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Final score: Akron’s own Steph Curry too much for Cavs as they fall to Warriors 119-101

Cleveland shows heart and determination but it still wasn’t enough.

By Evan Dammarell
NBA: Golden State Warriors at Cleveland Cavaliers Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

With the return of Collin Sexton to the lineup, the Cleveland Cavaliers (20-35) are only two players (Dylan Windler, Damyean Dotson) away from being fully healthy and they can then hopefully make a serious play-in tournament push. Well, that took a bit of a snag as the Cavs fell to the red hot Golden State Warriors (28-28) 119-101 on Thursday night.

Sexton’s return gave the Cavs the scoring punch they needed and was a factor in why Cleveland was in this game down to the last few minutes. Young Bull finished the night with 30 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and one incredible read to Jarrett Allen. Other notables for Cleveland include Darius Garland (20 points, 7 assists), Jarrett Allen (17 points, 14 boards), and Isaac Okoro (held Steph Curry to 2-10 from three-point range).

That last stat is the most impressive of all for Cleveland’s young core as Curry was hitting on 55.5% of his three-point attempts over the Golden State’s last five games heading into Thursday night. In fact, Okoro held Curry to 0-8 from deep for the better part of the game until the Akron native was able to splash two deep in The Rock.

Speaking of Curry, he was just too much for the Cavs at times Thursday night. He led the Warriors with 33 points and was clearly the primary defensive focus for the Cavs throughout the game. This allowed former Cavalier Andrew Wiggins (23 points, 6 assists) and Juan Toscano-Anderson (20 points, 7 rebounds) to kill Cleveland from the perimeter. Draymond Green also almost had a double-double with 5 points, 8 assists, and 10 rebounds.

With this loss, the Cavs are now 2.5 games back from the Chicago Bulls for the tenth seed and the final spot in the play-in tournament. Cleveland also plays Chicago two times in the next week making those two games the most important the Cavs have played since LeBron James carried the team to the NBA Finals in 2018.

Up Next: The Cavs will take on the Chicago Bulls in Chicago on Saturday night. Tipoff is at 8:00 PM EST.

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