Daily NBA Fix: Golden State Proved Their Greatness, But We Didn’t Learn Much About Cleveland

On today’s Daily NBA Fix, last night’s “a-kicking” by the Golden State Warriors proved how devastating they can be, but assuming the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have any chance against them in the NBA Finals is foolish.

The game was over at some point early in the second quarter, making the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors rematch a let down as the home team didn’t show up on a cold night by the lake. Golden State manhandled Cleveland 132-98.

It put LeBron James in a position he had never been in before: trailing by 43 points. Stephen Curry was his normal monstrous self, going 12-of-18 from the field and 7-of-12 from deep.

But while Twitter was having a field day with jokes, it might be a good time to remind you it is January and that it was just a regular season game.

That isn’t to downplay the “a-kicking” the Cavaliers received last night, but that is just to put some perspective on it. Yes, the Warriors outworked, outwitted, and outplayed one of the NBA’s best teams — and the likely representative of the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals — but it ultimately has little bearing on what happens down the road. If we are taking this game so seriously, why aren’t we dooming the Warriors for

If we are taking this game so seriously, why aren’t we dooming the Warriors for their loss to the Detroit Pistons and declaring them dead? Sure, it wasn’t a “statement game” for the Warriors on Saturday, but again, it was just one regular-season game. These statement games only really matter when both teams show up to play.

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I don’t think this was the apex version of the Cavaliers last night. LeBron James only had 16 points and Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were missing in action. In last night’s game, it was obvious at a certain point that Cleveland had given up on making a statement of their own, and were resigned to their fate. It happens. Even if this were the NBA Finals, it still would only be one game, and one game that Cleveland could recover from.

What we learned last night is that the Warriors are still an unholy terror that likely only has one threat to them in the West (the San Antonio Spurs) and that when fully operational, are the Death Star lining up its sights on Alderaan. What we saw from Cleveland last night was a team that just didn’t have it together that night. After all, if we are making bold predictions off one game, what to we make of the closely contested Christmas Day game? This Cleveland team has been playing better basketball in January than they were in December, in fact, they are nearly a 10-point better team since them.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to need to do some soul searching, LeBron included, to figure how they got beat so soundly last night, but it is still only one game in a long season. The Cavaliers should be very concerned about the weaknesses that were exposed, but at the same time, they now know what to work on. The Warriors are still the league’s best but don’t expect another blowout if and when these teams meet again.

It’s Going Down, I’m Yelling Kemba

Lost in the hype of the Warriors-Cavaliers meeting was a fun, double-overtime game between the Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets where Kemba Walker went off for 52 points and got Charlotte 124-119 the win.

Kemba is having a much better year than last, shooting 43.3 percent and on Monday afternoon, he went off for a franchise-record 52 points on 16-of-34 shooting from the field, 7-of-11 from 3-point range, and was 14-of-15 from the free-throw line in the win.

Kemba is having a much better season for a multitude of reasons, including improving his 3-point shooting by over seven percent from last season as he’s shooting 37.6 percent from deep this year. That’s going from everyone telling him to stop shooting threes to now asking him to keep shooting threes. He’s smartly gotten away from taking as many mid-range shots and gotten to the basket slightly more as well. All of this has allowed him to raise his PER to 20.7, a career high, and made him a much more effective player.

Kemba Walker Career Shooting Percentages | PointAfter

A season ago I wouldn’t be sure if I’d really want Kemba on my team as he was good, but not good enough of a shooter. That has changed.

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If he continues doing what he’s already done this year, then the Hornets’ patience will pay off as they build around him.