OAKLAND — Kevin Durant drove through the lane untouched for dazzling dunks. He dished off even when he could have slammed it home, and did it all on defense.
Oh, he hit from long range, too.
What a dominant NBA Finals opener with the Warriors.
Durant finished with 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to lead Golden State past LeBron James and the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, 113-91 Thursday night in Game 1.
As this highly anticipated rematch tipped off at last, the biggest difference from last year was clear.
“KD,” James said.
Stephen Curry did his share by scoring 28 points with six 3-pointers and 10 assists as this sure-to-be thrilling trilogy began, a long-expected, spectacular grand finale envisioned ever since that July day Durant left Oklahoma City to join the loaded Warriors.
“We could be a lot better than we were tonight but in the Finals you get a ‘W,’ we’ll take it,” Durant said.
James wound up with 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists a day after dealing with bigotry far away from basketball. Someone painted a racial slur on the gate of his Los Angeles home, leaving James to address racism rather than his seventh straight Finals appearance or stopping KD. James said he would do his best to be ready for the series opener when his mind was elsewhere, concerned for his wife and children back in Ohio.
“We did a great job of covering the 3-point line but other than that they played a hell of a game,” James said.
Durant punished Cleveland for leaving him free, taking the ball to the hoop for emphatic dunks as a man on a mission to deliver what he came for: a championship. He had six slams in the first half alone for the Warriors, who at 13-0 are already the first team to go this far in a postseason unblemished.
“They’re the best I’ve ever seen,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “They’re 13-0. They’re constantly breaking records every year.”
Game 2 in the series is Sunday night back at Oracle Arena with its deafening sellout crowd.
Once his night was finally done, Durant found mother Wanda at the end of the Warriors bench and held her in a warm embrace.
He had won the first battle with King James.
Kyrie Irving, who hit the deciding 3-pointer with Curry’s hand in his face last June as Cleveland rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to win its first championship, scored 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting. Kevin Love grabbed 21 rebounds and scored 15 points, while Tristan Thompson was held scoreless and to four boards.
The defensive woes that plagued the Cavaliers late in the regular season were glaring against the star-laden Warriors.
Durant had six dunks in the first half alone to match his most ever in a game, Curry hit six 3-pointers and the Cavaliers looked like the team that stumbled down the stretch in the second half of the season.
“We’re just going to have to dig our feet in and be able to guard the basketball,” guard Irving said after Thursday’s opener. “So it’s more or less a heart thing, a prideful thing. Going into Game 2 we’ll be a lot more settled in, a lot better on the defensive end.”
The Cavaliers are going to have to make some adjustments to slow down the Warriors.
When Cleveland stayed on Curry, Durant got easy dunks in transition.
“Some of our lack of communication led to mistakes and led to buckets. They got downhill, got to the spots where they wanted to go,” Love said.
The turnovers were an issue all night, with James committing eight of them. Making matters worse was a lack of scoring help from any of their role players.
“There’s no time to be disappointed,” Irving said. “They capitalized a lot on our mistakes, a lot of transition, easy baskets that we can’t allow going into Game 2. So definitely a lot of things we can correct and get better at.”
The Warriors had 12 steals to none by Cleveland. They scored 21 points off 20 Cavaliers turnovers while making only four giveaways, tying the fewest by any team in any NBA Finals game. — Agencies
