Wrap-Up – The Wine and Gold’s Thursday night matchup with the Warriors was supposed to be a heavyweight battle between the best team in the West and the hottest club in the East. But the red-hot Cavaliers turned it into another second-half TKO – taking a double-digit lead early in the third and running away with the 110-99 win before an electrified sellout crowd at The Q.
In a battle between MVP candidates – LeBron James and Stephen Curry – the Cavaliers’ superstar took that matchup too, going off for a season-high 42 points on 15-for-25 shooting to go with a game-high 11 boards, five assists, three steals and a blocked shot. Before and after Thursday’s contest, No. 23 refused to say it was a statement game. He let his and his squad’s performance say it for him.
Kyrie Irving followed up with 24 points, going 6-of-17 from the floor and a perfect 10-of-10 from the stripe, adding three boards and a pair of steals. Irving finished the game, but took a shot on his left shoulder that kept him from traveling to Indiana with the team on Thursday night. He’ll be re-evaluated on Friday morning, but is listed as doubtful for Cleveland's matchup with the Pacers.
Kevin Love continued his hot shooting from beyond the arc on Thursday, following up his scorching night in Motown by going 3-of-5 from long-distance against Golden State, netting 16 points and eight boards.
Timofey Mozgov turned in his 16th double-double of the season – and seventh as a Cavalier – tallying 10 points and 10 boards. And Tristan Thompson – the league’s top-rebounding reserve – came off Cleveland’s bench to add 12 points and eight boards in 22 minutes of action.
The Cavaliers improved to a league-best 28-1 when they top 102 points, but it was their defense that might have been most impressive on Thursday – restricting a team that came in averaging 106.5 points per game on the road under the century mark – thanks to a concerted effort to hold the Splash Brothers to a combined 10-for-30 shooting. Curry, who finished with just 18 points, came into the contest having topped the 20-point plateau in a dozen straight games. And Klay Thompson, who dropped 39 points on the Pacers two games ago, was held to 13 on Thursday.
Statistically, the Warriors topped Cleveland in the paint, in second-chance scoring and on the break. They handed out 32 assists to the Cavaliers’ 15. But the Wine and Gold’s gameplan was to drive downhill into Golden State’s defense, and that’s exactly what they did – making 35 trips to the stripe compared to the Warriors’ 19. (Cleveland also hit on 83 percent of those free throws; Golden State, 53 percent.)
LBJ drops a season-high 42 points.
View some of the best snapshots.
Thompson finishes the alley-oop.
Go inside the locker room.
Watch final game highlights from Thursday's victory.
Turning Point – The first quarter was as advertised – a high-octane shootout with both squads lighting up the scoreboard and Golden State finishing the period up, 33-32. But after shooting an even 50 percent in the first quarter, the Warriors shot 44 percent in the second. In the third, the Cavs began to really clamp down, holding Steve Kerr’s squad to just 35 percent.
Unfortunately for Steve Kerr’s club, Cleveland’s four-time MVP – who’d already amassed 24 points before intermission – was still smoking. And with the Warriors’ trailing by just four early in the third, James proceeded to score nine points of a 12-0 Cavaliers’ run to give the Wine and Gold a 16-point edge.
Cleveland took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter and Golden State cut it under double-digits just twice the rest of the way.
By the Numbers – 10 … straight games that the Cavaliers have now won over Western Conference foes – their longest stretch since winning 11 straight in the 2008-09 campaign. The victory was also Cleveland’s 11th straight at The Q – where they’ve outscored opponents by an average of 14.8 points per game.
Quotable – Kevin Love, when asked by Cavaliers’ in-arena host Amhaad Crump what he thought of LeBron James’ performance on Thursday …
”It was alright.”
Up Next – The Cavaliers first home stop after the All-Star Break was fun, but brief. After topping the Warriors, the Wine and Gold get right back on the road, heading back to Indiana where they’ll take on a hot Pacers squad that snapped their 12-game win streak earlier this month. From there, it’s down to Houston to take on James Harden and the Rockets on Sunday afternoon at the Toyota Center. The Cavs return home (again, briefly) for a Tuesday night matchup with Boston at The Q before getting back on the road for a pair of huge Eastern Conference matchups – at Toronto on Wednesday and Atlanta on Friday.