Golden State backup guard Shaun Livingston outscored MVP teammate Stephen Curry by nine points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. PHOTO: THEARON W. HENDERSON/GETTY IMAGES
The Golden State Warriors are almost exactly the same team as the one that won last year’s NBA championship. They have the same starting lineup, the same superstar player and the same way of demoralizing the rest of the NBA with their devastating onslaught of 3-point shooting.
It was for all those reasons that the Warriors were better this season than last season—and maybe even the best NBA team ever. But it was for none of those reasons that the Warriors now have a 1-0 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
It turns out there is another collection of players who are mostly the same as last year’s Golden State title team: the ones who begin the game on the bench. Their offensive style isn’t as seductive as Stephen Curry’s. The way they play almost seems blasphemous for a team that was built around the 3-point line. Except it had the same effect Thursday as the Warriors’ usual sorcery: It won Golden State yet another basketball game.
In a season when Curry has been unstoppable, and Golden State has exploited the 3-pointer more than any team in NBA history, the Warriors beat the Cavaliers, 104-89, in Game 1 of the Finals, with everyone else and every other way.
Curry and Klay Thompson were outscored by 46 points by the Cavaliers’ fearsome trio of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. They were outscored by their own bench by 25 points. There was even one Warriors player, backup guard Shaun Livingston, who finished with as many points as Curry and Thompson put together.
“Even the best players in the world have bad nights,” said Warriors coach Steve …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
