ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Cleveland Cavaliers visited the Golden State Warriors (28-5) tonight at #Roaracle. LeBron James, Iman Shumpert, and Anderson Varejao were the notable players out for the Cavs, while newly acquired center Timofey Mozgov was listed as “probable”.
1ST QUARTER: Battle Of The Two-Guards
As both teams eased into the game, JR Smith and Stephen Curry both hit their first shots. Draymond Green got his first blocked shot early, victimizing Cavs center Tristan Thompson:
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Green also had a touchdown pass to Curry after a rebound for an easy run-out layup. Curry added another run-out after Kyrie Irving mishandled his own dribble up top. And then Klay Thompson had a breakaway layup of his own after stealing a bad pass from Tristan Thompson to Smith posting up.
Klay scored nine consecutive Warrior points, on a drive, two free throws, a jumper, and a trey, and with 5:59 to play at the first timeout, Golden State held a 15-14 lead with the #SplashBrothers accounting for every point, shooting 6-for-9 from the field.
At the break, former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, at the arena to broadcast the game on ESPN, was shown on the jumbotron and #Roaracle gave him a nice, loud round of applause:
Jackson tried his best to remain stoic, holding all of his emotions in. On TV, Jackson said, “I’m humbled by the support of the fans and the reaction.”
But the Warriors couldn’t stop the fade-away-loving Smith, who scored 12 points in the quarter. Matthew Dellavedova subbed in for the Cavs and immediately scored a triple and a jumper.
The Dubs twice halved the Cavs’ six-point lead to three on treys by Thompson and Justin Holiday. Klay’s came after Irving fell down after a miss that was put back by Timofey Mozgov. Irving tried to foul Curry as Steph brought the ball upcourt after the inbound, but the ref didn’t call it and Curry easily found Thompson for a step-back corner trey.
Andre Iguodala ended the quarter with a steal and, on the ensuing fastbreak, lobbed the ball too softly to Holiday for the alley-oop, but Holiday managed to put back his own miss at the rim and the Warriors went into the second quarter trailing the Cavaliers, 32-30.
In a battle of two-guards, Smith and Thompson led all scorers with 12 points apiece. The Cavs were manhandling the Warriors on the boards as Kevin Love led the Cavs with 7 rebounds and Mozgov added 6. Andrew Bogut only played two minutes for the Dubs, getting a quick two fouls.
2ND QUARTER:
Holiday kept the energy up, teaming up with Marreese Speights after Speights let Tristan Thompson drive into him and got the blocked shot. Speights snagged the board, threw it to Shaun Livingston in transitiion, and Livingston fed it ahead to Holiday, who took gigantic/legal steps for the impressive finish.
But as soon as that spark happened, the Warriors extinguished it with their own mistakes.
Livingston dribbled into the paint and had it slapped off his leg. David Lee posted up, spun, and lost the ball, expecting a foul with the referees letting them play. And Iguodala committed a turnover not handling the ball properly and tipping it to the Cavaliers.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr re-inserted Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut, but after Green tipped himself a defensive rebound, he posted up and with the shotclock winding down and not enough cutters, spun towards the middle and threw up a nasty brick.
On the other end, Love was getting hot as he got a reverse layup putback to go and Kerr called timeout with 5:38 to play and the score tied, 41-41.
The Warriors would go another 30 seconds without a bucket, a drought of nearly three-and-a-half minutes, until Green got an interior pass from Curry, then Green lofted the ball to Bogut for the alley-oop layup. That left the game tied again at 48-48.
Golden State sought some separation as Thompson got a sidestep three-pointer to fall. Oracle got on its feet and Cavs coach David Blatt called timeout to stop the impending momentum, with the Warriors up, 51-48, with 3:10 to play.
Curry got a right elbow trey, but Irving answered that with his own fading long two-pointer. Then Love got the ball inside and threw up some fakes. Green bit, but appeared to get all ball as he was called for a foul, flirting with a technical as he swung his arm in protest. Kerr took Green out and replaced him with Lee to close out the quarter, to avoid Green picking up his third foul.
Lee ended the half with a post-up hook delivered by Thompson, after getting a clean block on a rim attack by Love. The Warriors led, 60-54, at halftime.
Smith led the Cavs with 16 points on 7-for-12 field, as Irving and Love chipped in 12 apiece. However, the Cavaliers had just 8 assists on 21 made field goals, getting a large portion of their buckets via one-on-one play.
Thompson bested Smith with 20 points, also on 7-for-12 field, as Curry added 12 points, 3 assists, and Green collected 4 assists and 2 blocked shots.
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