Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors won game two of the NBA finals, defeating LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 110-77. The Cavaliers, who have lost seven straight to the Warriors, must win four of next five to take the title. Photo: Getty Images.
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OAKLAND, Calif.—The last time the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors was Game 3 of last season’s NBA Finals. That game may have turned out to be a fulcrum of basketball history: It transformed the Warriors into a modern-day NBA wrecking machine.
The Warriors were down, 2-1, and desperate for a new strategy. That’s when they cracked the cheat code that would change the series and this season. It was then that they unleashed a small-ball lineup that ran the Cavaliers off the court and terrorized the rest of the NBA this year.
Their incredible versatility became such an essential part of their identity that it is almost impossible to imagine the Warriors playing any other way—or the Cavaliers solving the problem they started.
Golden State’s 110-77 win over Cleveland in Game 2 of the Finals on Sunday night wasn’t only demoralizing. It didn’t only stake the Warriors to a 2-0 series lead in the NBA Finals, and it didn’t only extend their winning streak over LeBron James’s team to seven games. This was a blowout that reminded the rest of the NBA that the Warriors may be the best team of all time.
There was no team that needed that reminder less than the Cavaliers. To bring Cleveland its first NBA title, they now have to win four of their next five games. Only three teams have ever survived 2-0 deficits in the Finals, and none of them had to beat the Warriors, a team that hasn’t lost to LeBron James in seven games—the longest streak for a single team in his NBA career.
In many ways, the record 73 wins of this Warriors season can be traced back to that one win in Game 4 of last year’s Finals. That was the game that Warriors coach Steve Kerr—at the recommendation of his personal assistant, whose other duties included rebounding for Stephen Curry in practice and compiling the team’s musical playlist—shook up his ordinary starting lineup in favor of a downsized one with five shooters. Golden State ticked off three straight wins for its first championship in 40 years.
They have never been the same, and neither have the Cavaliers. That one strategic tweak brought about a much bigger shift in both teams. Golden State executives believe that Game 4 of last year’s Finals was when the Warriors finally realized how good they really were. That carried over to this season. They played as if they knew they were simply better than every other team.
That was how they played Sunday, too. Some of the few Warriors fans who stuck around until the end of the fourth quarter confided in their Oracle Arena ushers that they hoped they wouldn’t see them again this season—that a four-game sweep would end the series in Cleveland. But most of the crowd was gone by then. Sunday night television was more interesting than the Finals game they had shelled out to attend.
Of all Golden State’s wins this season, few were as weird as Game 2. It wasn’t only the lopsided score that was unexpected. On a team with Curry and Klay Thompson, Golden State’s leading 3-point shooter was Draymond Green, the center in their undersized lineup, who poured in 28 points, while the leading rebounder was Curry, who was often the shortest player on the court.
Golden State was also careful about not celebrating too soon. All they did, the Warriors said, was maintain their home-court advantage. Now they have to play Game 3 in Cleveland on Wednesday. “They’re not very nice in Cleveland,” Thompson said.
But it would be as stunning as a 3-pointer from Curry isn’t if the Warriors fail to win the NBA championship. There are jellyfish that are tighter than Golden State at its best. Some of that comes from Kerr’s belief in the power of work-life balance—that basketball isn’t the most important thing in the world, which counts as a counterintuitive insight in the NBA. Kerr went to a Paul Simon concert on Friday, while Curry killed one of his Finals off days by playing golf. Most of it comes from what they began to understand in last year’s Finals: The Warriors have the talent to beat anybody and everybody.
Cleveland had no response for Golden State’s tactical adjustment last season, in part because Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were injured. Not even James could win a Finals surrounded by misfit parts.
Their shots at the Warriors this season have been even more dispiriting. The Cavaliers lost here on Christmas. They were crushed at home so badly that coach David Blatt lost his job not long afterward. And they dropped Game 1 of the Finals even though Warriors bench players scored as many points as Curry and Klay Thompson combined.
James’s last four Finals appearances before this year’s started with a Game 1 loss. What happened next was always the same. As the rest of the basketball universe panicked, James was the eye in a storm of second-guessing. And every single time, he went out and won Game 2—until Sunday.
“I won’t be reflecting,” said James, who finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, which wasn’t nearly enough. “I’ll figure out ways I can be better, starting as soon as I leave this podium.”
But this year’s Finals are different from every series that James has ever played in. The other team isn’t merely as good as it remembered the last time James beat them. The Warriors may be historically great.
By Ben Cohen
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