CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Even without Golden State’s big four on the floor, the Cavs fell victim to a barrage of threes Friday night.
The road-weary Warriors came into Cleveland and withstood a fourth quarter Cavs rally to leave town with a 120-114 victory and get back to .500 at 23-23.
Here are our Top Takeaways from a stunning and awful loss at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
1. No Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins or Klay Thompson for the Warriors, but who needs those guys anyway?
2. While fans were understandably disappointed and angry Curry, Green, Wiggins and Thompson took the night off, it should have been a gift to the Cavs. Guess not.
3. It’s never good when the head coach calls out the team after a game and that is exactly what J.B. Bickerstaff did to the Cavs. He concisely ripped his team a new one and expressed his dismay at losing what should have been a good night at the office. “We didn't respect the game. It was that simple,” Bickerstaff said during a one-minute postgame press conference. “They've got champions over there and we thought some of those guys were out, so we were going to take it lightly and got what we deserved.”
4. Cleveland’s perimeter defense – and we use the term defense very loosely in this case – got torched all night. The Warriors kept shooting 3s and Cleveland was helpless to slow the barrage. “We didn't figure it out, especially after they started hitting a couple threes,” Cavs guard Caris LeVert said. “I think JaMychal Green hit like threes in the first half kind of threw us off a little bit. Anthony Lamb hit a couple threes as well and we know that those guys are capable, but when they hit threes it's tough. They went small, spread the floor out and made the right play every time and just were making shots.”
5. Golden State hit nine of their first 11 from beyond the arc. Half of their 46 field goal attempts in the first half were from deep and they hit 14 of those – a season-high in a half. “They got a lot of confidence in themselves early and then we were kind of just fighting the uphill battle all game,” LeVert said. “In the NBA, when guys get confidence, it's tough to play against, especially a team like the Warriors who have a lot of experience no matter who's playing, no matter who's out.” In all, the Warriors made 23 of 43 threes in the win and the Cavs were hapless to do anything about it even when they knew exactly what was coming. “It's basketball,” guard Darius Garland said. “When you make shots, you get that rhythm. You keep shooting with confidence.”
6. The Warriors extended their franchise record by hitting at least 15 threes in 11 consecutive games. It was almost a relief when they took a shot inside the arc. “That was a big part of the game,” forward Evan Mobley, who scored 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds, said. “Got to close out harder and force some baseline instead of to the middle of our play. So we could set our defense a little better, but they were just knocking out shots tonight, and, I mean, that's what it was.”
7. When the dust settled, eight different Warriors had splashed treys – Jordan Poole hit five of them, Anthony Lamb four, JaMychal Greene, Ty Gerome and Donte DiVincenzo three each, Jonathan Kuminga and Patrick Baldwin Jr. two apiece and Moses Moody canned one. “They're good basketball players and if you're going to disrespect them, they're going to make you pay,” Bickerstaff said. “And we came out of the gate, soft and disrespectful and they were out there shooting warmup shots with no contest, no challenges, nobody in their space and they gave us what we deserved.”
8. Sure, the Cavs missed Donovan Mitchell, sidelined with a groin injury, but Friday night’s loss wasn’t because he was not on the floor.
9. Cleveland trailed by as many as 20 and climbed within 4 with two minutes to play but that’s as close at things got. In the end, it was too little, too late and the game never really felt in doubt. “We didn't play our best. We didn't play hard,” Garland said. “Let them get going in the first quarter and that was the game after that.”
10. Sloppy play on the offensive end of the floor hurt the Cavs all night. Failure to take care of the basketball were momentum killers. A total of 15 turnovers cost them 19 points. Surprisingly Golden State turned it over 18 times and the Cavs capitalized with 22 points off of them.
11. Poole got Golden State going behind the arc early by hitting his first three 3s to give him 500 makes from deep in his career. He finished with a game-high 32 points.
12. Garland put up 31 to lead the Cavs, but he missed three desperation threes late and was 3-11 from beyond the arc. “I don't think we overlooked them,” Garland said. “They in the league for a reason, so I don't think they were overlooked.”
13. No time to sulk over this one. Milwaukee comes to town Saturday night.
