Golden State's overwhelming 110-77 victory Sunday over Cleveland in the NBA Finals put the Warriors halfway to a repeat title and left Cavaliers superstar LeBron James searching for answers.
Draymond Green scored 28 points, NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry added 18 and Klay Thompson netted 17 to spark Golden State to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Cleveland for game three Wednesday and game four Friday.
"To hold this team to 77 points, that's not easy to do, but we really locked in," Green said. "The toughest part is going to Cleveland. We've got to go in with a higher focus than we've had."
But only three teams in NBA history have overcome a 2-0 deficit to win the finals -- the 1969 Boston Celtics, 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 2006 Miami Heat.
"It's a fabulous position with everybody playing their best," NBA scoring champion Curry said. "We've got to keep our focus and not forget how we got here."
Combined with its 104-89 romp in the opener, the Warriors have produced the largest two-game combined victory margin to open an NBA Finals, six more points than the old mark of 42 by the 1950 Rochester Royals and 1961 Boston Celtics.
"I'm not surprised we won, but yeah, the margin, nobody would have guessed that coming in," Curry said. "But every game is different. Game three is going to be totally different, and we need to play like that for sure."
The Warriors stretched its overall win streak against Cleveland to seven games, including the last three of last year's finals, two more this season and two more in this championship series.
James led Cleveland with 19 points, eight rebounds and nine assists but also made seven turnovers. James was 9-0 in prior playoff game twos after his club lost the opener and he has never lost so many in a row to any rival.
"I'm not disappointed in our guys or frustrated," James said. "We've just got to do better at all facets of the game, offensively and defensively, physically and mentally.
"We didn't beat them at anything. Even when we had an early lead, they beat us to 50-50 balls, got extra possessions, extra tip-ins. They beat us pretty good."
The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player is in his sixth finals in a row and seventh overall but has won only two titles. For the first time in his career, James was kept scoreless in the first quarter of an NBA Finals game.
"We have to figure out how we can be better. We have to figure out how we can help one another," James said. "We definitely have to figure out how to get more guys involved."
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