Cavaliers torch Warriors in 136-117 blowout

The Cavs started the game on a 20-2 run, started the second quarter on a 13-2 run, and the Warriors got run out of the gym Friday night in Cleveland.

The Golden State Warriors got their biggest win of the season Wednesday night in Boston. Friday night, they got their biggest loss of the season, a 136-117 smackdown from the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers. It was 20-2 after four-and-a-half minutes, 60-30 after 18 minutes, and 83-42 at the half as Kenny Atkinson, Ty Jerome, and the Mistake by the Lake all took revenge on the Dubs.

The game started with the Cavs demonstrating exactly why they’re the only undefeated team left in the NBA. After a pair of Evan Mobley free throws and an Andrew Wiggins jumper, Cleveland ripped off an 18-0 run. All five starters scored, Cleveland shot 6-for-8 and made four triples, and forced two turnovers. Meanwhile, the Warriors missed seven shots in a row, missing threes, whiffing on layups, stepping out of bounds and getting blocked.

What hurt wasn’t just the missed shots, it was the Warriors’ inability to get points in transition even when they did force a miss or a turnover — Cleveland had five in the quarter. In the optimistic words of Bob Fitzgerald, at least they won the rest of the quarter, 20-19, thanks to 9 points from Jonathan Kuminga.

In case the Warriors developed too much hope from holding serve for a few minutes, Cleveland started the second quarter with a 13-2 run. Kuminga and Moses Moody hit threes to get the Warriors within 25 points, which is when Jerome, the Warriors backup from 2022-23, caught fire. He hit three three-points in 1:09, staring down his former team’s bench after the last one, as Cleveland doubled up the Warriors, 68-34.

How bad was it? “Warriors on NBCS”, the official X.com home of the Warriors broadcast, stopped posting clips of the game at the four-minute mark of the second quarter. Perhaps the social media intern was passed out drunk, and honestly, we can’t blame them.

Golden State did come back with a 41-point third quarter, thanks to Kuminga and De’Anthony Melton pouring in seven points each in the final 2:39. Which cut Cleveland’s lead from 39 to…29.

But they didn’t quit! The team put up 75 points in the second half, though most of that wasn’t against Cleveland’s starters. The bench unit of Kuminga, Melton, Moses Moody (replaced in the starting lineup by Gary Payton II), Brandin Podziemski, and Looney played hard, and had its occasional moments.

The Warriors didn’t get a good performance from anyone but Kuminga, who led the team with 21 points. Except for Fitzgerald, who was at his Fitziest during the Cavs’ scorching opening run. Every time a Cavalier, the team with the NBA’s best three-point percentage heading into the game, made a shot, Fitzgerald was there to incredulously compare the two team’s three-point rates, like he was baffled.

When Andrew Wiggins made a layup to cut Cleveland’s lead to 20-7, Fitzgerald declared, “Stop by stop, the Warriors start chipping away.” He said that Ty Jerome “became Pete Maravich” after he hit a few shots in a row in the second quarter, later asserting that the game was “found money after the hot start.” Actually, Fitzgerald pre-emptively declared that Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder was also found money. Even by Fitz standards, making an excuse for a Warriors loss two days before it even happens is incredible.

Cleveland shot 20-for-41 from three-point range, with Darius Garland’s 27 points, three steals, and six threes leading the way. Perhaps the Warriors disrespected his father Winston decades ago? Evan Mobley had 23 points and went 9-for-10 from the foul line, with two blocks. Isaac Okoro had 16 points and four threes and played lockdown defense on Steph Curry. Jerome finished with 20 points and three assists on 7-for-8 shooting, continuing his tremendous year off the bench.

For the Warriors, Kuminga was the leading three-point shooter. On a night where the team went 13-for-42 from deep, Kuminga was 3-for-7, continuing a solid November where he’s shooting 7-for-15 from distance. Melton and Kevon Looney were the only Warriors with a positive plus/minus outside of garbage time, with Melton getting 10 points and three assists and Looney finishing with 9 points, 7 boards, and two steals.

As for Curry and Draymond Green, it was a game where they got frustrated early, pointing a lot of fingers and playing unenthusiastic defense. Still, there’s always at least a little magic when Curry is on the court.

As good as Wednesday’s win felt, Friday’s loss felt rotten. But the second half took some of the bad taste out of the loss, and gave some hope that against another excellent team on the road Sunday, Golden State won’t write off the game as “found money.”