Warriors thrash Cavaliers in rematch of NBA Finals

OAKLAND - Stephen Curry was a couple minutes into his postgame press conference Monday night in the aging recesses of Oracle Arena. The room was packed to playoff proportions, and during a lull in the Q&A a sound penetrated the wall from the room next door. It was a woman's voice, a lovely voice, singing Flo Rida's refrain: “Oh, oh, oh, oh, sometimes I get a good feeling.”

Curry shimmied his shoulders a little and said, “That's my mood right now. I'm feeling good.”

Why shouldn't he have been? The Warriors shook off four consecutive losses to the team that stands between them and NBA greatness, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and cruised to a 126-91 victory that capped a slate of basketball on Martin Luther King Day.

With the win, the Warriors have now outscored the Cavaliers over their past five games together. That is small consolation, considering the previous four all were Cleveland triumphs - three in a row in the NBA Finals that constituted a historic comeback (or collapse, depending on your perspective), and a grueling one-point game on Christmas Day.

Monday's win didn't erase those results, not by a long shot. But it was pretty damn satisfying for Steve Kerr's team, and it showed that when the Warriors are firing on all cylinders they are tough for any team to handle, including the Cavaliers.

“It felt good to redeem ourselves from the last effort in Cleveland,” said shooting guard Klay Thompson, who led all scorers with 26 points. “I think it was a great win, just all around. We played great defense, great offense. We played with a lot of enthusiasm and heart, and when we do that it's almost like we're unstoppable.”

The Warriors were pretty close to invincible against the Cavs. They opened up a 25-14 lead on Stephen Curry's running 3-pointer at 3:58 of the first quarter, and their lead would never fall to a single digit after that. The score after the first quarter was 37-22. It was 78-49 at halftime, and would grow as large as 39 points in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland superstar LeBron James had made headlines a couple days earlier by insisting his team doesn't have a rival, and he repeated it after Monday's game.

“I don't think there's a rivalry,” James said. “It's two great teams that have aspirations.”

Consecutive showdowns in the Finals and the best records in the respective conferences - the Warriors are now 35-6, the Cavaliers 29-11 - would seem to indicate this matchup is bigger than that. And Golden State power forward Draymond Green acknowledged as much.

“Yeah, I think it's a rivalry,” Green said. “Just me, though.”

Green added to the give-and-take Monday night at 6:55 of the second quarter when he lunged for the ball as James drove up the court and knocked him to the ground. Green initially held out a hand to help James off the floor, then performed a full-body eye roll when the four-time MVP writhed on the ground as if injured. Some of James' Cavaliers teammates took exception, especially veteran forward Richard Jefferson, and there was some milling around at halfcourt.

“I fouled him to stop the break. And he went down,” Green explained later. “And the aftermath, I don't know, I told RJ he could get out of my face.”

Green tromped around the court in disgust and pantomimed the perceived flop in front of the Warriors bench as James collected himself. Replays indicated the contact was minor, but officials assessed a Flagrant 1 foul and hit Green and Jefferson with a double technical. The Oracle fans booed James every time he touched the ball for the rest of the night - at first energetically, later lazily.

The Warriors have sometimes been accused of lacking fire this year, but there was nothing tepid about this performance. Golden State roared to a 7-0 lead to start the game, prompting a Cleveland timeout at 10:27. And with the Warriors already enjoying a big lead, they started the game after halftime with a 6-0 run.

“It was a great way to start,” Curry said of the first-quarter burst. “Just foot on the gas pedal and it rolled over the rest of the game.”

The contributions came from everywhere. Curry had 20 points and 11 assists. Kevin Durant scored 21. Center Zaza Pachulia grabbed 13 rebounds. Reserves Andre Iguodala (5 for 5) and Shaun Livingston (6 of 7) combined for 27 points on 11-of-12 shooting.

But it was Green who was at the heart of the Warriors' dominance. He finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists and a career-high five blocks before leaving to a warm ovation with 6:09 left in the game. His plus-minus was a dizzying +43. Green's contributions were summed up late in the first quarter when he closed to the 3-point line to block a shot by Cleveland's Kyle Korver, then scored on a fast-break layup on the other end to push Golden State's lead to 13 points.

James led the Cavaliers with 20 points, but got there on 6-of-18 shooting. His plus-minus of -32 was the second worst of his career, ahead of only the -34 he suffered almost exactly a year earlier, in a 132-98 MLK Day loss. To the Warriors, of course. Point guard Kyrie Irving scored 17 for Cleveland on Monday by going 6 for 19 from the field, and he had six turnovers to go with just two assists.

The big difference between this game and the Christmas Day loss at Cleveland was rebounding. The Cavaliers played Grinch in December by outrebounding the Warriors 44-42, and especially by tormenting the visitors with 18 offensive boards; Cavs power forward Tristan Thompson had six of those. This time Golden State had a monstrous rebounding edge of 58-35; Cleveland had just seven on the offensive end.

“In order to beat this team you have to rebound. What did Tristan have today?” Green said, checking the stat sheet. “Two offensive rebounds. That's a huge part of their offense, believe it or not. That really gets those guys going. … They're talented enough giving them one shot. You give them two or three and they're tough to beat.”

This kicked off a big week for the Warriors, who host Oklahoma City on Wednesday and play at Houston on Friday. Their regular-season series with the Cavaliers is finished.

Green was asked if he wished the Warriors could play the Cavaliers more frequently. He said the format is fine as it is.

“I think it's intense enough for two matches,” Green said. “You want to play each other again, then try and get to the NBA Finals.”