Klay Thompson's Big Night Can't Mask Golden State Warriors' Offensive Struggles
It was fitting that Stephen Curry's final act in the Golden State Warriors' 95-93 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers was a failed attempt to get the ball to Klay Thompson.
Throughout the overtime affair, Thompson was the only drought-tolerant Splash Brother.
Down two with four seconds remaining, Curry turned the ball over trying to find Thompson streaking up the right sideline. When Iman Shumpert reached down to snare the desperate pass, Curry had his sixth turnover of the game...against just five made field goals.
Most likely, nothing was going to come of that play anyway. The Warriors were out of time and, more importantly, out of timeouts.
But the poetry of the moment, the way it captured Curry coming up short and Thompson being the desperate last hope, was perfect.
The Warriors and Cavs are tied at 1-1 after an aesthetic nightmare of a game—one marked by atrocious shooting, stagnant offense and zero flow from either team. Golden State shot 39.8 percent from the field and cashed in only 22.9 percent of its three-point tries.
Curry scored just 19 points on 23 shots, missing 13 of his 15 attempts from long range. It was a career-worst effort, as NBA.com's John Schuhmann observed:
The Cavaliers weren't better, hitting only 32.6 percent from the field and setting a dubious Finals record, according to Evan Dunlap of Pinstriped Post:
Thompson kept the Warriors in the contest in the first half, hitting 9-of-13 from the floor and accounting for nearly half of the Warriors' 45 points.
It can sometimes be hard to tell what Thompson's thinking on the floor; his singular aggression often produces a series of bad looks. But Game 2 was a little different. You could see Thompson sensing Curry wasn't right, and he played with an added edge that stood out against the rest of the supporting cast's disjointed response to the MVP's disappearance.
Draymond Green converted just two field goals, both on tip-ins during overtime. Andrew Bogut took one shot on the night and missed it. Harrison Barnes scored 11 points in 41 minutes.
The bench was, incredibly, outscored by Cleveland's skeleton crew, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:
Thompson did what he could, but his big scoring effort featured plenty of over-dribbling and forced shots. It was a reminder that the Warriors' beautiful machine grinds to a halt when the engineer, Curry, isn't at the controls.
He was on the court Sunday, that's for sure. But he wasn't piloting the offense in his usual way.
Golden State thrives offensively when it is loose, aggressive and even a little reckless. Curry is the organizing principle in all that chaos, the stabilizing force that keeps things (often just barely) under control. Teammates can relax when he's playing well, fully assured that he'll compensate for any mistakes with his brilliance.
Without Curry as the fixer, Golden State broke.
That's how it's been all season, as evidenced by how much better the Warriors played with Curry on the floor during the year. Per NBA.com, the Dubs posted a net rating of plus-17 points per 100 possessions with Curry in the lineup. When he sat, the Warriors were outscored.
Digest that: A team that won 67 regular-season games couldn't break even when one specific player was off the court.
Thompson's takeover attempt wasn't enough, and we should have known that even as it was happening.
Credit the Cavaliers for forcing Thompson to take on a bigger role. This was a triumph, especially after the way the Warriors put on a 15-4 run in the final 3:13 to send the game to overtime.
One win doesn't mean the Cavs will take the series, but it was impossible to watch LeBron James spike the ball after the final buzzer and scream into the rafters without getting a sense of how potentially momentum-altering this result was.
ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst put Cleveland's win—which stole home-court advantage away from Golden State and made the Cavs just the fourth team to win in Oakland this year—into context:
James was a monster, of course, totaling 39 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists and just three turnovers in 50 minutes. He shot just 11-of-35 from the floor but was a savant in picking apart the Warriors' typically well-timed double teams.
Everything the Cavaliers did on offense started or ended with James. The rest of the team combined for three assists and 10 turnovers on the night.
Matthew Dellavedova, starting in place of the injured Kyrie Irving, scored nine points in the fourth quarter and overtime. His biggest contribution came on defense, where he was a key reason for Curry's rough night, per Aaron Goldhammer of ESPNCleveland.com:
Now, the Warriors find themselves in a strange position.
The calls for wholesale adjustments are coming. The overreaction to one playoff loss, always a foolish mistake, will spill out of postgame wraps and talk radio speakers.
Trusting the process (you know, the one that led to a historically successful regular season and 13 playoff wins so far) is the best course. And moving the ball will definitely be a topic of discussion after the out-of-character effort ESPN.com's Tom Haberstroh relayed:
Do the Warriors look at ways to free Curry from Dellavedova, perhaps moving the MVP off the ball to capitalize on his value as a screener and help-defense attractor? Do they watch endless reels of what ball movement does for their offense? Do they consider going smaller sooner, as that tactic kept Timofey Mozgov glued to the bench down the stretch?
Yes on all counts.
But do they panic?
No. No, they don't.
Golden State defended exceptionally well, and Green told reporters after the game not to expect tweaks there, per Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com:
Steve Kerr isn't concerned about his MVP, per Golliver:
And Curry, who told reporters after the game, "I'm not going to let one game alter my confidence or our belief that we're going to win this series," is now weaponized. He's a reigning MVP coming off an embarrassing individual failure.
He won't leave it to Thompson in Game 3.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @gt_hughes.
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