprecedented comeback, there was a perfect-storm component that is worth remembering.
Stephen Curry was different back then, slowed by left knee soreness that would play a part in his decision to skip the Rio Olympics. Draymond Green was playing with the wrong kind of emotional fire throughout the playoffs, racking up flagrant-foul points that eventually led to his Game 5 suspension against the Cavaliers and the turning of the tide. Rim protection was a problem, too, as center Andrew Bogut missed the last two games with a knee injury long before the Warriors added Kevin Durant and JaVale McGee to help with that.
Yet of all the differences that make a comeback look unlikely for the Cavs, it’s Durant and his utter domination that are fueling the talk of this series being unofficially over. It’s fitting that Green likes to refer to Durant as “K” — the man is only throwing strikes.
When it comes to comparing the two seemingly similar situations, you don’t have to look much further than the Warriors’ upgrade at small forward to understand it’s not the same at all. Through two games, Durant has scored more Finals points (71) than his predecessor at the position, Harrison Barnes, did in the seven-game series in 2016 (65). So before you even get to Durant’s defense and how special he has been on that end of the floor, you’re reminded that he could retire tomorrow and still go down as one of the greatest scorers in the history of the game.
Durant, whose career scoring average of 27.2 points per game during 10 seasons ranks him fourth all time behind Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor, has given the Warriors a massive margin for error while picking the perfect time to click with Curry. This is the best
they’ve played together, the natural progression after a regular season that ebbed and flowed when it came to their chemistry.
As two-game stat lines go on the NBA’s biggest stage, these are just absurd:
Durant: 35.5 points (56.3% shooting overall, 50% from threepoint range), 11 rebounds, seven assists, 2.5 blocks, 1.5 steals and 1.5 turnovers.
Curry: 30 points (46.2% overall, 45.5% from three), 10.5 assists, eight rebounds, two steals and five turnovers.
“I see two guys who … (are) more locked in than I’ve ever seen either one of them in my life,” Green said after Game 2. “Whether it was playing against (Durant) — other than when he put 52 up on my head … ”
Durant, seated next to Green as he spoke, interrupted with a quick correction.
“Fifty-four,” he said with a smile about the Jan. 18, 2014, game against the Warriors while he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“My fault; I shortchanged him,” Green responded with a laugh. “Other than that, when you got somebody doing you like that, it’s just like a burning fire in their eye and you know you don’t stand a chance.
“But that’s like the look that I see in him throughout this Finals. And both of them, to me, it seemed like it’s personal for both of them. And you are talking two of the greatest players that we got in this world locked in the way they are. That’s why we’re up 2-0. And they’re two of our leaders that we follow, and with them playing like that, it’s everybody has to be locked in, when you got those two guys locked in like that. So they continue to do that, which I have no doubt in my mind they will, we’ll continue to follow their lead.”
The question now is whether the Warriors truly learned their lesson last year. This is their time to get greedy, to become the first team in NBA history to go 16-0 in the playoffs while sparking the debate about where they stand among other all-time great teams. A repeat of last year, when the Cavaliers won by 30 at home in Game 3 and set the stage for their furious finish, would breathe life into this Cavs team that has yet to show a champion’s spirit. But the Warriors, old and new, are different now in the kinds of ways that might not allow that to happen.
Despite all the obvious appearances, this is not the same.
“Both teams are different,” Curry said. “(We) especially rely on our experience, knowing what a road game in the Finals in Cleveland is like. The atmosphere is their crowd gets crazy and we have to do the little things to withstand their runs that they’re going to make because they’re a very talented team.”
Which is true, of course. They’re just not as talented as the Warriors.