Warriors vs. Cavaliers: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season
The Cleveland Cavaliers picked up one of their biggest wins of the 2014-15 season on Thursday night, beating the Golden State Warriors at home 110-99.
LeBron James had a season-high 42 points on 15-of-25 shooting. According to NBA writer Chris Palmer, it's the 67th time he has scored 40 or more:
James added 11 rebounds and five assists to what was one of his best performances since returning to Cleveland. ESPN Stats & Info highlighted just how impressive those numbers are:
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love scored 24 and 16 points, respectively, while Timofey Mozgov had a double-double—10 points and 10 rebounds.
Cleveland did a great job of shutting down the Splash Brothers. Stephen Curry scored 18 points on 5-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-9 from deep, while Klay Thompson added 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting. He was a much better 3-of-5 from behind the arc.
Still, both played below the standards many have come to expect from them:
Although it's a bit irrational to put a ton of importance on a regular-season game—especially one in February—it was difficult not to see this contest as a barometer for the Cavs to a certain extent.
With the injury to Chicago's Derrick Rose, Cleveland looks like either the best or second-best team in the Eastern Conference, depending on one's view of the Atlanta Hawks. Thursday's matchup would show where the team is, relative to the Western Conference's elite.
This would also be a test of the Cavaliers' somewhat suspect defense.
Before trading for Mozgov on Jan. 7, Cleveland had a defensive rating of 105.5. Since Mozgov arrived, that figure is down to 102.2.
It's almost impossible to deny that the Cavs haven't gotten better defensively with Mozgov in the fold, but this game would in part illustrate just how large the improvement has been.
Before the game, James and Curry spoke about what Thursday's clash meant for the bigger picture:
Early on, the Cavs defense was having some problems reining in Curry, who led the Warriors with 12 points while dishing out three dimes. Even though Thompson went scoreless through the first 12 minutes, Golden State still owned a slim 33-32 lead.
David Lee also loomed large for the Dubs, scoring 11 points off the bench in the first quarter. He also scored the Warriors' last seven points of the opening frame:
Basketball Insiders' Nate Duncan felt Lee was getting whatever he wanted underneath when matched up with Love:
The Cavaliers were better in the second quarter, limiting the Warriors to 23 points. Curry had just two points, with no other Warrior compensating. Thompson contributed four points on 2-of-5 shooting.
Defensively, Golden State had no answer for James, who dropped 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first half. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr often deployed Andre Iguodala to guard LeBron, and it was a matchup James often exploited, per ESPN Stats & Info:
Iguodala simply had no answer for the four-time MVP in one-on-one situations.
Irving also had 15 points to supplement James' offense and help give Cleveland a 61-56 edge at the half.
Cleveland came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders.
After Draymond Green got Golden State to within three points to start the third, the Cavs went on a 16-3 run to quickly make it a 16-point game.
Once again, James spearheaded the Cavaliers' offensive outburst. He scored nine points during the run and 14 for the quarter. Upon hitting a deep three with two minutes and 33 seconds left in the third, he even channeled Michael Jordan, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin:
Both Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix and the Northeast Ohio Media Group's Chris Haynes felt that LeBron's impressive performance had implications for the MVP race:
Golden State was able to get back into the game somewhat, but it was still down 12 points, 90-78, with one more quarter to play.
The Warriors continued to stay somewhat close in the fourth, with the Cavs often maintaining an advantage between nine and 12 points. Golden State couldn't do enough to mount a serious comeback, while Cleveland couldn't do enough to truly put the game away.
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News was more surprised that the Warriors weren't staring at a larger deficit, especially since they couldn't make their free throws count:
Although the loss will disappoint Kerr and the Warriors, they remain arguably the best team in the league. The West's top seed simply ran into one of the best players on the planet on the wrong night, while Golden State's best player—Curry—couldn't find his shooting stroke.
The Warriors will look to rebound against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night.
This is Cleveland's 18th win in 20 games, and it moves to a half-game ahead of the Bulls for third in the East. The second-place Raptors are only a game ahead.
The Cavs get the Indiana Pacers on Friday and then head to Houston for a tough matchup with the Rockets on Sunday.
All stats are courtesy of NBA.com unless otherwise noted.
