The Golden State Warriors sometimes believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. It was not enough to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 2 of the NBA Finals, take a 2-0 lead in the series, and put themselves just two wins away from a second consecutive championship – which in and of itself would make many people betting on basketball at SBG Global sportsbook happy – but they did so in such a way as to make the Cavs looks like the Philadelphia 76ers and not the Eastern Conference champions. The 110-77 victory was the most one-sided ever in finals game. The Warriors are now the first team to lead 2-0 in the finals since the 2009 Lakers.
On the other side of the court, LeBron James fell short of scoring 20 or more points for the 26th game in a row. The King had 19 points. 8 rebounds, 9 assists, and lead his team in turnovers with 7. It didn’t James’s or Cleveland’s cause that Kevin Love left early with concussion symptoms and thus could only contribute 5 points and 3 rebounds. The Cavs had won 9 consecutive playoff game 2s after losing the series opener dating back to a loss in the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals to the Celtics. Alas, it was not meant to be this time around, as James admitted that “no points in the game did we beat them in anything.”
Fans betting on basketball who wondered what happened to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson during game 1 need not concern themselves – the so-called Splash Brothers were back in effect. Curry had 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists, while Thompson added 17 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals. By their standards these were rather tame performances though still a whole lot better than what they showed in game 2. Either way, Draymond Green stepped up again and had 28 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 0 kicks to anyone’s groin area – that fate was reserved for his teammate Andre Igoudala who, suffering from a case of Steve Adams syndrome, has taken two shots to the crotch in as many games.
Defensively, Andrew Bogut had five blocks, four of which occurred in the first 7:15. That’s the most blocks in a single finals quarter since Detroit’s Ben Wallace had five in game 3 versus the Spurs in 2005. The 2016 Warriors have now matched the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ 87 wins. The series will not move to the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland for game 3 on Wednesday. And the Cavs better bring it. As ever, people interested in betting on basketball can do so at SBG Global sportsbook.