The Golden State Warriors avenged their Christmas Day loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers to split the season series between the last two NBA champions.
Golden State dominated from the opening tipoff and never trailed en route to a 126-91 win Monday night.
The Warriors' lights-out shooting—including this deep shot by Stephen Curry, via NBA on TNT—led to a 29-point advantage at halftime:
Though the Cavaliers played better in the second half, it wasn't enough to catch up on the scoreboard. Cleveland fell to 29-11 on the season, while Golden State improved to 35-6.
Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post pointed out a number of reasons for the blowout:
The play of the Warriors' Big Four was another. Draymond Green earned his third triple-double of the year with 11 points, 11 assists, 13 rebounds and five blocks.
It was also a solid all-around night for Curry, who finished with 20 points, 11 assists and four steals.
Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson each topped 20 points as well.
The night wasn't as good for the Cavaliers' top players, with LeBron James scoring 20 points on 6-of-18 shooting and turning the ball over six times. He added eight rebounds, but his team had a minus-32 point differential when he was on the floor.
Kyrie Irving shot 6-of-19 from the field and scored 17 points.
Kevin Love netted only three points in 16 minutes before exiting because of back soreness.
Iman Shumpert helped out with 15 points and nine rebounds, but Cleveland shot 35.2 percent overall.
The game started about as well as Golden State could have hoped, with the home team scoring the first seven points and forcing an early timeout by the visitors.
John Dickinson of 95.7 The Game described the effort:
As the Warriors often do, they turned defense into transition offense, including this open three-pointer by Curry, courtesy of the NBA:
That shot put the team up by 10 points—a lead that grew to 37-22 by the end of the first quarter.
ESPN Stats & Info showed the difference between the teams after the one-sided first quarter:
Five minutes into the second, Green made things interesting with a hard hit on James:
The NBA's league office later announced that the flagrant-1 foul Green was assessed was the correct call.
The offensive onslaught continued despite every attempt by the Cavaliers to keep things close. They cut their deficit to 14 points thanks to aggressive play by James, but the Warriors didn't allow their lead to get away.
This individual effort by Curry, which led to a Thompson three-pointer, showcased the team's talent, via the NBA:
Golden State built a 78-49 advantage by halftime, as Durant and Curry combined for 33 points and the team shot 10-of-20 from three-point range. The squad also had 26 assists compared to just four turnovers.
Cleveland got to the free-throw line (15-of-18 versus 2-of-3), but it wasn't enough to keep things close.
Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com provided this note on the scoring margin:
The lead expanded to 36 in the third quarter with the Warriors seemingly unable to miss any shots, but the Cavs finally showed some life late in the period.
Cleveland put together a 13-0 run that helped cut the score to 95-71 heading into the fourth quarter.
Golden State scored only 17 points in the third quarter and went more than seven-and-a-half minutes between field goals in the second half. Marcus Thompson of Bay Area News Group described the problem:
The Warriors, however, got back on track thanks to some hot shooting by Thompson, which was enough for them to pull away again.
Joe Gabriele of the Cavaliers' official website summed up a rough stretch for the team:
Golden State and Cleveland are in first place in their respective conferences, but the Warriors could have sent a message with Monday's performance after they lost to the Cavs by one point three weeks ago—they led by as many as 14—especially if the teams meet again in the NBA Finals.
Cleveland next plays Thursday against the visiting Phoenix Suns. It'll then prepare for another exciting game against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
Golden State will stay at home to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, when Durant will take on his former team for the second time.
Postgame Reaction
While there might be some talk about Green's foul on James, the Cavaliers superstar didn't see it as a major problem, per Carl Steward of Bay Area News Group:
There could be more debate about the importance of the game. James told reporters Sunday the Warriors aren't the Cavaliers' rival, but Green didn't agree.
"Yeah, I think it's a rivalry—just me, though," he said after the game, per Rachel Nichols of ESPN. "Regardless of whether LeBron thinks it's a rivalry or not—they want to beat us. And we want to beat them."
As for the game itself, at least one Golden State player was happy to see Curry let it fly.
"I love that he took 20 shots," Thompson said, per Ethan Strauss of ESPN. "When he's aggressive, we go."
Though the two-time reigning MVP made just seven of those attempts, he might put up a similar number of shots per contest going forward. He's posted at least 20 field-goal tries in five of the Warriors' last six outings after doing so just six times in their first 35 games.
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