It’s too late in the season for spin. Quite simply: after Sunday night’s blowout loss in Oakland, the Cavaliers need to find some answers – quickly – needing to win four of the next five game against the World Champs to take their title.
First, the Wine and Gold need to win one game – something they’ve been unable to do in their last seven tries against Golden State, including Sunday night’s 110-77 lopsided decision in Game 2 at Oracle Arena.
“We didn’t win anything – no points of the game did we beat them in anything,” said an exasperated LeBron James following the loss. “Even when we had an early lead, they beat us to 50-50 balls, they got extra possessions, they got extra tip-ins. They beat us pretty good tonight.”
Two games into the 2016 Finals, the Cavaliers are still searching for the squad that ran roughshod through the Eastern Conference bracket, going 12-2 en route to their rematch with the Warriors. They leave Oakland having being beaten by an average of 20 points, having shot 37 percent from the floor and 27 percent from long-distance – handing out a combined 32 assists while committing a combined 35 turnovers.
Unlike Thursday night’s loss, the Cavaliers never led in the second half, with Coach Tyronn Lue beginning to empty his bench early in the fourth quarter.
Adding injury to insult, Kevin Love was limited to just over two minutes of action in the second stanza, having to undergo the NBA’s concussion protocol after taking an (uncalled) elbow to the head from Harrison Barnes on a rebound attempt in the second quarter.
The Cavaliers will have to regroup in a hurry, but they’ll do so at Quicken Loans Arena, where they haven’t lost in the postseason.
“We’re going home,” said Tristan Thompson. “We’ll be in front of our crowd and they’ll definitely give us energy but at the same time we have to ignite our crowd. We have to come out and play with some fight and some energy. We had low energy tonight, (Golden State) got all the loose balls and we can’t have that in Cleveland.”
Thompson got the Cavaliers off to a good start on Sunday night – leading Cleveland with eight points and four boards with his squad leading by a deuce, 21-19, after one quarter.
But Draymond Green and Steph Curry caught fire in the second, while every Cavalier not named James went 3-for-12 from the floor. The Wine and Gold closed the first half on a 7-0 run, but still trailed by eight at intermission.
Golden State blew the affair open in the third – with Klay Thompson joining Green to help Golden State outscore the Cavs, 30-18, in the period and take a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter.
LeBron led the Cavaliers with 19 points, going 7-for-17 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the stripe. On the positive side, he nearly notched his 15th career postseason triple-double with nine assists and eight boards; on the negative side, he committed seven of Cleveland’s 18 turnovers.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online Sports
