By Marla Ridenour

Akron Beacon Journal

OAKLAND — Going 8-1 at home during the 2018 playoffs could be fool’s gold, as in the spotless Larry O’Brien trophy gold.

At least that’s the way the Cavaliers’ four-time league Most Valuable Player LeBron James sees it.

Their opponent in the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive season, the Golden State Warriors, has no “head of the snake,” one star that they can defensively focus on like the Indiana Pacers’ Victor Oladipo or the Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan. The Warriors are a more experienced, grittier and better-shooting version of the Boston Celtics, who took the Cavs to seven games in the conference finals.

“They have three guys who are top-tiered best shooters probably in the history of the game, if not right now,” Cavs guard George Hill said. “So we have our hands full.”

And while the Cavs are concerned with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, role players are roaming free like JaVale McGee and Shaun Livingston, who made all 11 of their field-goal attempts in the Warriors’ 122-103 victory in Game 2 Sunday at Oracle Arena.

That’s why James had a message for the Cavs as they flew home behind 2-0. The series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 Wednesday and Game 4 Friday at Quicken Loans Arena.

“Just because we’re going home doesn’t mean we can relax,” James said. “This is the last team in the world you want to relax against. They’ve proven they can win on someone else’s floor and do it in any fashion, in any way. I will continue to stay uncomfortable, and I hope our guys continue to stay uncomfortable no matter with us going back home.”

Even though the Cavs rallied from 2-0 deficits against the Warriors in the 2016 Finals and against the Celtics in the last round can’t lull the Cavs into a false sense of security. Neither can the fact that they haven’t lost at home in the playoffs since Game 1 against the Pacers in the first round.

The Cavs cut a 15-point second quarter deficit to five in the third quarter Sunday, but Kevin Love knows playing in the Q, where they were 29-12 in the regular season, won’t automatically get them over that hump. It won’t fix a defense that allowed the Warriors to shoot 57 percent, and Curry to set an NBA Finals record with nine 3-pointers made.

In the regular season, the Warriors posted the same 29-12 record home and away; they are 4-4 on the road in the postseason.

“Home-court advantage can be a real thing. I mean, you look at how good the Warriors are here at Oracle, it’s the same for us at home,” Love said. “We feel like we feed off of our crowd. We really get up to play at home.

“We know that come Wednesday we’re going to have to be better. There’s a couple things, a couple coverages that we blew, a couple mishaps that we had on the defensive end, a couple lapses we had on the offensive end when things got stagnant. We just have to be better, and I think just going home and being in front of our crowd for Game 3 of The Finals will be huge for us.”

The energy of the home crowd might help Love, who made 2-of-10 shots in the first half Sunday before pumping in 13 points in the third quarter, and J.R. Smith, 5-for-19 in the series, 3-for-10 beyond the arc.

Smith had five points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals in 31 minutes.

“Terrible,” Smith said afterward. “I’ve got to shoot the ball better. I’ve got to defend better and be more vocal on defense.”

Shooting better has to be a goal of all the Cavs. Although they made more 3-pointers on the road (12.7) than home (11.2) during the regular season and their team scoring average was only slightly better (111.5 to 110.3) at the Q, there is more of a disparity in the playoffs. At home the Cavs are scoring 105.8 points and shooting .477 from the field and 37 percent on 3s. On the road (where they are 4-7), they have averaged 98.7 points, shot .442 from the field and .310 from long range.

Every possession counts against the Warriors, and so does that 7.1 home/road point disparity.

Using Love and Smith as examples, both have been dramatically better in the postseason at home. Love is shooting .385 on 3s at the Q, .291 on the road, although his road field-goal percentage (.413 to .363) is better. Smith has shot .385 from the field and .390 on 3s at home, as compared to .344 and .320 on the road.

Another “uncomfortable” aspect to the series is what the Warriors did to James defensively in Game 2. After James scored a career playoff-high 51 points with eight rebounds and eight assists in the Game 1 overtime loss, he totaled 29 points, nine rebounds and 13 assists in Game 2, as well as committing five of the Cavs’ 11 turnovers.

There were times when James was shooting with a couple seconds left on the shot clock as the Warriors blitzed him more.

“He was very comfortable in Game 1. I thought we at least made him somewhat uncomfortable at times,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “You’ve got to do your best. You’ve got to pressure him. You’ve got to know he’s going to end up with 30 points and a triple-double and all that stuff because he’s that good. But we just made things a little more difficult for him tonight.”

Playing 44 minutes, James didn’t agree that the Warriors made him work harder.

“I think I only got tired once tonight,” he said, likely referring to his five-point second quarter. “They doubled me a few times when I caught the ball in the post, something they didn’t do in Game 1. So I got off the ball, trusted my teammates.”

The Warriors could make James even more uncomfortable if swingman Andre Iguodala can return after missing six consecutive playoff games with a bone bruise in his left knee. The MVP of the 2015 Finals, in large part because of his defense on James, told Chris Haynes of ESPN that he has been pain free for several days. Kerr said before Game 2 that he was optimistic Iguodala would play in the series.

For the Cavs, the challenge has intensified, along with the pressure.

“This is a team that you don’t want to be down 0-3 against,” Love said.

Their stats may be better before their enraptured home crowd of 20,562, but James still wants the Cavs focused for Game 3.

“We’ve played some really good basketball on our home floor. But that shouldn’t give us any comfort,” James said. “We should still be uncomfortable with the series as we were in Game 1 and as we were tonight.”