Steph Curry spins LeBron in circles as Warriors take charge

It took just 15 seconds for Steph Curry to prove he has the measure of LeBron James and the Cavaliers this season.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry keeps the ball off Cleveland’s LeBron James

Third quarter, third minute. Steph Curry with the ball. LeBron James was standing over him. Curry jinked, ducked, weaved, feigned left, went right, back to the left, head-faked, went forward, went backwards, went sideways, a head with its chook cut off. He skipped around James, beating him all ends up, nailing the points he was trying to prove while the crowd went gaga over the defining moment of the NBA Finals for the Golden State Warriors.

Fifteen seconds earlier, Curry had delivered a beautiful bullet of a no-look pass for Draymond Green to hit a three-pointer of his own. Now down the other end of Oracle Arena after a Green intercept from the clutches of Kyrie Irving, Durant was carrying the ball towards halfway with all the oozing confidence that underlined his dominance of the Rio Olympics.

When he gave the ball to Curry, nine minutes and five seconds were left in the quarter. Curry dribbled from the top of the key towards the right of the hoop. The giant James was in his way. Curry retreated one step, propped, drove for the hoop. James was still there. Curry darted back to the top of the key. James shadowed him. Five seconds had passed. The crowd caught on that this was man-on-man. Personal. MVP v MVP.

Dribble, dribble, dribble from Curry. He reversed to outside the perimeter. James was harassing him, throwing his hands high. Curry threw a few head-fakes. James fell for the lot. Curry took off to the left. His right elbow was out. James took off after him. Curry got round his outside with the sort of lateral speed that Billy Slater will terrorise the Blues with if the Maroons ever give him another game of State of Origin.

Curry strode and leapt into a lay-up. It rolled off his fingertips while James tried to slam the ball against the backboard. The ball fell into the hoop as James’s palm went whack against the glass. The biggest roar of the night came from the 20,000-strong crowd. The 190cm, 86kg Curry flexed his muscles and roared the same words twice. Come on! Come on! The 203cm, 113kg James was right there, listening, pretending not to. James dominated Curry last year. Not this year, so far. Curry had a triple double with 33 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. James posted 29 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists to tie Magic Johnson’s record with his eighth career finals triple-double. Excellent. Still not enough.

“It’s basketball, man,” Curry said. “I mean, every possession has the opportunity to impact the game. Doesn’t matter who is across from you. You don’t get into the one-on-one match-ups, especially on this stage, because you get distracted from how you’re supposed to be playing. Obviously he’s a great defender so if you have opportunities, you have to do something pretty special to score, but for the most part you can’t focus on it like you’re in the playground and it’s just two of y’all out there. That doesn’t do you any good in those situations.

“But it was a big moment. It was a momentum swing. Coach got on me at halftime about my body language and just trying to play with passion and play with joy.”

Asked to detail the exchange, Curry added: “Honestly, I was rushing to begin with. I felt like there was an angle here, an angle there, and there wasn’t because there was a huge crowd around on that right side of the floor. And then I was able to kind of reset back behind the three-point line. You kind of just give a little hesitation to make them think you’re going to shoot. And then you just try to go around him.

“At that point I was a little bit more composed than earlier in the possession. I was just kind of like a chicken with my head cut off, just running in circles. So that was kind of a microcosm of the game, we were rushing a lot. In those situ­ations, you try to keep it simple and just make a play.”

The Warriors won 132-113 for a 2-0 lead in a series fast becoming a mismatch. Curry versus James took 15 seconds. The series moves to Cleveland for game three on Thursday morning (AEST). Anything other than a 4-0 series rout will come as a shock. James was in a foul mood after the final buzzer, saying he needed “food and wine” before giving short shrift to a question on the Cavs defence.

“Well I mean, are you a smart guy?” James said to the reporter. “You think so, right? So if we don’t defend on home court, what happens? I’m asking you. There you go. I’ve answered your question.”