NBA D-League Finals 2015: Fort Wayne vs. Santa Cruz Game 2 Score and Reaction
The Santa Cruz Warriors won the 2015 NBA D-League championship Sunday night, completing a two-game sweep in a 109-96 victory over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to avenge last year's Finals defeat.
Warriors guard Elliot Williams poured in 17 of his 23 points in the first half en route to winning the D-League Finals MVP award. His big start gave his side a lead they wouldn't relinquish, aided by 21 points from James Michael McAdoo and a double-double from Darington Hobson.
NBA D-League congratulated its newest champion:
Winners of 10 straight postseason games prior to this series, the Mad Ants were simply out-executed on offense for the second straight game, being held to 38 percent as a unit. C.J. Fair and Jordan Crawford scored a combined 31 points, and all five starters finished in double figures, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Last season ended in bitter defeat as the Warriors watched the Mad Ants celebrate a sweep, but Sunday brought a reversal of roles. This time around, Santa Cruz was doing the dancing, as its team Twitter noted:
The Mad Ants didn't feel like they should've been in this position at all, after leading Game 1 at home by 20 points only to fall flat, marking their first playoff defeat in 11 tries. Despite having to travel to Santa Cruz for Game 2 with their backs against the wall, a confident mood resonated in the locker room, as Justin A. Cohn of The Journal Gazette noted:
“We’re men and know when we screw up. We know (what) we did wrong, and we’ll take care of it in the next game,” Fort Wayne guard Matt Bouldin told Cohn.
If Fort Wayne aspired to change things up from Game 1, it succeeded in not beginning with the same ridiculous start. The Mad Ants didn't hold a lead in the first quarter, trailing by as many as nine late in the opening frame.
From the early moments, the Warriors were seeming to value the ball much more, as Brett R. Rump of The Fan Indiana noted:
The Warriors' selfless play and high effort proved to be a deadly combination early as they found the holes in the Mad Ants defense, like on this spectacular dunk from Taylor Griffin, shown by NBA D-League:
The Mad Ants slid into the lead briefly in the second quarter, but it was short-lived as the Warriors continued to push forward through swift passing and streaky shooting. Williams led the way in the scoring department just like in Game 1, exploding for 17 first-half points.
A back-and-forth first half ended with the Warriors sporting a nine-point lead, which was largely Williams' doing. They trailed by just four before Williams canned two three-pointers in the final 57 seconds of the half.
The first one splashed right in front of Golden State owner Joe Lacob and a few other important folks, which Santa Cruz Sentinel's Andrew Matheson noticed:
Another huge key in the Warriors' first-half lead was James Michael McAdoo, who has been on the NBA's Warriors roster prior to Sunday. The presence of the former North Carolina big man helped the Warriors assume a 25-15 rebounding advantage in the opening half.
His 14 points in the first half helped propel Santa Cruz, but perhaps more important for the franchise was how much better he looked, as Ed Isaacson of NBA Draft Blog noted:
As the second half wore along, the Mad Ants fought to get back into the game, but their efforts hardly paid off. They rarely cut the deficit to single digits as the Warriors continued to keep them at a distance.
In similar fashion to Game 1 between these two foes a few nights back, the Warriors assumed control of the game in the third quarter and just wouldn't let go. Every Mad Ants spurt was followed up by an answer from Santa Cruz, as the leaders showed no interest in letting their opponent stick around.
While the Mad Ants found opportunities on the break earlier with 18 first-half points off of 11 Warriors turnovers, the same couldn't be said of the second half. Santa Cruz turned the ball over just three times after halftime, slowing things down and letting its methodical offense work its magic.
It also didn't help that its two stars off the dribble—Fair and Crawford—couldn't get it rolling. Just like in Game 1, Crawford's struggles loomed large in the end, as Cohn noted:
When the Warriors took the largest lead of the game at 16 points in the dying moments, Kaiser Permanente Arena knew the nets were about to be cut down, as Tony Nunez of Register-Pajaronian noted:
Although 15-point leads can evaporate like nothing at this level, no shocking collapse was in store for the Warriors as they cruised late and celebrated midcourt at the end of a memorable season.
It's like the opening quarter in Game 1 lit a fire under these Warriors, who have simply maintained control of both sides of the ball since then. From the moment the Mad Ants took a 31-11 lead in Game 1, the Warriors finished the series on a 217-180 run.
The D-League at heart is about individual players standing out, but the inevitable hardships of the league and constant roster turnover can make the teammate bonds even stronger. While making the next step into the NBA is the ultimate goal, winning the championship is a close second that becomes more and more important as the playoffs go on.
For the Warriors, doing it against the team that ended their season a year ago only makes it that much sweeter.
