The Golden State Warriors are two wins away from becoming back-to-back champions after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 122-103, in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.
Stephen Curry led Golden State with 33 points, going 9 of 17 from 3-point range, and the team’s devastating offensive trio of Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Curry combined for 79 points. Curry’s nine 3-pointers broke the NBA Finals record of eight set by the Boston Celtics’ Ray Allen in 2010.
In an on-court interview with ABC’s Doris Burke following the game, Curry talked about what it was like to break Allen’s record.
“It means a lot,” he said. “As I’ve gone through the career I’ve been blessed to play, Reggie (Miller) and Ray Allen are the two names that always pop up at the top of all the 3-point shooter lists, so any time you’re mentioned with those names is pretty special.”
The well-rounded effort, with plenty of help from Golden State’s bench, offset a huge game from LeBron James, who had 29 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds. James got some help from Kevin Love and George Hill, but that was not nearly enough on a day where the Warriors had eight players make solid contributions to the effort, including the newly installed starting center, JaVale McGee, who scored the first 4 points of the game and finished with 12.
The series now shifts to Cleveland, with the heavily-favored Warriors in firm control even if the games have been far more competitive than most pundits predicted.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.