When will Curry, Thompson join the NBA Finals?
CLEVELAND – Hours before the walls of the Quicken Loans arena would cave in on the defending champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally putting up a fight in a 120-90 rout of the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night, their mystified MVP was asked a question that would prove to be quite poignant.
“Can you win here without you or Klay (Thompson) having a big night?” the reporter asked Stephen Curry.
He shrugged, then replied.
“Hopefully we don’t have to answer that question.”
The Warriors have two days to come up with the answers now. The Splash Brothers, who were outscored 50-29 by the revived Cavs backcourt of Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith, are officially sinking.
This dynamic duo that torched the nets all season had spent the first two games of the Finals playing with fire, the two best players on the league’s best team coming up short in every way on the biggest stage. Their depth had masked the struggles, the Warriors winning Games 1 and 2 big in large part because of the rising-tide-lifts-all-ships effect of their mere presence.
The Cavs had made it their top defensive priority to dry Curry and Thompson out, yet forgot to put their fingers in all the other Warriors dykes that flowed so freely. From Shaun Livingston to Andre Iguodala to Leandro Barbosa and the rest, there was plenty of cover from criticism because, well, they won.
Still, Curry and Thompson’s production had essentially been cut in half, with Curry averaging 14.5 points in the first two games on 42.3% shooting while Thompson averaged 14 points on 40%. Curry, even more than Thompson, had failed to play the kind of all-around game that his foes have come to know (just 10 assists to nine turnovers and zero steals).
The theory of relativity had been their greatest ally, as Irving’s awful play on both ends combined with Smith’s disappearing act meant Curry and Thompson’s struggles were mostly under the radar. But in this environment, against a desperate Cavs team that had yet to lose a home game during the playoffs and lost three consecutive games just once all season long, they had to know it was time to get back to the Splash Brothers basics.
Or, perhaps, be drowned in LeBron James’ personal wave pool.
“Unfortunately, it was all me,” Curry said. “They were playing aggressive defense and they came out with a big punch. I didn't do anything about it or play my game, and for me to do what I need to do to help my team, I have to play a hundred times better than that, especially in the first quarter, to kind of control the game, and I didn't do it.
“I've just got to be aggressive and play better, and be more assertive in my scoring positions and my playmaking positions on the floor. Yeah, there's a sense of urgency knowing how big Game 4 is (on Friday), and I need to be ready.”
Curry’s outing, one in which he was outscored 16-0 by Irving in the first quarter that Cleveland won 33-16 and finished with six of the the Warriors’ 18 turnovers, was more puzzling even than Thompson’s (10 points on four of 13 shooting). At least Thompson had an excuse of sorts, as the knee delivered to his left thigh by Cavs big man Timofey Mozgov late in the first quarter clearly affected his movement.
Yet for Curry, who looked so listless but swore he’s fine physically, even the good times were bad. He scored 13 of his 19 points in the third quarter, yet logged a minus-12 rating while the Cavs’ lead grew from eight at halftime to 20 (89-69). James, the four-time MVP who had his best game of the series by a healthy margin (32 points on 14 of 26 shooting, 11 rebounds and six assists) punctuated that period in fitting fashion.
As Curry went for an after-the-whistle layup with 11 seconds left, James pinned his shot against the backboard and offered a long stare that sent a clear message. Not here, James surely thought to himself. Not tonight.
“When you have the greatest shooter in the world trying to get an easy one or trying to get in rhythm, it's our job to try to keep him out,” James said when asked about that play. “No matter if it's after the whistle or not. That was just my mindset … I didn't want him to see the ball go in.”
His wish was the Warriors’ command.
“Those guys can get it going in bunches … so just having our antennas on the defensive end, but as well as making them work on the offensive end while we're just being aggressive,” Irving said of Curry and Thompson. “Guys are in your face, and we just try to make it difficult for those guys. But it's a total team effort on our end, and Swish [Smith] does a great job on Klay. I just try to pick up Steph as high as possible, and our bigs do a great job getting up to touch. So great job on just total team awareness.”
The Warriors have to know that they missed a golden opportunity, as the Cavs spent the first 48 minutes of the Finals rematch anything but aware. And now, with veteran Richard Jefferson starting in a small-ball lineup in Game 3 because forward Kevin Love was forced out by his Game 2 concussion, it seems the Cavs have found a formula that could cause problems for the Warriors going forward. Coach Steve Kerr, who used the word ‘soft’ six times after the game in describing his team’s effort, has a harder challenge on his hands than we’d realized.
“They're being very aggressive with them out on the perimeter,” he said of the Cavs’ defense on Curry and Thompson. “(It) didn't matter in the first two games because other guys scored and we've got lots of good offensive possessions. Tonight, obviously, it did matter. We didn't get a lot of great looks for them, but we didn't get much of anything going.”