It wasn't pretty, but Cavaliers find way to pull out Game 2

Guard Matthew Dellavedova couldn’t replace what Kyrie Irving brought to the team.

But the basketball that Dellavedova played in Game 2 came in rather handy in the key moments of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ win over the Golden State Warriors.

Dellavedova played airtight defense on NBA MVP Stephen Curry and scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including a free throw with 10.1 seconds left that put Cleveland ahead for good.

The Cavaliers won on the strength of an amazing, though not-so-great shooting game from LeBron James and the play of role players such as Dellavedova andTimofey Mozgov (17 points and 11 rebounds).

The Cavaliers win was their first in NBA Finals win in Franchise history. They were 0-5 prior to Sunday night.

The Cavaliers are the fourth team to beat the Warriors at Oracle Arena this season, joining the Spurs, Bulls and Grizzlies.

James does just about everything, even on an off-night

James finished with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, despite shooting 11-of-34 from the field.

James wasn’t the only one who had trouble shooting for the Cavaliers, who shot 32.3 percent from the field. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that’s the lowest by any team in an NBA Finals road win in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55).

Elias also noted that James …

- Joined James Worthy (1988 Lakers) as the only players in NBA Finals history to have a 35-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist game. Worthy did so in a Game 7 win over the Pistons.

- Notched his fifth career triple-double in the Finals, second-most all-time, trailing Magic Johnson, who had eight.

- Had his seventh postseason game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Only Oscar Robertson (eight) has had more.

James’ teams have won nine straight Game 2s when his team trailed 1-0 in a postseason series.

Defensive key: Shutting down Curry

The Cavaliers couldn’t shut down both Klay Thompson and Curry in the same game. But though Thompson scored 34 points, the job the Cavaliers did in thwarting Curry was ultra-impressive.

Curry was 5-23 from the field and 2-15 from 3-point range. His 13 missed 3-pointers are an NBA Finals record, breaking the mark of 11 set by John Starks of the Knicks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals against the Rockets.

Curry shot 22 percent from the field, which Elias notes is the third-worst field goal percentage by a reigning MVP who took at least 15 shots in an NBA Finals game. The only player to fare worse was Bob Cousy against the St. Louis Hawks in 1957. He shot 2-of-20 (10 percent) and 4-of-21 (21 percent).

In Cousy’s defense, shots were a lot harder to make in 1957 (when the league shot 38 percent) than they were in 2015 (when the league shot 45 percent).

Cousy also managed to win MVP of that Finals series.

Stephen Curry had one of the worst games an MVP has ever had in the NBA Finals. ESPN Stats & Information

Looking ahead

This is the sixth straight NBA Finals to be tied, 1-1 after two games, the fifth straight involving James.

The Game 3 winner of a tied NBA Finals series goes on to win the series 84 percent of the time (31-6).

The Cavaliers are heading home for Game 3. They’ve won 26 of their past 28 games in Cleveland.

BPI gives the Warriors a 61 percent chance to win the series. That’s a drop from 81 percent entering Game 2.

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Looking ahead: Stanford Cardinal

It’s never too early to look ahead to next season. Over the coming weeks, we will examine what comes next for each team in the Power 5 conferences and also those outside the Power 5 who could make noise on the national stage. Today: the Stanford Cardinal

The biggest thing to happen to the Stanford Cardinal basketball this season didn’t happen on the Cardinal campus.

It happened down the road, at Berkeley.

Stanford’s Pac 12 travel rival, Cal, cleaned up on the recruiting trail this year. Coach Cuonzo Martin secured the nation’s fifth best class, anchored by Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, the Nos. 4 and 8 players, respectively, in their class.

Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins must replace his top three scorers from last season. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

That does not exactly throw cold water on the seat already steaming under Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins.

The two academic stalwarts of the conference, separated by just 40 miles, will always be compared to each another. This year, the comparison might not be terribly comparative. The Bears are loaded, good enough to challenge the hierarchy in the Pac 12. Stanford is not.

After losing four of five to finish the season, Stanford did regroup and win the NIT, but those were not the postseason letters fans were clamoring to see -- especially on the heels of a Sweet 16 berth in the 2014 NCAA tournament.

The cold, hard truth is that under Dawkins’ stewardship the Cardinal have made just one NCAA tournament in seven years, and have never won more than 10 league games in a season.

That the road doesn’t look terribly easy this season -- Chasson Randle, Anthony Brown and Stefan Nastic and their combined 48 points per game (out of 72 for the team) are gone -- could give Dawkins a mulligan this year.

Or it could add to the pressure he’s under, especially with things percolating down the road at Berkeley.

What the immediate future holds: Losing the top three scorers from last season ought to mean the cupboard is pretty bare for Dawkins. It’s actually not, because the next four leading scorers return. Rosco Allen, Marcus Allen, Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey are a more than adequate core group to build around.

Though each remained more in the background, allowing Randle, Brown and Nastic to handle the scoring, all played significant minutes and should be able to slide into more critical roles.

Rosco Allen and Travis, who worked the boards well last season, give the Cardinal a decent frontcourt and Marcus Allen will get the assistance of his twin brother, Malcolm, in the backcourt. Malcolm missed all of last season with a broken wrist.

Humphrey showed real flashes in spots, forced into a more active role while Rosco Allen nursed a back injury. Humphrey had 14 and 11 against Cal, then 14 and 15 against Oregon State, but just as he was finding his rhythm, he suffered a sprained ankle and played sparingly down the stretch.

The real key for Stanford, though, will be depth. Dawkins adds three recruits --Josh Sharma, a center ranked No. 100 in the ESPN 100 based largely on his raw potential, and two three-star small forwards -- Marcus Sheffield and Cameron Walker. Walker was a high school scoring machine, averaging 19.8 points per game, and Sheffield, too, has a good knack for scoring.

But none of that adds certainty for Stanford, especially in a Pac-12 that only is getting better.

Especially right down the road, at Berkeley.

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Terrapins among early title contenders

• Andy Katz
• David Purdum

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Maryland is one of the favorites to win the 2016 men's basketball national championship, according to a Las Vegas sportsbook, only one year removed from joining the Big Ten from the ACC.

NCAA title favorites

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has vaulted Maryland into co-favorite status, along with Kentucky and North Carolina, for the 2015-16 NCAA men's basketball title. Here is a listing of all teams with odds better than 100-1:

TEAM	ODDS
Kentucky	7-1
Maryland	7-1
North Carolina	7-1
Kansas	12-1
Iowa State	15-1
Duke	18-1
Gonzaga	20-1
Villanova	20-1
Virginia	20-1
Arizona	30-1
Michigan State	30-1
Oklahoma	30-1
Texas	30-1
Indiana	40-1
Wichita State	40-1
Butler	50-1
California	50-1
Notre Dame	50-1
Texas A&M	50-1
Wisconsin	50-1
Baylor	60-1
Louisville	60-1
LSU	60-1
Michigan	60-1
Syracuse	60-1
Utah	60-1
Dayton	75-1
Miami (Fla.)	75-1
SMU	75-1

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has the Terps pegged as a 7-1 co-favorite to win the title, along withKentucky and North Carolina. Kansasis next at 12-1, followed by Iowa State(15-1) and defending champion Duke(18-1).

Maryland reached the NCAA round of 32 before losing to West Virginia in March, finishing with a 28-7 record (14-4 Big Ten). But Maryland returns a national player of the year candidate in sophomore guard Melo Trimble (16.2 PPG, 3.0 APG) and top rebounder Jake Layman (5.8 RPG) and added the No. 2 center in the ESPN 100 rankings in 6-foot-10 Diamond Stone and Duke senior transfer wing Rasheed Sulaimon. The Terps opened at 10-1 and moved to 7-1 with the addition of Sulaimon.

The Terrapins will be the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten and a candidate with North Carolina and Kansas, likely, for the No. 1 preseason ranking. Maryland will play at North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, face nearby rivalGeorgetown in the Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big Ten and Big East and face UConn in the Jimmy V Classic in New York City in the Terps' highest-profile nonconference games. 

Maryland last won the national title in 2002 under Hall of Fame coach Gary Williams.

Coach Mark Turgeon, who replaced Williams, took over at Maryland in 2011, and the trip to the NCAA tournament in March was Turgeon's first with the Terps. He led Texas A&M to the NCAA tournament in all four seasons he spent in College Station and took Wichita State to the Sweet 16 in 2006.

California, with its elite recruiting class led by Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, has seen the biggest improvement in its odds. The Bears were 100-1 when the SuperBook opened its college basketball odds April 20. The Bears are now 50-1.

Florida, with the loss of coach Billy Donovan, saw its odds fall from 40-1 to 100-1. Donovan left to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. Florida hired former Louisiana Tech coach Mike White as Donovan's replacement.

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New rules are good; now it's on coaches to improve game

• Fran Fraschilla
• Seth Greenberg

The men's basketball rules committee, led by chairman and Belmont coach Rick Byrd, announced proposed changes on Friday that are designed to improve the pace, flow and overall quality of the game. Fran Fraschilla and Seth Greenberg weighed in with their opinions on the new rules, which will likely be rubber-stamped by the NCAA in time for the 2015-16 season:

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Will the proposed 30-second shot clock improve the game?

Seth Greenberg: I don’t think it will have the impact that everyone thinks. Yes, it will add possessions. The bigger question is how coaches are going to adapt. Are they going to flow into offense? Are they going to transition and flow right into their offense, and then stay within their offensive concepts to score in a shot clock situation? If not, it’s just going to be the same thing we’ve been watching but with five fewer seconds. It’s going to be: transition, pull it out, run a set, pull it out and a seven-second play. If that’s the result, you’re going to see a lot of bad shots in my opinion. You’ll have more possessions and more bad shots.

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Looking ahead: Texas Tech Red Raiders

The motorcycle spill should have been a dead giveaway.

For the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ Midnight Madness, Tubby Smith rolled into the arena, dressed as Shaft, atop a motorcycle while flames signaled his entrance. It was wildly original and cool ... until Smith did a slow slide to the floor, his motorcycle crashing in slow motion.

He was fine, but maybe the coach should have seen it as a sign of what was to come: The rest of the season was a failure for the Red Raiders as well.

Texas Tech finished 13-19 overall with a basement-dwelling 3-15 in the Big 12.

The problems were many, most notably in the scoring department. The Red Raiders simply couldn’t, averaging barely 60 points a game, good for 316th (out of 345 teams) in the nation.

The shooting, no surprise, wasn’t much better (298th), nor was the rebounding (216th) and, well, you get the idea.

The Red Raiders get Devaugntah Williams back, who led the team with 10.5 ppg last season. AP Photo/Raymond Thompson

Perhaps the year could be best summed up by a four-day span in January.

On the 24th day of the month, the Red Raiders upset a streaking Iowa State team 78-73, sinking 11 3-pointers in the process.

Court-storming and all the typical euphoria followed.

On Jan. 28, Texas Tech lost to Oklahoma by 45 points, sinking only three 3-pointers and setting a Big 12 record for ignominy, scoring only 36 points.

A tail-between-the-legs walk off the court and reality crash followed.

And so if you are Smith, do you replay the joyful game tape against the Cyclones or pay more attention to the horror show against the Sooners?

The smart move would be to hold his nose and stick with the Norman Massacre because it is more critical to fix what ails the Red Raiders than enjoy the outlying 40 minutes that went right.

The good news is there is nowhere to go but up, and as rough as the year was, players gained valuable experience (the bulk of Tech’s roster was made up of freshmen and first-year players). Smith loses but one regular -- Robert Turner -- and returns five of his top six scorers, including junior college transferDevaugntah Williams, who led the Red Raiders in scoring.

What the immediate future holds: This will be about baby steps for a while, so anyone looking for an NCAA tournament appearance ought to simmer down. The Big 12 is too competitive, the gap too wide for the Red Raiders.

But there is more than ample room for significant improvement and brighter hope. Along with Williams, big man Norense Odiase returns. The freshman suffered growing pains as he tried to find his way this season, but the bright side is a late-season surge that saw him average 10 points and 5.6 boards.

Toddrick Gotcher saw significant time last season, averaging 7.3 points per game. He needs to improve his 3-point shooting (he hit 37.5 percent this past season), but he could combine with Williams to give the Raiders an injection of offense if he does.

The biggest question mark is at the point. Turner handled the duties until his graduation, but even with his experience, the Red Raiders were plagued by turnovers, averaging 13.8 per game. Junior college transfer Devon Thomas, a late commit, could challenge returner Keenan Evans for the starting gig. Thomas averaged 16.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals at Cloud County Community College, and would be an instant shot of adrenaline offensively and perhaps as a floor leader.

Smith has two other guards in the fold -- shooting guard Jordan Jackson, an athletic player who likes to get out on the break, and C.J. Williamson, another point guard.

Again, patience will need to rule the day for a while in Lubbock. Before you can ride a Harley, after all, you have to be able to handle a tricycle.

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