How Matthew Dellavedova took the fire out of Stephen Curry in Game 2

The Cavs' backup point guard struggled in limited minutes in Game 1, then found himself thrust into the starting role for Game 2 of the NBA Finals facing the league's Most Valuable Player and the most dangerous shooter on earth. Just as he did in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Atlanta, Dellavedova came out and won his defensive matchup.

Steph Curry shot 5-of-23 from the field and 2-of-12 from 3-point range in the Warriors' 95-93 Game 2 loss in overtime to the Cavaliers. With Dellavedova defending, Curry went 0-for-6 in Game 2, and with "Delly" on the floor, just 3-for-18. So what was it that Dellavedova did to disrupt the great Steph Curry?

"Nothing really," was Curry's response after the game. "Just besides playing their game plan and playing defense like every pro is supposed to. Not giving up on any possession." "Not much" was Shaun Livingston's response when asked what impact Dellavedova had on Curry. "I"m not saying he's a bad defensive player," Livingston said hedging, "but Steph can get pretty much any shot he wants on you, and he's made some huge shots in these playoffs. So we're not as worried about that as we are the team offense,"

Dellavedova kept a hand on Curry the entire possession, faceguard him, denied him the ball as long as possible and stuck with him through every move.

"I doubt this will happen again," Curry said about his shooting woes, "with the adjustments I'll make once I'll look at the film. And like I said, one game is not going to make me stop shooting or alter my confidence at all."

Dellavedova's stat line seems so benign. 3-of-10 from the field for nine points, five rebounds, just one assist and three steals. However, the Cavaliers outscored the Warriors by 15 points with Dellavedova on the floor, by 17 when Curry and 'Dova shared the floor.

LeBron James was why the Cavaliers won Game 2. That can't be denied, but when the Cavaliers needed heroism it wasn't just Dellavedova's defense. He secured the offensive rebound in overtime that drew a foul, putting him at the line with a chance to secure the lead for Cleveland. The youngster from Down Under calmly sank both free throws to regain the lead for the Cavs.

"It had everything to do with Delly," James said of the Cavaliers' success against Curry. "He just kept a body on Steph. He made Steph work. He was spectacular, man, defensively. We needed everything from him. When Steph shoots the ball, you just automatically think it's going in because he shoots the ball so well. He just did a great job."

The Cavs were going to need someone or someones to step up in Game 2 without Irving. Typically you think of that as someone who makes big shots, has a big offensive game. Instead, the Cavaliers got a 6-4 Australian backup point guard who came in and locked down on Chef Curry like an anaconda, and because of it, they head back to Cleveland with a 1-1 series in the NBA Finals.

Cavs' Matthew Dellavedova — A Standout In The Classroom And On The Court

The spotlight is about to shine on one of the more unlikely starting players in the NBA Finals.

Australian native Matthew Dellavedova is expected to start for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. He will replace injured all-star point guard Kyrie Irving, who had season-ending surgery Saturday to repair a broken kneecap.

Dellavedova is an undrafted 24-year-old, who played Division 1 basketball at St. Mary's — a small liberal arts college near Oakland, Calif. Among those who'll be cheering on Dellavedova is his adviser and psychology professor at St. Mary's, Mary True.

True remembers seeing great things from Dellavedova in his four years playing for the Gaels; he finished his career as the school's all-time leader in scoring, assists and three-point shots. True says one of those three-pointers beat rival BYU and was immortalized as the "Dellavedagger."

But True says "Delly" was a standout in the classroom as well. And it's his performance there, and his fascination with psychology, that makes her believe he'll be fine when he finds himself on the global stage of the NBA Finals.

'The Real Deal'

"What really caught my eye was, at the first test in my psychology class, Matthew stayed longer than anybody else," True says, as she sat in the sun-splashed living room of her Oakland home this week. "I used to do that. I'd read over my answers over and over again, and he did, too. And I thought, 'This is a serious student.' "

Soon, she says, a nice connection started between them. True was on a plane reading the book How We Decide and flagged a part about football quarterbacks and how you can't really know who's going to be a good quarterback or not. True knows little about basketball, but she grew up in hoops-crazy Indiana, and she says something must have stuck.

"I thought, 'I think that's what Matthew does, because isn't the point guard a basketball quarterback?' " she says.

Dellavedova later confirmed that was the case and True gave him the book to read. He thanked her and said he had a book for her, too — one that had a lot to do with work ethic being as important if not more important than talent. A book, she says, Dellavedova studied when he attended the Australian Institute of Sport.

True says after that, they began trading books and "almost every time he'd see me, he'd ask, 'What are you reading?' " He also emailed her his favorite TED Talks and video clips related to psychology. True was impressed by Dellavedova's curiosity and "voracious" reading.

"He's the real deal," she says.

The Importance Of Gratitude

Much of Dellavedova's interest in psychology dovetailed with his athletic development. True says he was interested in concepts about motivation and perseverance — what makes and keeps people high achievers.

He could teach a course on motivation. I don't mean that lightly. He has read almost everything I've read about it.

"He could teach a course on motivation," True says, adding, "I don't mean that lightly. He has read almost everything I've read about it."

But she notes Dellavedova's curiosity took him outside the world of sports as well. She says he sent her a TED Talk about new research by social psychologist Barbara Fredrickson on productivity and happiness and how the two are linked. The research focused on gratitude.

True recalls the talk's message: "If every night you remember three things you're thankful for, you'll train your brain not to look for what scares you, but to look for what you're grateful for all day long."

Getting The Whole Picture

A day before he was expected to start in the NBA Finals, Dellavedova grinned when asked about his connection to Professor True and psychology.

"I think it helps a lot," he says of his continued reading: "Definitely on the court and life in general."

Of course, having an interested and active mind isn't always the best thing in high-level sports. Elite athletes have to be able to turn off the mind, or at least keep it from interfering with peak physical performance.

"It's something all people need to learn," says Dellavedova. "I think it's something you get better at [over time]."

So far during these playoffs, Dellavedova has shown the ability to fully engage in the battle of high-level post-season basketball. But in the mind of critics, he's sometimes engaged too much. Some have labeled Dellavedova a "dirty player" after incidents in games against the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks.

Not surprisingly, Mary True is among his defenders.

"As a scientist, I think it's unethical to cherry pick the data," she says, adding, "it sure seems to me that's what [his detractors] did."

Painting a negative picture of Dellavedova because of isolated incidents "is not good science," True says. "Would you like someone to go over your life, pick [a few] moments and define you that way?"

True prefers to define Matthew Dellavedova in broader terms: Yes, the tenacious and motivated basketball player, but also the voracious student whose curiosity didn't end when classes finished. She last saw Dellavedova in February, during the NBA's All-Star break. He brought his parents to campus and took them around, obviously to see the basketball coach, but also to see True.

"I was most impressed [he brought them] to see his professors," she says. "We all sat around for an hour and talked."

For St. Mary's coach, Dellavedova makes NBA Finals simply Aus-some

Matthew Dellavedova has become the Cavaliers' unlikely "hero" in the NBA Finals. In Game 3 on Tuesday night, he had 20 points and was all over the floor -- literally -- before winding up in the hospital after the game with severe cramps.)

When Kyrie Irving fractured his left kneecap in Game 1 of the NBA Finals and was lost for the rest of the series, many immediately wrote the Cavs off, in part because the team's backup point guard, Matthew Dellavedova, couldn't possibly be to Cleveland what the All-Star Irving was when he was on the floor.

Randy Bennett knows Dellavedova better than most, however, and knew the Cavs would be in able hands against Golden State with the unheralded 24-year-old reserve running the point.

So when Dellavedova scored nine points in Sunday's 95-93 overtime win in Game 2, including two clutch free throws to give Cleveland the lead for good with 10 seconds left -- oh, and also held league MVP Steph Curry to 19 points on 5-of-23 shooting in the process -- Bennett, the head basketball coach at St. Mary's College, wasn't as surprised as the rest of us.

"Whether it's (Stephen) Curry or (Klay) Thompson he's matched up with, you'd be crazy not to be concerned," Bennett told FOX Sports in a phone interview Monday. "But Matt's a really good competitor, and he's his own man, so he's going to approach it the right way and his head will be in the right place. And he's going to do a good job and give himself and his team the best chance to succeed.  Does that mean you're going to limit Curry to the game he had every time? No, but I was not surprised that Matt competed the way he did, and he did a good job on him."

Bennett coached Dellavedova from 2009 through the 2012-13 season, as the Gaels -- located in Moraga, 15 miles northeast of Golden State’s Oracle Arena -- reached the NCAA tournament three times. Dellavedova left the school as its all-time leading scorer, and though he went undrafted he was quickly scooped up by the Cavaliers.

It later came out that Cleveland gave him a two-year, $1.3 million contract, including $100,000 guaranteed, a significant chunk of change for an undrafted player and a clear indication the team saw him as part of its future. Two years later, with restricted free agency ahead for Dellavedova this summer, that deal looks like a steal.

If Dellavedova can continue his string of impressive play and somehow help the Cavaliers to an improbable NBA championship, he won't be the first of Bennett's former players to have done so. That title belongs to Patty Mills, who came up huge for the San Antonio Spurs in last year's NBA Finals win over the Miami Heat.

Mills, a second-round pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in 2009, and Dellavedova never played together, but both arrived at St. Mary's by way of Australia, two of several Aussies to play major roles for the Gaels in the last decade during the team's rise, which has seen them make five NCAA tournaments since 2005.

"It was kind of happenstance that we ended up recruiting there," Bennett said. "When I first took the job at St. Mary's (in 2001), we were two players short in August, so I took a kid from Australia named Adam Capcorn, and I really hadn't seen him play. I'd seen a quick video of him a little bit and just kind of went on a couple guys' word. We took him, he showed up and was a really good leader.

"We had a good experience, and (Capcorn) told us about one of his teammates, who ended up being Daniel Kickert, who was the all-time leading scorer here (before Dellavedova), and from there we did pretty good over there. We've had good success and good experience, and we continued to recruit there, and it turned into a nice pipeline for us.

"So eventually we got Delly because of that, and Patty came for those reasons, too. Patty was good, and he knew Delly, so that's how it works."

Now, Bennett says he feels more like a father than a coach when he watches his former stars play for NBA championships.

"It's tremendous pride on so many different levels, but it's almost like watching your kid play," Bennett said. "When you watch your kid, at least for me, your own son, you can't relax. You're, like, gripping on every play, and that's how it is when I watch Patty and Delly on a stage that's so big. It's everything. You're nervous, you're proud, you're excited, you're like a fan. It's not just like watching the NBA playoffs with nobody involved. You have to be totally involved."

"Usually he doesn't go to the offensive boards, but the game was late and he's pretty smart on those things," said Bennett, who said he plans on being there in person when the Cavs and Warriors return to Oakland on Sunday for Game 5.

"I'm sure his responsibility is usually to get back, but at that point, you've got to get a bucket because the clock is winding down. It kind of surprised me that he came out of it with the ball --it happened so quick I didn't see it coming -- but the fact that he made the right play and had a nose for the ball and came up with it, it never surprises me. He's good on those things.

"Those two guys, in particular, are great basketball players, but they're also really good people," said Bennett, who says he texts with Dellavedova every couple days but hasn't talked to him on the phone. "They give back and have been class acts their whole lives, so it's easy to root for those guys when they're in these situations.

"This is their home away from home. This is their family -- their basketball family, their college family. They're both very loyal guys, both very appreciative guys, and when we retired their numbers, it didn't have anything to do with their NBA careers. We retired Matt's before he'd become a good NBA player, and we did that because they couldn't have done any better.

“THE LEVEL THEY'RE PLAYING AT IS JUST AN UNBELIEVABLE LEVEL, AND TO BE IN THAT GAME, BE IN THAT SERIES -- IT'S SO HARD TO GET THERE, TO BE ON A TEAM THAT GETS THERE.”

"They couldn't have represented St. Mary's or the community or the basketball program any better, and I think they would take a lot of pride in saying that they played here."

Moving forward, Bennett says he thinks the Cavs have a better chance than most are giving them in the series, citing their defense, their rebounding, their ability to control the tempo and the fact that they also have "the best player in the world" in LeBron James.

But if Dellavedova somehow can replicate his Game 2 performance in Game 3 Tuesday night, that'll be gravy -- as it was in Game 4 last year when Mills erupted for 14 points in the third quarter of San Antonio's Game 4 win -- and Bennett, like everyone else around the Gaels program, will be ecstatic.

"You want them to do so well, so when Matt misses a shot, you say to yourself, 'Ah, come on Matt,' " Bennett said. "You want him to come through, and it's tough. The level they're playing at is just an unbelievable level, and to be in that game, be in that series -- it's so hard to get there, to be on a team that gets there.

"So for Patty and Delly to be on teams in the playoffs, you're proud and then they're in the rotation, and then they contribute and play well. They're making so many people proud around here, and not just me and the coaches, but our players, our former players, our students, the Moraga community, the Bay Area ..."

Issuing respect and apology that Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Matthew Dellavedova rightfully deserves

When you're wrong, you're wrong. And for me, it's time to eat crow.

It's official: Matthew Dellavedova is one fearless, hard-nosed son of a gun. The mark he has made in these Finals has been nothing short of amazing. The Cavaliers' backup point guard has completely overshadowed the league's MVP,  Stephen Curry, and it hasn't even been close.

Dellavedova is doing it with a relentless drive and determination that's overpowering the long-range marksman. The second-year player went for a postseason career-high of 20 points in a Game 3 win over the Golden State Warriors to put the Cavaliers up 2-1 in the series.

Chants of "Delly, Delly" throughout the arena have become frequent, and the team hasn't missed a beat with Kyrie Irving gone for the season. No one saw this coming. I sure didn't, and for that, I must apologize.

In early March, I wrote about how head coach David Blatt was overusing Dellavedova and how he likely sees himself in the Australian. Blatt remembered that story and graciously invited me into his office for an exclusive interview after the Game 3 victory.

We sat on his sofa and that's when, as the young folks would say, he went in.

"And you were full of s---," Blatt said in hilarious fashion, referring to that article. "I've been waiting to tell you that for a long time."

"Chris is a man. He can take it," Blatt said with a smile. "And basically Chris is a real good guy, but sometimes, like other writers, when the sun goes down, they turn into a------."

Blatt was having fun. It wasn't anything malicious. It was just a couple of guys shooting the breeze, talking hoops. I asked what gave him the confidence to use Delly in crucial moments of games at a point in the season when the decision was unpopular. What was it that he saw that was unrecognizable to others, including me?

"I think the thing with Delly is that he has an impact above and beyond just what you see on the floor," he answered. "He's a character kid. He's a teammate He does the dirty work. He takes on the tasks that a lot of guys aren't willing to and he relishes it.

"It's hard to see it from the outside. It really is. I think it's a character thing. I really do. Plus he has a little bit more ability than people give him credit for. But he's not a thing of beauty and he's not ever going to wow you on SportsCenter except in unusual ways, but he's always going to be there."

J.R. Smith and Brendan Haywood were on the bench marveling at what Dellavedova was doing out there last night. While Dellavedova was locking down his man defensively, stepping in and hitting a 25-footer, knocking down clutch free throws, throwing alley-oops to LeBron James in transition and diving for loose balls, the two agreed during the game that this guy's story needed to be told in detail.

"We were just thinking on the bench that somebody has to write a book on this kid," Smith said. "Who would have thought he would be in the NBA Finals and 20,000 fans chanting his name? He's a rugby player and what not. To be in this situation, it's incredible.

"Every time he touches the ball, every time he gets a stop or whatever the case is, 20,000 people go berserk. For him in that situation, there are not too many people that get that chance, that opportunity. [If somebody said] 'Yo, would you ever think this would happen to a guy like that?' And I would say the only time it would happen to him is if it's in his dreams. Like seriously, that's a real-life storybook for him. It's a storybook setting."

Dellavedova isn't the fastest, the quickest, the most athletic, but he's getting the job done and giving the Warriors fits in the process. It's much easier to measure skill and talent, but quite the opposite when measuring a man's heart. That's what I missed initially with Delly - his heart.

His willpower and pursuit of excellence are what got him to this point. Those who observe his tremendous work ethic aren't surprised by the results produced on this mega stage.

"Delly gives all kids hope about making it to the NBA," Cavs big man Kendrick Perkins said. "You got a kid who puts in arguably the most work on the team. The way he studies film. Every time I walk in there, he's the first guy there. He done shot and lifted and ate breakfast and shot again and all types of s--- before I got there. If you were to see Delly on a daily basis, you would see why all this is coming together for him."

Those controversial minutes that Blatt played Dellavedova during the season prepared him for this moment. It gave him the confidence that he can excel at this level against the great point guards in this game. Had Blatt refused to play him like some had called for, what position would the Cavaliers be in currently?

The organization used forward thinking in its use of Dellavedova. The Cavs didn't know they would need him to play close to 40 minutes a game come the postseason, but they knew they would need him. Blatt was right all along in sticking with his guy and it's paying off like never before.

Right now this is Delly's world. And we, me included, are all going along for the ride. And boy, it has been one reliable ride.

"The big thing is you can always depend on him in a pinch," Blatt said. "There are not a lot of people like that. There are not a lot of friends like that. I know a lot of people that are friends and I wouldn't depend on them. I couldn't depend on them. This is a kid you can depend on. He's always going to be there for you. Always."