Key: Road Warriors
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The Cavaliers are finally starting to get healthy down the homestretch – and they’ll need every able body on Thursday night when a red-hot Steph Curry and his Warriors roll into town.
On Wednesday night, the Wine & Gold won their third straight road contest – again in convincing fashion – stinging the Hornets for the second time this season and third time in the last four meetings. Cleveland got its front line back healthy and the Cavs had a spring in their step from the opening tip – scoring the game’s first seven points and closing the third period on a 17-7 run after Charlotte took a brief one-point lead. The Cavs got solid performances from their starters and a huge night from Taurean Prince, who led both teams with a game- and season-high- 25 points off the bench.
The Warriors come to Cleveland in the second game of a five-game trip after demolishing the Thunder last night in Oklahoma City for their third straight win and fourth in their last five – exploding for an NBA-high 50 points in the third quarter and drilling 24 triples on the night. Golden State, which currently sits in the Western Conference’s 9th seed at 27-28, has averaged 129.3 points per over the course of its three-game win streak.
Obviously, these two franchises have a long and complicated history, although both have taken different directions since then. The Warriors come into tonight’s contest having won seven straight over the Cavs – including a 129-98 shellacking in San Francisco back on February 15.
Key: Shooting Star
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Don’t look now, but seven-time All-Star and two-time league MVP Steph Curry is actually having his best offensive season and has even elevated himself into this year’s MVP discussion. And he comes to Cleveland on a torrid run.
Only Bradley Beal (31.0) boasts a higher scoring average than the future Hall of Famer’s 30.7ppg. But right now, Curry’s as unstoppable as he’s ever been – exploding for 52 points against Denver to surpass Wilt Chamberlain as the Warriors’ all-time leading scorer and following that up with a 42-point outburst last night in OKC – going 8-for-8 from the floor in the third quarter.
Over his last three games, the 12th-year man from Davidson has canned 29 three-pointers and in the eight games since returning from a back injury, Curry has tallied at least 30 points in all eight, averaging 38.9ppg over that stretch, shooting 55 percent from the floor, 49 percent from long-distance.
Including the four epic Finals matchups, the Cavaliers have faced Curry 39 times over his career. Over that span, he’s gone for 30-plus on nine occasions, including the Dubs recent win out West – netting 36 points on 13-of-19 shooting, including 7-of-11 from deep.
Not many opponents over the past decade have been able to match up with Curry, but the Cavaliers will try to make him work on the defensive end against Darius Garland. And if Collin Sexton is unable to go, he’ll also get a look at an old frienemy in Matthew Dellavedova on Thursday night.
Garland finished with 16 points in the February loss at Golden State and is coming off a 17-point, 7-assist showing in last night’s win in Charlotte. The sophomore from Vandy is having a solid run of late – averaging 23.5ppg on 54 percent shooting to go with 6.8apg over his last four games.
Key: Happy Returns
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While the Cavaliers will have to contend with Curry, the Warriors will have to deal with a newly-whole Wine & Gold frontcourt.
Kevin Love, who missed the earlier meeting with Golden State, doubled-up in last night’s win over the Hornets, tallying 17 points and a game-high 11 boards, going 6-of-12 from the floor, adding four assists in 26 minutes.
Jarrett Allen, in his first game back since suffering a concussion against the Lakers in late March, was solid in his return – finishing with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, adding eight boards, a pair of assists and a block.
And Larry Nance Jr., who’d also been out since late March with an illness, didn’t find his rhythm offensively, finishing with five points on 1-for-7 shooting, but was his usual terror on the defensive end, leading Cleveland with four steals. At 1.87spg, the sixth-year man from Wyoming trails Jimmy Butler (2.06) as the league’s steals leader.
The Cavs have also gotten solid contributions lately from Dean Wade, who led Cleveland with 21 points in Sunday’s loss to the Pelicans and Isaiah Hartenstein, who led both teams last night with three blocks.
All of Cleveland’s frontliners will have to deal with longtime nemesis, Draymond Green, who’s having one of his worst offensive seasons but is still one of the league’s premier defenders and is coming off his fourth triple-double of the season last night in OKC.