Stephen Curry may be the MVP favorite, but LeBron James proved that he’s still the game’s best player.
In an entertaining, high-speed evening and a potential NBA Finals preview, James and the Cleveland Cavaliers collected their 18th win the last 20 games with a nationally televised 110-99 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night at The Q.
James torched the Warriors for a season-high 42 points on 15-for-25 from the field to combine with 11 boards and five assists. He exploded for 14 points in the third to help Cleveland (37-22) create some distance with a 16-point lead that would be enough to lock up the game.
Curry, the MVP frontrunner, was only able to register 18 points on 5-of-17 shooting for Golden State (44-11). The electric point guard ended his night with a transition air ball with a minute left. It was that kind of night for him. He was 1-of-9 in the second half.
James has said all along that right now Curry has the MVP lead, but Cavaliers coach David Blatt isn’t so quick to hand Curry the hardware.
“If you ask me, there’s no discussion about the MVP if (LeBron) is not involved in it,” Blatt said. “Steph has had a fabulous year and he’s a great player and he’s deserving of all the credit that he’s been getting and certainly deserving to be a frontrunner for that award, but so is our guy.”
This game had intriguing matchups all the way around. But Blatt wasn’t buying a subplot of rookie NBA coaches with Golden State’s Steve Kerr.
“I’m am not now, nor have I been for quite some time a rookie coach,” Blatt said adamantly before the game.
A frantic pace is the best way to depict the action. Coffee was highly recommended because if you blinked and missed something, you would have been exceedingly disappointed.
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