The Golden State Warriors made a giant statement with their dominant 132-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, reasserting themselves as the best team in the NBA. Here are four things we learned from that game:
4) Cleveland isn't a legitimate title threat right now
Many have thought all season that it's a foregone conclusion that the Cavs will cruise through the Eastern Conference again into the NBA Finals, where then anything can happen against a tired team from the West. While the Cavs may in fact have an easy time making their way through the East, this game showed just how far behind the Warriors they are.
Not only that, but the loss dropped Cleveland to 1-5 on the season against Golden State, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Toronto. That lack of success against their biggest challengers is very, very alarming moving forward.
3) Golden State still has an edge to them
Even since the Warriors lost their first game of the season to the Bucks, many have pointed to the Spurs as the league's best team instead of Golden State. Not only that, but they've also had to hear for months about how they could've lost to Cleveland in the Finals last year if the Cavs had been fully healthy.
It was clear that the Warriors came out on a mission last night, playing with an arrogant, aggravated, we're-going-to-show-you-how-much-better-we-are-than-you attitude that has been missing in recent games.
2) The Cavaliers can't guard the Warriors
We know that Golden State's offense is historically good, but Cleveland's roster simply isn't equipped to defend them. Kevin Love has been a defensive nightmare all season, and he simply doesn't have the athleticism to guard Draymond Green nor to size to guard Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli. Same goes for Tristan Thompson.
Kyrie Irving has improved defensively, but Stephen Curry was able to routinely get whatever shot he wanted against both him and Iman Shumpert. LeBron James has showed he can at least limit Curry's effectiveness, but if they put him on Curry, the rest of Cleveland's backcourt doesn't have the size to cover Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Andre Iguodala.
Golden State exploited all of those matchup problems to perfection last night, and the onus is now on Cavs head coach David Blatt to figure out a way to slow the Warriors down.
1) This doesn't mean Golden State is 34 points better than Cleveland
Last night's game can tell us a lot, but let's be careful not to overreact. It's just one game out of 82, and it was the perfect recipe of Cleveland playing their worst game of the year and Golden State playing one of their best. The Warriors shot over 54 percent from the field, made 19 three-pointers, and had 104 points after three quarters. On the flip side, Cleveland's "Big 3" combined for just 27 points - their lowest mark in the last two years - and their starters shot just 42 percent from the field.
There are some alarming takeaways from last night, especially with Cleveland's inability to guard Golden State, but remember, the two sides did play in a highly-contested 89-83 game on Christmas Day (though the Warriors won that game, too). The Cavs have a lot of ground to make up, but they're not as far off as last night's blowout suggested.
Back to the Golden State Warriors Newsfeed