ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Cleveland Cavaliers were in Oakland to face the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the 2015 NBA Finals, a series that was knotted up 2-2 prior to the start of the game.
The Warriors were at full strength while the Cavs did not have Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Anderson Varejao due to season-ending injuries. The big question before the game was if Warriors head coach Steve Kerr would start Andre Iguodala again with the small-ball lineup as he had in Game 4, and he did.
1ST QUARTER: Punch/Counter-Punch, Neither Team Gets Hot
The game got off to a sloppy start, as LeBron James airballed the first possession.
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Harrison Barnes had doubled off Tristan Thompson and Thompson got the offensive rebound, but the shotclock buzzer went off.
Stephen Curry then had a dribbling turnover against Matthew Dellavedova, but James came down the floor and threw an uncatchable entry ball to Timofey Mozgov‘s feet. After James and Klay Thompson traded misses, both looking quite jittery, Klay lost a defensive rebound, but Tristan ended up charging into Barnes.
A few more empty possessions and bad misses later, including a Mozgov-to-Tristan interior pass that got stolen by a collapsing Curry as Draymond Green doubled Mozgov, Klay went on the break and scored a layup.
After all that, it was 2-0 Warriors to start the game. But things got better for the Dubs, as they went on a 6-2 run. A three-pointer by Iman Shumpert hit the side of the backboard, Curry got the rebound, and was off to the races again, finishing a lefty layup against James by using his body as shield.
After Iguodala stole an entry pass to Mozgov, Green finished another break, then James missed a fade on his favorite left side over Iguodala, Green tapped the rebound to Iguodala, and Klay ran pick-and-roll with Draymond, with Green going down the lane for an uncontested dunk.
Cavs head coach David Blatt called timeout to stem the tide and the Warriors had an early 8-2 lead.
JR Smith, who had been struggling with his outside shot for four games, finally got on track for the Cavs. Barnes got a nice inside feed from Curry, but went with a double-clutch layup attempt that missed, and James found Smith on the right wing for a triple.
LeBron later answered with a layup past Iguodala and over Green, but the Warriors hit back with a pick-and-roll between Draymond and Klay, with Klay feeding Green for a trey up top to make it 13-7, Warriors, with 5:14 to go.
Smith continued the hot stroke with a catch-and-shoot from the left elbow over Shaun Livingston, who had subbed in for Barnes, assisted by James.
Smith then got called for a Flagrant One for crashing into Green on a screen play…
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…but Draymond only made one of two freebies, then committed a defensive three-second violation as LeBron posted up Iguodala inside.
Livingston got a dunk down the lane as he cut when Draymond posted up Smith on the low left block, but Klay was a bit impatient on offense, missing a dribble-and-pop, and James came down the court and converted a left-side banker, and-one, against Iguodala. James’ free throws trimmed Golden State’s lead to 16-14 with 3:24 to play.
Klay messed up again, charging into James Jones on a drive that had little hope of being completed, Leandro Barbosa subbed in for Klay, and LeBron drove the left baseline, made a double-clutch in mid-air, and found Shumpert open on the left wing. Shumpert drained the triple, and the Cavs had withstood the Warriors’ first surge, taking an 18-17 lead with 2:35 to go.
James then went strong against Draymond down low, getting a nice pass-and-post seal of Green, then after Curry answered with a pull-up three over LeBron early, taking Green in the paint again but missing badly on a jumphook, hitting nothing but the right side of the glass, a shot in which James claimed he got slapped on the wrist.
Smith still had the hot hand, getting a step-back isolation fade-away over Steph on the let side, and Curry ended the quarter with a fruitless reverse layup after blowing by Jones on the high switch as the first frame came to a close. Smith came close to hitting a halfcourt running shot.
The first quarter ended with a tie score of 22-22. Green led all scorers with 10 points as LeBron and Smith each had 8. Curry had 7.
2ND QUARTER: Iguodala Keeps The Pace Up
David Lee got the start in the 2nd quarter. With Iguodala out, James found himself iso’ed against Klay and backed him in, missing the first attempt, getting his own rebound in traffic and banking in the putback with Barnes fouling LeBron — not hard enough.
Lee made a bad pass to a cutting Klay, but Smith couldn’t get the ball past halfcourt and Iguodala dove to steal the ball, which popped loose to Thompson. Klay had an empty net ahead of him as he was the last man back on the original Lee turnover and Klay dunked the ball home.
But Smith still had a hot hand and buried two triples in a row, although the Warriors kept pace with a Barbosa runner and Klay with a long jumper from the top assisted by Iguodala. With 9:07 to play, the Cavs had a small cushion, 31-28.
Out of the timeout, Iguodala got a behind-the-back pass to a cutting Lee for a slam, but LeBron responded by imposing his will.
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With iso’s for James becoming more prevalent, he first took Iguodala on the left side towards the baseline, using his right off-arm to fend off Iguodala for a step-back on one foot at the shotclock buzzer.
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Lee got blocked by Tristan on a swooping right-to-left layup attempt, then James went from a right side iso against Iguodala to execute a low-angled fade-away.
Curry took note of the urgency and returned the salvo with a three-pointer from the top, dribbling under duress at the top, pivoting and launching. He pleaded for a foul, to no avail from the refs.
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LeBron attacked again, going with a jump-stop from the left iso and getting an up-fake on Livingston, going under for the layup, but Steph fought back again with a step-back against a switched Tristan Thompson, trimming the Cavs’ lead to 39-36 with 5:55 remaining in the half.
James went to work again, this time getting iso’ed on the right against Barbosa. Green shaded way over, so James found Shumpert on the left side for an open triple for a swish.
But Barbosa came back with a splash from the left elbow for three to make it a one-possession game again, 42-39, with 3:50 left.
Iguodala did his best to push the ball forward on Cavs misses and drew fouls multiple times, but three of four free throws. However, Curry got one of the misses, sneaking in on the left side and banking it home to take a 44-42 lead.
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Steph then lost the ball twice, making a poor pass, but James pulled up and missed a triple for no damage, then Curry was careless again as he dribbled off Dellavedova’s right foot after crossing halfcourt. The Oracle crowd screamed for a kick ball, but it seemed more like a careless dribble, and Dellavedova lobbed to Tristan Thompson, who got fouled immediately on the change of possession.
Iguodala remained active, going down the lane and drawing a wrap-up foul by Jones from behind that was reviewed and ruled a common foul, again to Oracle’s chants of, “Ref you suck!”
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Dellavedova tried to go past Curry, but went too hard on the glass, then Iguodala went off to the races again, getting a layup after a hesitation move.
James went with a dribble-stop-pop on both Klay and a helping Lee, canning the jumper, Barbosa came back with another pull up jumper via Iguodala cross court pass, then after Klay missed another triple, totaling just 3-for-8 from the field, Thompson managed to stay close to LeBron on the dribble upcourt and baited him into an 8-second violation.
Kerr brought Barnes in for the final possession with 16.0 seconds remaining and it paid off.
Curry turned the left corner on Dellavedova, but his scoop went too hard. Barnes was there to two-hand slam home the putback over James, with LeBron getting called for the foul with 3.2 seconds left.
That gave the Warriors a 51-50 lead heading into halftime.
James led all scorers with 20 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and Curry had a quiet 15 points. Iguodala tallied 3 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists. Smith collected 14 points on 4-for-10 from downtown.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @sayheymr_mally)
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