Sunday, June 5, 2016

The heartbeat of the Warriors leads the charge in game 2



The beat does not stop for the Warriors, who took a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals on Sunday with a dominant 110-77 win over the Cavaliers.

The game was lead by a revitalized Draymond Green, who was knocking down three's like Steph Curry. The Warriors took advantage of a lackluster Cavaliers defense that had no answer for the defending champs.

"The way they're guarding us, Draymond is open a lot," said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr in a postgame interview. "So he becomes our safety valve when there's pressure (...) good situation for him."

Cavaliers forward Lebron James was held in check offensively by the Warriors, scoring zero points in the first quarter and finishing with only 19 for the game.

The splash brothers Curry and Klay Thompson had a much better game and combined for 35 points.

The game came down to the ball handling skills of the Warriors over the Cavaliers. The Warriors kept moving the ball around on offense, always finding the open shooter. The Cavaliers had trouble moving the ball around the Warriors defense, committing 17 turnovers.

In the beginning of the game the Cavaliers came out firing, pushing the Warriors defense off and hitting constant mid range jumpers. But the Warriors ability to score on second chance opportunities on the offensive end kept them close.
Infographic by Kavin Mistry


However, despite the Warriors success on offense, Curry fell into foul trouble early and the Cavaliers looked to capitalize. Green did not let them. He filled in shooting the lid off the basket, finishing the game with 28 points, seven rebounds and five assists.


“Steph was on the bench in foul trouble and someone has to step up,” said Green in a postgame interview. “I don’t look at that situation and think ‘oh I need to take over offensively,’ but the shots were coming my way.”

The Warriors hit their offense stride in the second quarter after the Cavaliers went up by four, the Warriors countered with a 17-2 run to push ahead for good.


“We really stayed poised,” Green said. “We were up for a minute and then they went on that run, but everybody kept their poise and we continued to trust the offense.”

Cleveland had no answer from there. The combination of beautiful passing by the Warriors and inability to find any consistency on the offensive end, the Cavaliers kept falling further into a hole.


“They will play with a little more energy,” said Thompson in a postgame interview. “It’s natural when you go home, they might go big, but we will be prepared. I am just happy with the way we battled tonight.”

The Warriors pushed the lead to 20 at the end of the third quarter before slamming the door on the night in game 2.

"We know things will change when we go to Cleveland," Kerr said. "We know it won't be easy."

Golden State outscored Cleveland 58-33 in the second half.

"The only thing we did tonight was defend home court," Green said. "At the end of the day, it counts as one win."

All of the Warriors players said postgame that this game was only one and there is still a lot of work still in front of them if they want to win it all.

"We still have a lot of work to do," said Warriors center Andrew Bogut in a postgame interview.

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