The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors 115-104 on Sunday night. The Warriors’ first road loss of the year dropped them to 5-2 on the early season. The Dubs are currently 1.5 games behind the Nuggets for the top spot in the Western Conference rankings.
The bench for Golden State has played well this season, but the Splash Brothers and Draymond Green kept the Cavaliers from winning by a large margin before the end of the first half. Due to the Cavaliers’ length restriction, all of the Warriors’ offensive players—aside from Steph Curry—had below-average shooting nights.
Curry led the Warriors with 28 points, seven of which came from three-point range. Granted, Steph still had trouble against the outstanding Cleveland defense, making just one of his two efforts from beyond the arc and committing six errors.
Nevertheless, despite Cleveland’s length, the Warriors kept up their attack on the hoops. Despite having a dismal shooting percentage (35.8% overall), Germany was able to keep up the momentum in the game by consistently making free throws and crossing the free-throw line. The Warriors attempted thirty free shots on Sunday, but they only made twenty of them.
In the second half, rookie big Trayce Jackson-Davis and third-year wing Jonathan Kuminga both provided some sparks off the bench. Jackson-Davis scored a Warriors record-tying +8 in just over 11 minutes of action, and he is making a strong case to be added to head coach Steve Kerr’s rotation more frequently.
The Warriors kept the Cavaliers from gaining ground during the first three quarters, and on several occasions in the fourth, they closed the deficit to five or six points. However, Golden State was unable to muster the extra run required to tie the game or take the lead. Conversely, Donovan Mitchell and Darrius Guardiola, the Cavaliers’ all-star guards, regularly produced a massive play to impede the Warriors’ momentum.
The Dubs and the Detroit Pistons will conclude their road journey tomorrow night with the second half of their back-to-back. 4:00 PM Pacific time is the scheduled tip-off time.