NBA Week 13 Rewind: Warriors put Cavaliers in their place

The Key Games and Results of Week 13

Since their first NBA Finals rematch on Christmas Day, this was the game that every basketball fan was waiting for. A chance to see the Warriors, who had somehow lost twice in their last three games prior to this contest, take on LeBron James and a fully health Cavs team.

It was a chance to see either the Cavs redeem themselves or the Warriors reassert themselves as the undisputed peak of the NBA. And as became blindingly apparent within a matter of minutes, the latter was (and is) the reality.

By the end of the first quarter, the Warriors were already up 34-21. It wasn’t what most would have expected, but there was still plenty of time left. There was more than enough time for the Cavs to prove they’re on the same level. Then the second quarter happened and the Warriors extended their lead far further, and went up 70-44 by half time.

Well, maybe LeBron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love would have something to say about that in the third quarter, right? Not quite, as the Warriors won the third period 34-23 in the exact same manner as the first two. Finally, the Cavs were able to win a quarter by taking the fourth 31-28, but by that point it would have been beyond an understatement to say the game was miles out of reach.

By the end of the third, the Warriors had surpassed 100 points. Meanwhile, the Cavs were stuck all the way back at 64.

The Warriors simply out-classed them the entire night, in all facets of the game.

Their ball movement stretched the Cavs’ defense and forced them to be late on rotations, their own defense played with constant intensity, they controlled the tempo, they got everyone involved (five scorers in double digits, four over 15 points), they had half as many turnovers (eight to 16) and shot 54.1 percent. To highlight the defensive weakness of Love, the Warriors just kept going after him, forcing him to defend and totally misread pick-and-rolls or brining him away from the basket with the shooting of Draymond Green.

Also, here’s a stat that pretty much summed up the clash of the stars in this game:

• Stephen Curry had more points (35) and made field goals (12) than the trio of LeBron, Irving and Love combined (11 made field goals and 27 points)

The Cavs, despite being healthy, looked completely lost as contenders. Whereas the Warriors put all doubts to rest for yet another contest that they would still win once their Finals opponents were healthy again. They dominated, and it didn’t even look fair.

Double overtime, a 50-point scorer, and a total of 29 three-pointers. On MLK Day, the Hornets and Jazz put on a shootout behind the 36 points and six threes of Gordon Hayward and the career-high 52 points, nine rebounds and eight assists of Kemba Walker.

The two got going back and forth early on, and both had at least nine points within the first half of the opening quarter. Walker continued to lead the way for the Hornets and they established a 50-38 lead with 1:30 to go in the first half. Then, as was the trend for the whole night, Hayward kept firing and buried a step-back jumper with two seconds left in the second quarter to cut the lead to single digits.

As the game proceeded, though, the Hornets were able to maintain a solid lead. With just under six minutes to go in the third they were still up 65-50, and even into the fourth quarter the Hornets still had a 10-point lead with 10 minutes to go.

However, after waiting all night to get in front (a trait the Jazz have faced a lot as the 25th ranked team in points per game), it wasn’t until the final minute that they really looked like they could pursue the win as Trey Burke hit a game-tying three with 15 seconds left. Then, as overtime began, the teams stayed back and forth till the second period.

Yet again, though, Walker came up to save the day for the Hornets. As he sunk free throws before the buzzer, the game was finally over, and he had the highest scoring game in franchise history.

As the 2nd best team in the East made light work of defeating the Heat, they just showed how far the latter have fallen recently. The Raptors took a 18-8 lead half way through the first quarter, extended that lead to 28-15 with 2:40 left in the opening period, and continued to remain in control thanks to efficient offense and their ability to deliver precise entry passes into the paint that looked bare with Hassan Whiteside injured.

After being the NBA’s top defensive team early on this season, the Heat didn’t look the same in Toronto.

When Luis Scola of all players buried a buzzer-beating three to end the first half, it was clear the Heat had no momentum as they went down 60-44.

The second half was more of the same. It wasn’t even until there was just under four minutes left that the Heat managed to cut the lead to single digits. The Raptors stayed in control and DeMar DeRozan who finished with 33 points notched his third straight 30-point game.

Injuries hurt Miami, as Goran Dragic and especially Whiteside were major losses. Thanks to a barrage of other injuries and terrible offensive execution (29th in the NBA for points per game since January 1, per NBA.com) they now rank just 8th in the East after losing eight of their last 10 games.

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