Klay Thompson makes up for shooting slump on defensive end

Talk of the Warriors’ possibilities only heightened in ESPN’s circle of influence (which is shrinking along with its job force but still sizable) after the Warriors blasted the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night, storming to a 113-91 victory in Game 1 of the Finals with almost total dominance of the paint, the arc and all the real estate in between. After beating the Cavs by 15 in Game 1 of last year’s Finals, the Warriors chose to one-up themselves by clobbering Cleveland 113-91 on Thursday.

Stephen Curry has tied Paul Pierce’s NBA Finals record with 10 free throws made in a quarter.

The best early sign for the Warriors: Klay Thompson, who was 3 for 16 in Game 1, connected on two consecutive possessions.

The Cavs can score.

Game 2 of the NBA Finals is Sunday in Oakland. That isn’t the issue.

Maybe that pie in the face the Cavs took in Game Ugh will emphasize to them that The Finals have begun, and they can stop looking for any more congratulations for shutting down Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko.

Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue dubbed the Warriors “the best I ever seen”, but added, “They’re playing good basketball”.

James said he blocks out all the crowd noise, even supportive shouts, to focus on the game, especially on the road as his Cavaliers are for the first two games in the best-of-seven championship series. He vowed to do his part in Game 2. And while there were plenty of outside factors at play that aided in Golden State’s collapse, it still required a pair of virtuoso performances from James (along with Kyrie Irving) in Games 5 and 7 to snap Cleveland’s half-century championship drought. Problem is, they only had him for 58 seconds.

Sure, the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have only played one game in their best-of-seven title showdown, with Game 2 set for Sunday.

“The intention is to coach the rest of the series”, Kerr told the media. After a successful return that included Coach of the Year honours, the headaches returned. He said it’s tough being black in America and pointed out the obvious – we still have a long way to go on race relations. They’re the defending world champs and are not going to go down without a fight. If the Cavaliers are wrong that they should push the pace and not slow the game down, they may not realize that until this series is already out of hand.

This is only the fifth Finals game – and the first since 1967 – where both teams had at least 64 points at the half.

– The first came off a great cut to beat James.

Former two-time MVP Steve Nash, now a player development consultant with the Warriors, has had an impact on multiple areas of the Warriors roster but he was influencing Kevin Durant before the former Thunder standout left Oklahoma City. “We just play physical”, Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith said. Overcommit to the lane, and their shooters will tee off from 3-point range.

Make no mistake, the Warriors are good, but the Cavaliers think they gave Game 1 away by turning the ball over and not communicating well on defense. They’re 80-15 this season.

He proceeded to say that the Cavaliers could beat arguably the best National Basketball Association team of all-time, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

It took Mike Brown some time to figure out what, exactly, was going on when he first got to work as the Warriors’ new top assistant coach.

And this series is a long way from over.

“If we can kind of carbon-copy what we did in Game 1”, Curry explained.

“But I’m not going to do that until I know I can help the team”.

A year ago at this time, Curry could muster no such exuberance. There is no jealousy because each is supremely confident in his skills and his place in the game but what there has been, Curry said, is a welcome jolt that comes from watching someone equally skilled go about his business.

Or else a lot more dunks are coming.