Warriors go up 2-0 in the series after game two.
This was a closer game than game 1, all the way up to like mid-third quarter when Warriors hit a couple of consecutive (loooong distance) threes and then never looked back. What else is new, right?
Now the series shift to Cleveland and I expect a much different Cavaliers team. But home crowd and effort alone won’t be enough. For the Cavs to win they need much more from their role players. LeBron is awesome but he can’t do it by himself. It starts with Kyrie who had a poor outing in game two, but he is talented enough to adjust and I suspect we will see more of him in game three. He actually scored 19 pts which is not bad, but he was taking way too many hard shots, trying to beat Klay who is a magnificent defender. But they need more players to step up. They need more from J.R. Smith (0 pts) , Shumpert (6 pts), Thompson (8 pts), D-will (0 pts) and Korver (8 pts) – or at least some of them. LeBron looked completely drained in the third and started hoisting mid range jumpers and threes (and missed) instead of being aggressive, which worked well in the first half.
A few take away’s from the game:
- Klay Thomson is back! He has been struggling with his shot in the playoffs but really nailed them in this game. Welcome back!
- Passing in the game was awesome. From both teams we were entertained with several nasty passes and beautiful finishes. Curry to Livingston in the third comes to mind and LeBron had several.
- The pace is Warriors’. They completely outran Cleveland on several occasions. And my how fast they get the ball inbound after makes and run the fast break. And with som many finishers they do score in bunches of these fast breaks.
- Kyrie and LeBron walking back on defense after a TO while the Warriors are running a fast break (and score). That is not championship caliber….
- Cavs lack of communication on defense. It was actually worse in the first game, but the fact that they haven’t corrected it to game two makes me wonder. On several occasions they leave the guy with the ball (which is a big no-no against any team but gets ridiculous when they are leaving KD alone with the ball on top) to run and cover the shooters. Yes, the Warriors have deadly shooters, but stop the ball first. And communicate and get help covering the shooters.
- Plenty of bad fouls. Some where right out silly and to some extent they gave the game away. I’m good with hard fouls to stop a layup, but these sloppy fouls way out on the court when you are in the penalty and put the greatest free throw shooter of all time on the line – that doesn’t make sense.
So now we are looking forward to game three on Wednesday. My bet is Cleveland will be on fire, LeBron will look like when he single-handedly beat the Pistons in game 5 of the East finals in2007, and Cleveland will walk away with a win.
