Curry, Durant lead Warriors to 2-0 lead with 132-113 rout

He wasn’t particularly impactful on either end in Game 1 finishing with zero points, four rebounds and a minus-13.

“We probably will have more than four turnovers”, Brown said, “but taking care of the ball, trying to win the possession game, being locked in defensively”.

James tied Magic Johnson for most NBA Finals triple-doubles with eight, and this marked the first time in NBA history more than one player had a triple-double in the same Finals game.

Unfortunately, for King James and his fellow Cavaliers, all those big numbers didn’t add up to a winning combination.

Let’s clear up a misconception: Golden State’s biggest undoing on the way to blowing that 3-1 lead in last season’s NBA Finals was not Draymond Green’s Game 5 suspension for connecting with LeBron James’ midsection.

– Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said after Game 1, perhaps sarcastically, that the Warriors were “the best team I’ve ever seen”. “That’s what Golden State does”.

The Warriors entered the game 13-0 in the playoffs, the last 11 wins coming under acting head coach Mike Brown. The Warriors have come out of the locker room on fire in both games, widening narrow leads into major advantages and rendering the fourth quarters relatively irrelevant.

“The intention is to coach tonight and the rest of the series“, said Kerr, who last coached in Game 2 of the Warriors’ first-round playoff series against Portland on April 19. This time, he hasn’t been able to light a fire under some of those same teammates. In part, as much as this year’s finals for the Warriors have been about the excellence of newcomer Kevin Durant, it’s also been a shot at redemption for Curry.

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (63-33 SU, 44-48-4 ATS, 56-39-1 O/U): Cleveland imported talent during the regular season in an effort to get James the help he desired but point guard Deron Williams, shooting guard Kyle Korver and power forward Derrick Williams combined to go scoreless on 0-of-9 shooting off the bench in Game 1. J.R. Smith made his first shot and never watched another one drop. The key, of course, was (and is) to accomplish that without becoming a distraction for his team – that and having the clarity to make the in-game decisions necessary to put the Warriors in a great position to win. Dahntay Jones scored seven points in garbage time.

Even though Cleveland star LeBron James is no fan of the short-sleeved look, it is one that works for the Cavs.

“I’m not a past guy, too much”.

“Just getting a chance to see how they play, the style of play, how fast they play, you can’t really simulate that in practices”, said Lue.

It is part of why they are set apart from journeymen and stars of a lesser wattage – this desire to push one another and themselves, a ideal marriage of individual talent and a realization there is always something that can done better.

It made for a pretty one-sided opening game. But the same was said past year when the team won the first two games of the Finals against Cleveland by a combined 48 points.

In Game 1, the Cavs played right into Golden State’s hands.

LeBron James has 10 points and five assists to lead Cleveland.

Warriors: Coach Steve Kerr had hoped to feel well enough to return to the bench but stayed behind the scenes in the locker room as he continues to deal with complications from back surgery almost two years ago. We’re going to seek him out, get him the ball, and guys got to defend him. “Obviously we’re blessed with a very versatile roster, so we have options, just like they do, and but they really changed a lot from Game 1, and we had to respond to that”. “I don’t know what you do with him”.