Warriors assert dominance over Cavs yet again

CLEVELAND — The Golden State Warriors, coming off a loss to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday, responded to an important game against the Cleveland Cavaliers with a powerful statement.

The Cleveland Cavaliers responded with an abysmal outing, leaving no doubt that the Western Conference’s elite teams (Warriors and San Antonio Spurs) are miles ahead of the Cavaliers.

Using their potent offense, the Warriors embarrassed the Cavaliers 132-98 on Monday. The rout began early and lasted until Golden State left Quicken Loans Arena with its fifth consecutive victory against Cleveland — the final three games of last season’s Finals and two contests this season — and the blowout was not the game anyone expected.

The same Golden State trio that proved problematic for Cleveland in the Finals was again more than the Cavs could handle.

All-Star Steph Curry scored 21 of his game-high 35 points in the first half, forward Draymond Green, who may be headed to his first All-Star Game, had 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, and Andre Iguodala, the Finals MVP, had 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting.

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"It started with Draymond," Cavs star LeBron James said. "Draymond did a great job of attacking of attacking our scheme, and putting pressure on our defense, either to assists or to score, make plays, and obviously Steph hitting the shots that he hit, Iguodala’s production off the bench. ... They’ve got a little bit of everything."

If the 38-4 Warriors felt they were in a rut after losing two of their previous three games, they quickly got out of it.

"That's the way we're supposed to play," Green said. "I don't know it was necessarily a response to the Detroit game. More so, it was about us getting back to ourselves. We've been winning, and we've been talking about still playing the way we play. We were able to do that."

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Golden State destroyed the Cavaliers with precision offense spurred by outstanding screens and ball movement. The Warriors put the game away early, building a 34-21 lead after one quarter and a 70-44 cushion at halftime. They Warriors shot 65% in the first half, including 58.8% on three-pointers, and outscored the Cavs 30-3 on threes in the first two quarters.

Cleveland had no answers for Golden State’s offense and was often scrambling to cover an open shooter. The Cavaliers were late on rotations and lost when it came to defending Golden State’s screens, leading to breakdowns.

"Tactically, we could’ve done things better or differently, obviously," Cavs coach David Blatt said. "We never gave ourselves a chance to win this game. That’s tough. That’s unfortunate.

"We were slow and we were late and became frustrated when things weren’t going our way. I don’t know if it was effort or our inability to overcome our own frustration."

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The Cavaliers offense was not the main reason for this debacle. But Kevin Love was 1-for-5 (three points) and Kyrie Irving 3-for-11 (eight points), and Golden State limited what the Cavs wanted to do, especially from the three-point line. Cleveland is fourth in the league in three-point attempts and had just four at halftime.

LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists, and J.R. Smith was ejected in the third quarter after he received a flagrant foul two for barreling over Harrison Barnes.

The Cavaliers, who trailed 112-69, early in the fourth quarter, are 0-2 against the Warriors and 0-1 against the Spurs, who visit Cleveland on Jan. 30.

Going 0-4 against those teams doesn’t predict the future, but Blatt said on Sunday that, "You definitely want to go into a series having known that you’ve played them well during the season and that you got what it takes to beat the team."

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The result is not as much about the Warriors as it about the Cavs. We know what the Warriors are– the defending champs with their focus square on winning another NBA championship.

We don’t yet know what the Cavs are – just the best team in the East with no chance for beating Golden State or San Antonio in the Finals, or a team capable of winning the title this year.

It hasn’t looked like the latter so far. Cleveland will reveal the answer over the next five months.

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgit.