Cleveland Cavaliers Complete Season Sweep With 118-110 Win Over Golden State Warriors
The Cleveland Cavaliers completed the season sweep of the Golden State Warriors last night 118-110. It was a game of runs, as the Cavs won the second quarter 38-21 and took a big lead going into half, but the Warriors stormed back winning the third quarter 31-16 to make it an interesting finish. Draymond Green was ejected for the first time this season after shoving Donovan Mitchell, and the Warriors just didn’t have enough firepower to complete the comeback, dropping their second game straight, and moving to 6-4.
The Cavs went on a quick 10-3 run to start the game led by a sweet Donovan Mitchell pull up jumper and a spot up trey ball. But Curry and Klay buried a pair of threes and Wiggins got an easy layup off a Draymond Lob and the Dubs were down just one halfway through the first. A couple minutes later with the game tied at 17 apiece, Curry got fouled on a three and knocked down all three free throws. But the Cavs just kept feeding the ball down low to their big men and the Dubs struggled to stop it, as Jarrett Allen got an and-1 before getting fouled on the next two possessions and going 5-5 from the line. Down two with one last possession, CP3 nailed a deep three to give the Warriors a one point lead going into the second. It was all Cleveland in this period. Garland kicked off the scoring with a three pointer, Mobley got to the rack for an easy layup, and Strus striped one from downtown. Dray stopped the bleeding with a three, but that was the last bucket for the Dubs for four minutes with the exception of a Curry layup. The Cavs went on a 14-2 run including two Caris Levert long balls. Wiggins finally got an easy dunk at the rim but by then Golden State trailed 54-42 with under four minutes to play. Garland and Mitchell foot on the pedal combining for 10 more points to finish the quarter and give Cleveland a 68-52 lead at the break.
The Warriors worked out some kinks at half and came out with a new and improved gameplan on defense. This, along with the fact that Steph caught fire aided the Dubs in making a significant dent in the Cavs lead. Curry knocked down a quick jumper before nailing back to back threes, with the ladder being an and-1. The free throw made it a six point game and you could tell tensions were starting to flare as the game grew closer. Draymond knocked the ball loose from Mitchell and the two both dove on the floor fighting for it. A couple plays later, Draymond shoved Mitchell out of bounds on a fast break and Mitchell immediately beelined for him, shoving him right back. After officials reviewed the play, Green was ejected and the Cavs extended their lead to 11 on the technical free throw. Though the ejection may have sparked a flame within the Warriors, as they went on an 16-7 run to end the quarter and rode into the fourth with momentum down just one point. Role player Dean Wade cashed in threes on back to back possessions for Cleveland and Jarrett Allen finished an alley-oop dunk leading to a quick Warriors timeout. They were down seven at this point and over the next few minutes kept drawing closer and closer but couldn’t get over the hump to take the lead. They would get within one possession but Cleveland always had an answer. With seven minutes to play, Levert hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 10 and they didn’t look back from there. The game remained a double digit difference until garbage time when backup point guard Cory Joseph connected on a three making it 115-107. Despite some gritty play from the Warrior backups, it was too little too late and the Cavs got out of Golden State with a big road win.
It was another 30 point night for Chef Curry but he shot the ball inefficiently going 9-24. Klay couldn’t get much going either, going 5-16 for 14 points. Wiggins added 13 points and Kuminga put up 12. Nobody else hit double figures but Kevon Looney did snag 13 boards, a game high. For the Cavs, it was a true team effort. Six players hit double figures with Caris Levert surprisingly leading the way with 22 points off the bench. Donovan Mitchell finished with 21 points on a 7-22 clip. Garland and Mobley had 19 each, with Strus and Allen having 16 and 12.
The Cavs are a very top-heavy team, as they really only have an 8-man rotation which is typically something you see in the playoffs, not the 10th game of the season. The Warriors should have exploited this and got out and ran in the transition game, wearing out the Cavs players. Moreover, Golden State threw the ball away a whopping 20 times. This is a recipe for disaster and makes winning extremely difficult. Especially when you add in the fact that they only forced 10 turnovers. Additionally, the Cavs were relentless in their pursuit to the rim, getting to the charity stripe 43 times to the Warriors 30, while racking up 50 points in the paint to the Warriors 34. I feel like a broken record saying this after every game but the Dubs lack of size just continues to hurt them. Someone else aside from Curry is going to need to step up if they want to be a true contender. Klay or Wiggins or Kuminga or even CP3 must be able to score, it’s just not reasonable to expect Curry to go for 35 every night. One bright spot for Golden State was their rebounding which was a little bit of a shock considering the twin towers that Cleveland boasts. The Dubs won the rebound battle 55-45.
This makes it two consecutive losses for the Warriors, and they now sit at 6-4 through 10 games. They will have no time to dwell on this loss, as the Timberwolves come to town tomorrow night. Similar to the Cavs, the Wolves roll out two big men in their starting lineup with Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns. Looney and Draymond will have their hands full, and I just don’t think the Warriors have what it takes to win these types of games until someone else proves they can score at a consistent and high level. I have the Wolves coming away with the win 123-113, led by a 30 piece from Anthony Edwards.