Stephen Curry stroked a NBA Finals record nine three-pointers and scored 33 points as the Warriors used a huge fourth quarter to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 122-103 to take a 2-0 lead in the championship round.
In addition to his big scoring night, Curry also had nine rebounds and seven assists, once again dispelling this erroneous perception by some that he is just a shooter.
Curry had this to say of his game 2 performance:
Pretty special night and hopefully some more special things happen and we get two more wins.
Kevin Durant seemed to play more within the offesnive structure, opting to play less of the isolation basketball and scored 26 points on a very efficient 10-of-14 shooting. Durant also added nine rebounds and seven assists and played solid defense on Lebron James.
Although there was some concern if Klay Thompson would play in game two after sustaining an ugly-looking leg injury in game 1 after J.R. Smith slid into him, Thompson played 33 minutes and scored 20 points.
Lebron James had a strong outing pouring in 29 points to go along with 13 assists and 9 rebounds. Kevin Love came on and had 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Cleveland showed resolve as whenever it seemed the Warriors were up by double figures and seemingly poised to to end the competitive portion of the evening, the Cavaliers would make plays and coach Tyronn Lue would use his timeouts intelligently and Cleveland would edge the gap down to single figures.
That was until the fourth quarter. In this period, Curry knocked down five of nine threes and it appeared the Cavaliers ran out of gas. Even the mighty LeBron James looked a bit fatigued.
The series swings to Cleveland for game 3 and LeBron James had this to say about the Cavaliers’ return home:
We want to continue to be uncomfortable. Just because we’re going home doesn’t mean we can relax.
Game 3 is set for this Wednesday at 9:00 P.M. EST.
