OAKLAND — In a rematch the team repeatedly downplayed, the Warriors played their most inspiring basketball of the season, thumping the Cleveland Cavaliers 126-91.
A message was sent from the Warriors to LeBron James Monday at Oracle Arena on MLK Day: When we’re playing our best, we’re much deadlier than last year’s team.
Golden State performed surgery on the Cavs in the first half, amassing 34 fast break points — their most all season — and 78 in total. The furious pace combined with the Warriors seamless defensive rotations left the Cavaliers gasping for air. A 14-point first quarter lead morphed into a 29-point shellacking by the half. The Warriors had 13 first quarter assists; the Cavs had just 1.
Perhaps the strongest takeaway for Steve Kerr in Monday’s win was the scoring balance on offense: Kevin Durant (21 points on 9/16 shooting), Steph Curry (20 points, 11 assists, 5/12 from deep), Klay Thompson (26 points on 8/17 shooting), Draymond Green (11 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 blocks) and arguably Andre Iguodala’s most energized performances of the season (14 points on 5/5 shooting) paced a free-flowing attack. Golden State drained 62.3 percent of their first half shots. Everyone shared the basketball. The Cavaliers did not have a chance.
A sequence in the second quarter was the most telling throughout the entire blowout. Curry pick-pocketed LeBron, raced to the other end of the floor and found Thompson for a wide open three. With the crowd still roaring, Thompson then blocked Kyrie Irving’s shot attempt on the opposite end of the court, fired a pass to Curry, who pump-faked and found a streaking Durant for a soaring dunk. As the kids say, it was lit.
Lit pic.twitter.com/VGiSLhGaGv
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 17, 2017
Also in the second quarter: Green was whistled for a Flagrant-1 against LeBron. The collision stopped play for close to five minutes, where Green also mocked James for an apparent flop on the hit. James was booed mercilessly the rest of the night.
This was a flagrant 1… pic.twitter.com/eDXg7IEWR1
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 17, 2017
Cleveland went on a 13-0 run in the third quarter, but it only trimmed the lead down to 24 points. Tyronn Lue’s squad was scrambled defensively and failed to use ball movement on offense. LeBron finished with 20 points on 6/18 shooting and just 2 assists. Kyrie Irving was not sharp, committing 6 turnovers and he finished with 17 points. Iman Shumpert was the surprise on offense for Cleveland, chipping in 15 points. The Cavs finished with just 11 assists.
Golden State took a commanding 78-49 lead into halftime. Curry hit a walk-off buzzer beater to close the second quarter. The lead ballooned all the way to 36 early in the third quarter. The starters were pulled midway through the fourth to a thunderous ovation.
A storyline that will be big come June: Green took Kevin Love away from this game (3 points on 1/6 shooting in 16 minutes). With Durant able to check LeBron, Green was able to stonewall Love and play the role of freelancer on defense, tying a career-high with 5 blocks. It worked to perfection Monday night. The Warriors ended up out-rebounding the Cavaliers 58-35 — 13 of them came from Zaza Pachulia.
The Warriors will host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday at Oracle Arena. It’s Durant’s second matchup against his former team. In the first, he scored 39 points in a 122-96 win.