Warriors run away from Cavs, again: 3 takeaways from Game 2

The Golden State Warriors remained perfect in the postseason with a 132-113 win on Sunday night. Here are three takeaways from Game 2 of the 2017 NBA Finals.

Do you remember back in 2000 when Tiger Woods was running away with the U.S. Open and he hit that incredible seven-iron on the 6th hole at Pebble Beach, to which NBC golf analyst Roger Maltbie remarked “it’s not a fair fight”? That’s kind of what the NBA Finals are starting to feel like. The Golden State Warriors made NBA history on Sunday night, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-113 for their 14th consecutive postseason victory, taking a 2-0 lead in the 2017 NBA Finals in the process.

The funny thing (perhaps not for the Cavs) is that it’s hard to say who led the way for Golden State on Sunday night. Was it Kevin Durant, who put up 33 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists? Was it Stephen Curry, who kind of had a triple-double under the radar with 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds? Either way, as it was a season ago, the Warriors are heading to Cleveland up two games to none.

The pace was frantic from the get-go as both teams got off to a nice start. The Cavs hit their first five shots to jump out to an 11-6 lead and Kevin Love started off nicely as well, hitting his first four shots for nine early points. The Cavaliers looked much more aggressive than they did in Game 1. They were forcing turnovers — the Warriors matched their Game 1 total of four just five minutes into the game — but as it often happens, Golden State wouldn’t be down for long. Stephen Curry scored 15 points in the opening quarter, 10 of those coming from the free throw line, and they took a 40-34 lead into the second.

LeBron James was extremely aggressive in the first half, attacking the basket with reckless abandon and took just one shot outside the paint in the first 24 minutes. James finished the first half with 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting and Kevin Love continued his solid play in the second quarter, going into the locker room with 15 points. However, even with Curry not scoring a single point in the second quarter, the Cavs could only shave three points off the lead as Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and some nice play off the bench kept the ship afloat.

And then the third quarter happened. Durant was doing everything that the Warriors needed him to do and Curry woke back up and came out and scored 14 points, including this gem that made Twitter go nuts.

And it was over from there. Cleveland was able to cut into the lead at one point but the Warriors just have too many weapons. Fatigue set in for the Cavaliers and they just couldn’t keep up. Golden State extended the lead to 14, 102-88, heading into the fourth and didn’t let up. I don’t want to say that this series is over — we all know what happened in last year’s NBA Finals — but the Warriors are hitting on all cylinders and they look unbeatable right now. That’s their 29th win in their last 30 games and they might not lose another one this season.

Here are three takeaways from Game 2 of the 2017 NBA Finals and since I don’t want to use an extra one, this has to be said. LeBron James is a monster. With 29 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds, he tied Magic Johnson for the most triple-doubles in NBA Finals history with eight and continues to play at an extremely high level, a level that he’s never reached in an already-stellar career. He’s playing the best basketball of his life and it’s a shame that he’s going to have to take the fall for this if the Cavs can’t come back. But that’s the burden of being the best player in the world.

Takeaways

Kevin Durant doesn’t look like he’s trying hard at all. Don’t get that sentence twisted now. Kevin Durant is playing amazing basketball in these NBA Finals and is one of the best players in the world. It’s just that even after all these years, everything still looks so easy for him. This is the biggest stage that Kevin Durant has ever played on — yes, he was in the NBA Finals with Oklahoma City but this rivalry is the new Lakers-Celtics and is in a different class — and he’s playing like this is no big deal, as if it’s just another series or just another game.

It all just looks so effortless. Look at what he’s done so far in these Finals. He had 38 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds in Game 1 and put up 35 more points, grabbed 13 more rebounds, dished out 6 more assists, and I didn’t even realize he was doing all of that. Perhaps it’s because I was so impressed with his defense on Sunday night. He had five blocks and three steals and just simply did everything that he needed to do to help his team win. And it all looked so smooth. But I guess it always does, doesn’t it?

Klay Thompson finally looked like Klay Thompson. The shots had to start falling eventually. Shooters are going to shoot and Thompson kept shooting and things finally started going his way. Following another great regular season in which the sharpshooter shot 46.1 percent from the floor and 41.4 percent from beyond the arc, averaging a career-high 22.3 points per game in the process, Thompson all of a sudden went cold once the playoffs began.

In the 12 games leading up to the NBA Finals, Thompson shot an uncharacteristic 38.3 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from the 3-point line. He didn’t do himself any favors in Game 1, shooting just 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) from the floor and 0-for-5 from deep. However, things were completely different in Game 2. He hit a couple of shots early, which certainly had to help his confidence, and continued as the game went on, finishing with 22 points, his second-highest point total of the postseason, on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and 2-for-3 on 3-pointer. He was extremely efficient all evening and with Durant and Curry playing the way they are, Thompson getting hot is bad news for the Cavaliers.

The big three for Cleveland aren’t getting any help. It’s never been expected of the Cleveland supporting cast to go out and do anything insanely spectacular, but LeBron James (29 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds), Kyrie Irving (19 points, 7 assists) and Kevin Love (27 points, 7 rebounds) need some help. Did anyone notice that J.R. Smith, the STARTING shooting guard, took just two shots and played only 13 minutes? He didn’t make either one of those shots by the way. Tristan Thompson played a little bit better than he did in Game 1 but still scored just eight points and the bench once again came up short.

After scoring just 24 points in Game 1, the Cleveland subs didn’t fare much better on Sunday night, accounting for 30 of Cleveland’s 113 points and a lot of those came early. Kyle Korver came in and hit a couple of quick shots but then was irrelevant the rest of the way. Former All-Star Deron Williams went scoreless and the only one to really make any type of an impact was once again 36-year-old Richard Jefferson. If the Cavs are to have any chance of making a miraculous comeback like they did in 2016, the supporting players have to help out.

Next: Worst starters on an NBA Championship team

What are your thoughts on Game 2? Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below and be sure to check back in with FanSided each and every day for our continuing coverage of the 2017 NBA Finals.