NBA scores 2017: Warriors wanted a win against the Cavaliers. They got an annihilation.
The Golden State Warriors aren’t playing for the regular season, they’ve only lost twice since Dec. 10, and they’re on a 70-win pace. Still, even given all that, it felt like they needed Monday’s evisceration of the Cleveland Cavaliers — if only for their own sanity.
It had been four straight times that the Warriors had lost to Cleveland, a stretch that dated back to June but also included Christmas Day. Of course, Golden State infamously lost that 3-1 Finals lead and signed Kevin Durant a month later, which only fueled the jokes and memes. The regular season may not matter, but the Warriors are constantly reminded they’ve blown a couple leads.
Given all that, this was only outcome for this game that made sense — a completely vindictive Warriors performance in their home stadium. It happened. Stephen Curry set the tone and Draymond Greenprovided his third triple-double, while Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson filled in around the edges. The Warriors scored the first seven points and then they finished the second quarter on a 18-3 run. It was 48 minutes of decimation.
This isn’t the Cavaliers we’ll see in the playoffs and, presumably, the Finals. They have spent nearly two weeks on the road, and the Warriors matchup was the sixth and final game of the trip. They looked tired and, as the game wore on, disinterested in really attempting a comeback. Of course, that was never going to happen anyway, not against a Warriors team that hasn’t left California since Christmas. Still, Cleveland accepted its fate dutifully.
There is a duality. We can admit this wasn’t the Cavaliers’ best performance, while acknowledging the Warriors made a statement nevertheless. They did. The greatest regular season team of all time added Durant, after all. This is who they can be.
The Cavaliers did a better job than anyone limiting Curry over the course of 2016, but it didn’t work on Monday. His fingerprints were all over the first-half explosion, with 14 points and 10 assists headed into the break. At one point, he stripped LeBron James straight up and found Thompson for a three-pointer on the other end. That’s the type of night it was.
But even scarier is the defense — especially what Durant and Green can combine to be when at their peak. Green’s 11-point, 13-rebound, 11-assist evening was great, but his five blocks were the most magnificent part of his night. Durant added three more, continuing his run as a true rim protector for the Warriors.
It was a masterful Warriors performance that left us satiated. No one doubted that Golden State could do this against Cleveland, but four straight losses had to weigh on their psyche just a tiny bit. You — yes, you, the reader — are on the internet right now, so you must know how omnipresent those 3-1 jokes have become. If you see it, then there’s no way the Warriors could have avoided it. They needed this, even if it was only subconsciously.
We all know this will likely be our Finals rematch, and we’re just as excited for that. This game doesn’t change that. But it must make life just a little easier for the Warriors. Like Green said after the game, “They want to beat us, and we want to beat them.”
On Monday, the Warriors got what they wanted.
LeBron James has learned how to bait Draymond Green
If there’s even one thing that happened on Monday the Warriors would want to take back, it’s Green’s flagrant-one foul committed against James. Here’s the play.
The flagrant was the correct call — Green made clear, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous contact, at least if that hit had come against a normal NBA athlete. We know that doesn’t describe James, who absorbs contact as well as anyone in the league, so the way he reacted was probably an exaggeration. You can hate it, but it’s a smart play. James isn’t inventing a foul on a flop, and against a player like Green who he has history with, learning to push his buttons is a useful skill to have.
Green also mocked the flop right after on the court, so that’s sure to keep the tension high.
Courtney Lee took to Instagram after the Knicks benched him and lost
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek wanted to shake things up with his starting lineup, so he benched his $48 million man Courtney Lee in favor of rookie Ron Baker.
New York went on to lose to Atlanta, 108-107, with Lee sitting the second half. He later posted and deleted two pictures from the movie Dumb & Dumber on his Instagram account, which, if you take him at his word, only had to do with his mood and not a shot at the lineups.
No one is sure why Hornacek benched Lee, but it didn’t work. Neither is this Knicks team. New York has lost 14 of its last 18 games and is six games below .500 at the midseason mark.
Don’t look now, but the Wizards are fifth in the East
John Wall hit Al-Farouq Aminu with a vicious Shammgod dribble move in the third quarter of Washington’s 120-101 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. He’s been the catalyst behind an amazing stretch of Wizards basketball that includes seven wins in their last 10 games.
The Wizards (21-19) have climbed the East standings and now sit fifth in the conference. That’s some good stuff, right there.
MLK Day’s top 5 performances
Stephen Curry: 20 points (7-of-20 shooting, 5-of-12 on 3s), 11 assists, 4 steals
A play like this just set the perfect tone for Golden State. The ball works best in Curry’s hands, but it’s also okay that he can pass up open threes in favor of getting KD a shot like this.
Joel Embiid: 22 points (4-for-9 FG, 13-for-18 FT), 12 rebounds, 5 blocks
This is a development worth watching: Embiid has increased his free throw numbers in every month. He averaged six per game in October, moved up to 6.5 in November, rose to 7.3 in December and is shooting nearly 11 per game in January.
Embiid is huge. He’s freakishly athletic, legitimately 7-feet tall, and absolutely bullish around the basket. That’s he’s quickly turning into the hardest player to handle under the basket makes sense, and unlike your average center who fits this criteria, he knocks down nearly 80 percent of his foul shots. As much as we marvel at Embiid shooting threes like it’s nothing, he may be more Shaquille O’Neal than anyone we’ve seen in years. (Yes, he has to stay healthy. No, I’m not saying he will literally become Shaq. Yes, I have to include these qualifiers or people on the internet will get mad at me.) Philadelphia has won six of its last eight, and Embiid is the largest factor so far.
Draymond Green: 11 points (4-of-6 shooting), 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 blocks
Green was a plus-43 during his 35 minutes on the court. Holy hell that’s a huge number.
Dennis Schröder: 28 points (13-for-16 FG), 3 assists
At SB Nation, we reward efficiency.
Isaiah Thomas: 35 points (14-of-25 shooting), 5 rebounds, 4 assists
Thomas did it again, and he’s now averaging 10.1 points in fourth quarters. In the past 20 years, no one has done higher than 9.5 points in the fourth (Kobe Bryant in 2006).
