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[8pantera]

Warriors up 1-0 as Draymond Green, supporting cast key win
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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Stephen Curry realizes every last man on the bench can mean so much to winning a championship.

As he and Klay Thompson endured rare off nights that even featured Curry tossing his mouthpiece in frustration, the MVP's "Strength In Numbers" supporting cast made all the timely shots and all the difference for the defending champions in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Draymond Green had 16 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, Shaun Livingston scored a personal postseason best of 20 and Golden State's bench came up big as the Warriors beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-89 on Thursday night to move three wins from a repeat title.

The Splash Brothers? They totaled -- gasp! -- 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting, each knocking down a late 3-pointer.

"You don't win championships without the entire squad coming in and making an impact on games," Curry said. "That's why we're here."

Golden State's bench outscored the Cavs' reserves 45-10 in the opener of this Finals rematch, which the Warriors reached even with Curry missing six games with injuries this postseason.

Game 2 is Sunday night at Oracle Arena, and James knows Cleveland must adjust immediately.

"When you get outscored 45-10 on the bench and give up 25 points off 17 turnovers, no matter what someone does or doesn't do, it's going to be hard to win, especially on the road," James said. "Don't matter what you do with Steph and Klay, don't matter what you do with Draymond."

In a series with so much star power on both sides, this was a night for Livingston and fellow reserves Leandro Barbosa and Andre Iguodala. Barbosa returned from a minor back injury to shoot 5-for-5 on the way to 11 points, while 2015 Finals MVP Iguodala had 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and played some stingy defense on James.

"We play a lot of people, and we feel like we have a lot of talent on the bench that can come in and score when we need it," coach Steve Kerr said. "So it's a great sign, obviously, that we can win in the finals without those two guys having big games, but it's not really that surprising to us. This has been our team the last couple of years."

It made for a strong start while surrounded by those thousands of golden yellow "Strength in Numbers" T-shirts worn by the raucous fans throughout sold-out Oracle.

"That's our motto. That's what we believe in," Livingston said. "We pick each other up. We believe in each other and we just fight."

James kicked off his sixth straight Finals with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists, but cold-shooting Cleveland went 38.1 percent from the floor. Kyrie Irving, lost to a devastating knee injury in a Game 1 overtime defeat last year, scored 26 points, 11 on free throws.

Iguodala had moved into the starting lineup Monday for the Game 7 clincher against Oklahoma City with a primary duty of defending Kevin Durant, but Iguodala went back to the bench and played 36 minutes Thursday. He shook his head in delight after a two-handed slam off a pass from Curry with 5:44 left and didn't let an aggravating, hard hit to the groin by Matthew Dellavedova derail his focus for the final quarter.

Kerr stuck with regular starter Harrison Barnes, and he delivered 13 points. Curry had 11 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds, while Thompson scored nine points.

"I thought our guys did a great job of locking into those guys," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "Their bench played well. So we've got to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to take those guys out of the game."

Kevin Love made an impressive Finals debut with 17 points and 13 rebounds after missing last year's run with a dislocated shoulder that required surgery. His basket with 3:57 left in the third put the Cavs ahead before Green's dunk moments later.

With 34.1 seconds left in the third, Iguodala took issue with Dellavedova's swat into his groin that after review was ruled a personal foul and no flagrant. Iguodala knocked down a 3-pointer less than eight seconds later and Golden State took a 74-68 lead into the final 12 minutes.

Livingston, whose remarkable comeback from a potentially career-ending left knee injury nine years ago has inspired Kerr and many others, made a key shot late in the third on the way to his first 20-point performance in the postseason.

James has scored 20 or more points in a career-best 25 straight playoff games, topping his previous mark of 24 in a row from May 12, 2008, to April 25, 2010.

CLIPBOARD CHOP

Kerr karate chopped his white clipboard in half in the third quarter, frustrated how his team came out of the break as the Cavs grabbed some momentum.

He felt better afterward.

"Destruction tends to ease some of the anger," the coach of the year said. "So I try to take it out on a clipboard instead of a player. So it's better that way."

TIP-INS

Cavaliers: The Cavs, who were allowing 94.3 points per game, dropped to 12-3 this postseason and 5-3 on the road. ... Averaging a playoffs-high 14.4 3s per game, the Cavs shot 7-of-21 from beyond the arc.

Warriors: Longtime Cavs big man Anderson Varejao got on the floor in the opening quarter for the Warriors; he's the first player to have been on both Finals teams in the same season. ... Andrew Bogut scored 10 points, his entire total from last year's Finals. ... Curry has made a 3 in a record 52 straight postseason games.

http://espn.go.com/nba/game?gameId=400878154

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 3, Final Scores/Leaders:

Cavaliers - 89 Warriors - 104
Irving: 26 Pts. James: 9 Asts. Love: 13 Rebs./Livingston: 20 Pts. Green: 7 Asts. Green: 11 Rebs.




Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals

1. Warriors - 1
1. Cavaliers - 0

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 5, Final Score/Leaders

Cavaliers - 77 Warriors - 110
James: 19 Pts. James: 9 Asts. James: 8 Rebs./ Green: 28 Pts. Green: 5 Asts. Curry: 9 Rebs.

Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals
1. Warriors - 2
1. Cavaliers - 0

REMEMBERING THE GREATEST

A moment of silence was held for late boxing great Muhammad Ali, who died Friday night at an Arizona
hospital. Photos of Ali showed on the main scoreboard ahead of the national anthem.

TIP-INS

Cavaliers: James' career-best 25 straight postseason games scoring 20 or more points was snapped. ...
James played in his 194th postseason game, passing Karl Malone and Danny Ainge (193 each) for 10th place on the career list. His first-quarter steal also moved James past John Stockton (338) at fourth place for career postseason steals.

Warriors: Bogut's four blocks in the first were the most in one finals quarter since Ben Wallace's five for Detroit during Game 3 against San Antonio in 2005. ...
Golden State is 3-5 all-time in Game 2 of the NBA Final and 3-2 at home, including a 95-93 overtime loss to the Cavs last year. ... The Warriors committed six turnovers in the first quarter alone after having only nine all of Game 1.

[razorsharp]

0 - 2

wala, uwian na. taob na si lebronski. magiging back to back champions na ang golden state warriors!

[naruto789544]

if gsw steals one from cleveland's homecourt, then it's most probably finished....

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 9, Final Score/Leaders:

Warriors - 90 Cavaliers - 120
Curry: 19 Pts. Green: 7 Asts. Barnes: 8 Rebs./James: 32 Pts. Irving: 8 Asts. Thompson: 13 Rebs.





Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals

1. Warriors - 2
1. Cavaliers - 1


TIP-INS

Warriors: Shot just 9 of 33 on 3-pointers. ... Thompson left briefly in the first quarter with a bruised left thigh after he ran into a screen by Cleveland's Timofey Mozgov. ... Kerr became emotional before the game when paying his respects to Sean Rooks, his former Arizona teammate who died Tuesday at the age of 46.
... Green has become Public Enemy No. 1 in Cleveland-- and elsewhere. He smiled while being booed during pregame warmups.

Cavaliers: James has 82 career 30-point games in the playoffs, third most all-time. Only Michael Jordan (109) and Kobe Bryant (88) have more. ... Smith nailed a shot from halfcourt at the end of the second quarter, but the shot came after the horn and was waved off.
... Lue said he doesn't pay any attention to the all the outside second-guessing about his lineups. "I don't care," he said. "They (critics) should be coaches." ... Legendary Browns running back Jim Brown sat courtside and gave the crowd a thumbs-up when he was shown on the giant scoreboard.

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 11, Final Score/Leaders:

Warriors - 108 Cavaliers - 97
Curry: 38 Pts. Iguodala: 7 Asts. Green: 12 Rebs./ Irving: 34 Pts. James: 9 Asts. James: 13 Rebs.

Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals

1. Warriors - 3
1. Cavaliers - 1

TEMPERS FLARED :

James and Green exchanged words in the fourth quarter after it appeared the Golden State forward hit Cleveland's star below the belt.
"He said something I didn't agree with," James explained. "Some of the words that came out of his
mouth were a little overboard."
James said he watched the video of Green hitting him and hopes the league reviews it. Green has been at the center of several controversial plays in the postseason and would be suspended if he gets another flagrant foul.

NO BALANCE :

Irving and James took 33 of Cleveland's 38 shots in the second half and made 16 of the team's 18 field goals.

TIP-INS :

Warriors: Thompson wore a wrap on his left leg for protection and support following his Game 3 run-in with Cavs C Timofey Mozgov. ... Surprisingly, one of Kerr's first substitutions was James Michael McAdoo, who had not played a single minute in the first three games.

Cavaliers: Love came off the bench for the first time since 2010 with Minnesota. ... Irving played with a wrap on his right thumb after hurting it in the first quarter. ...
Two coaching giants were among the courtside celebrities. Ohio State's Urban Meyer sat near Cleveland's bench while Pep Guardiola, the Spanish soccer coach taking over at Manchester City after three years with Bayern Munich, wore a No. 23 Cleveland jersey.

[kingjames24szupladoh]

NEWS :

*Draymond Green has been assessed with a Flagrant 1
for altercation with LeBron James which results into a one game suspension.

*Mike Brown and Tyrone Corbin are top candidates for Golden State's assistant coach job.

[kenalo]

Paano yan, 3-2 na. Natalo mismo GSW sa sarili nilang court. 4-1, 4-1 means 41 points each for Lebron and Irving!

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 14, Final Score/Leaders:

Cavaliers - 112 Warriors - 97
James & Irving: 41 Pts. James: 7 Asts. James: 16 Rebs./Thompson: 37 Pts. Iguodala: 6 Asts. Iguodala: 11 Rebs.




Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals

1. Warriors - 3
1. Cavaliers - 2

MOMENT OF SILENCE :

Former Orlando Magic star Grant Hill spoke on behalf of the NBA in offering support, thoughts and prayers to victims in the Orlando mass shooting before a moment of silence.

TIP-INS :

Cavaliers: Kevin Love returned to the starting lineup for the first time since sustaining a concussion in Game 2 here on June 5. ... James extended his NBA-record streak to 26 straight playoff series with at least one road win. ... James played his 197th postseason game, tying him with Manu Ginobili for No. 9 on the NBA's career list. He also passed Elgin Baylor (1,724) for No. 9 on the rebounds list.

Warriors: Golden State committed 17 turnovers. ... The Warriors had won their previous four against the Cavs on their home court, outscoring Cleveland by a combined 48 points in Games 1 and 2 of these Finals.
... Golden State had its streak of six straight Game 5 victories in the postseason dating to last year's Western Conference semifinals snapped.





*The Minnesota Timberwolves are shopping their fifth overall pick in hopes of landing Jimmy Butler.

*DeMar DeRozan has opted out of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent.

*Coach Jason Kidd signs three-year, $18 million contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks.

*David West will decline his $1.55 million player option.

[naruto789544]

momentum shifts to cleveland again... hope gsw finds the right rhythm again...

[kingjames24szupladoh]

June 17, Final Score/Leaders:

Warriors - 101 Cavaliers - 115
Curry: 30 Pts. Green: 6 Asts. Green: 10 Rebs./James: 41 Pts. James: 11 Asts. Thompson: 16 Rebs.




Playoff Bracket: NBA Finals

1. Warriors - 3
1. Cavaliers - 3

BIG GAME JAMES :

James has scored 41 points in the past two games, continuing a trend of bailing his team out in its darkest hour. He's now 9-8 in elimination games.

"He's a fantastic player, brilliant player," said Kerr, who played with Michael Jordan.

TIP-INS :

Warriors: F Harrison Barnes missed all eight shots. ...
Green and Thompson played in their 103rd game this season, most in the NBA. That was also the highest total in the league a year ago, with Barnes getting to 103. ... Andre Iguodala's start was his third of these playoffs. He had 5 points in 30 minutes. ... Bogut's injury will take 6-to-8 weeks to heal, essentially knocking him out of playing for Australia in the Rio Olympics.

Cavaliers: James is the first player to have consecutive 40-point games in the finals since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000. ... Cleveland joined Rochester (1951) and Boston (1966) as the only teams to trail 3-1 and force a Game 7. ... Tristan Thompson had 16 rebounds and went 6 of 6 from the floor. ... Seldom-used reserve G Dahntay Jones came off the bench in the last two minutes of the first half and scored 5 points.

[naruto789544]

nice trivia... and cleveland is also on the verge of coming from a 3-1 deficit to bag the championship... it's a first in the nba if ever...

[bopbarobop13]

rumors.. is it true that steph curry will be suspended for game 7? after his ejection in game 6? how true is it?

[xxxcrashburnxxx]

rumors.. is it true that steph curry will be suspended for game 7? after his ejection in game 6? how true is it?

Di nasuspend si Steph Curry pinag fine lang cya at si Kerr ng tig $25k


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