CLEVELAND — The Warriors lost on the road for the first time this season Sunday as the Cleveland Cavaliers used their size to earn a 115-104 victory, snapping Golden State’s overall five-game winning streak.
Golden State was down at the half, by 12, for the first time on the road this season as they struggled to hit shots.
Steph Curry and Klay Thompson kept them afloat, scoring 24 combined points at the half. The team went on an eight-minute scoring drought between the first and second quarters, leading to a season-low 15-point second-quarter. They’ve been down at the half for both of their losses, the other on Opening Night against the Phoenix Suns.
The offense succumbed to the Cavaliers’ size — led by two-headed monster Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen — and lost the game in the paint on both ends, where Cleveland outscored them 58-24.
Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green primarily carried the scoring from beyond the arc to counter Mobley and Allen mucking up the paint. The Warriors had whiplash switching from Oklahoma City’s five-out offense to Cleveland’s offense that leverages size over a smaller Warriors team.
“They always say styles make fights,” Curry said. “From OKC and Cleveland, that’s a big difference in the way that they approach the game. Their game plan won. So it’s a good learning lesson for us, understanding the details for how to beat teams.”
Curry finished with a team-high 28 points shooting 7-for-11 from 3. Thompson had 15 points, 10 of them coming in the first half, shooting 3-for-9 from 3.
Green took advantage of the space and put together another strong scoring performance, hitting multiple 3-pointers in three straight games dating back to the win against the Sacramento Kings at home. His two early 3-pointers against the Cavaliers led to a season-high 18-point game. Green also had three rebounds, eight assists, three steals and one block.
“This is him being aggressive,” Curry said. “He has a lot of confidence in the shot, he’s always had it, it’s just a matter of taking them. It gives us such good life because they try to take away our pet plays and he’s able to knock down shots, it gives us a huge boost and gets him involved in the game early and often.”
Rookies Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski, assigned to the G League Santa Cruz team before the Oklahoma City game, made the quick turnaround and jolted awake a Warriors team zombie walking through the game. Jackson-Davis and Podziemski were the only Warriors to finish in the plus in plus/minus; Jackson-Davis was a plus-8 with five points, four rebounds, a block and a steal. Podziemski was plus-3 with two rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
“I love those rooks, they’re great,” Thompson said. “The energy they bring every day is much needed. Trayce was awesome tonight, and so was BP. It’s great to have them back in the fold.”
The Warriors veterans will play on the back half of this back-to-back on Monday against the Detroit Pistons. Then they finish off the road trip against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday before returning home to play the Cavaliers again, followed by a two-game “series” against the Minnesota Timberwolves and two against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
