ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Golden State Warriors, Game 5 of the 2015 NBA Finals.
The Warriors held a slim 51-50 lead heading into the second half.
3RD QUARTER: Barbosa Throws Cavs Off
The joust continued early in the third quarter, but the Cavs took the slim one-point advantage at first, as a three-pointer by Matthew Dellavedova and one of two free throws missed by Draymond Green inside — the Warriors’ going an atrocious 7-for-13 up until that point — was the difference, although Green had drawn LeBron James‘ third personal foul.
Klay Thompson continued to struggle, having to guard LeBron and biting on one of his inside fakes for a foul, forcing up a shot, and having an early triple in transition go in and out.
Tristan Thompson came alive for a bit, getting two inside buckets, and the Cavs held a 59-58 lead as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout with under 8 minutes to go in the third frame.
Although Harrison Barnes had made a dribble-and-pop over Dellavedova on a switch, a shot that toilet-bowled in, it seemed as if he wasn’t feeling comfortable with his stroke, or that the Cavs were closing out on him a split-second faster, or both, as he passed up another triple that was momentarily open from the right side, a carbon copy of a play earlier in the game. He then jumped with no clear-cut plan, double-clutched in mid-air, and again missed badly.
On the other end, Delly missed a trey after multiple swing passes, but Tristan Thompson continued to take advantage of his size in the paint and got the offensive rebound putback. Shortly thereafter, he added an alley-oop over Green on a lob by JR Smith, who drove to the hole as the Warriors lunged out due to his hot first half shooting.
But Klay finally got something going with a cut to the hole, layup, and-one delivered by Dryamond in the post, with the free throw tying the game at 63-63 with 4:56 to go.
Curry took a deep catch-and-shoot from the left wing over Dellavedova, but was short, LeBron came back again down low, this time against Shaun Livingston, got the step into the paint, and his up-fake rendered Green’s help useless, for another bucket, James’ 23rd and 24th points of the night.
Steph answered back with the exact same shot he took previously, this time draining the triple from the deep left catch over Dellavedova. Cavs head coach David Blatt took a timeout and the Warriors held a slim 66-65 lead with 3:04 to play.
Cleveland continued to go inside to Thompson and sometimes it paid off, sometimes it didn’t, with the Cavs’ big man not having the best tools in the shed. The Warriors managed to get another shotclock violation as Tristan couldn’t hit rim on the first try late in the shotclock.
Curry got doubled on the right side, delivered a behind-the-back bounce pass to Iguodala waiting on the wing, and Andre swished the triple, giving the Warriors that slim separation that might be needed on this night of slow-paced basketball, 69-65, with 2:23 remaining.
Livingston barely missed a deflection and ended up fouling on a crosscourt pass by James, putting Golden State in the penalty, and Blatt took the opportunity to sneak some rest of LeBron. Kerr followed suit by bringing in Barnes to rest Iguodala. Timofey Mozgov also came in and Kerr countered with Festus Ezeli, but other than a foul by Mozgov on a driving Barbosa, the bigs were rendered irrelevant on this night of small-ball.
Barbosa actually went twice down the lane, while without James, the Cavs only got one of two free throws from Thompson. Shumpert and Curry traded missed threes at the end of the quarter.
The Warriors took a 73-67 lead into the final stanza.
4TH QUARTER: Killer Steph Splashes
Golden State gained some momentum as Barnes got a feed inside and slammed a lefty tomahawk over Mozgov, and-one, to make it 75-69, but Barnes missed the free throw.
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James came back with a triple over Klay Thompson from the deep left wing, but a confident Barnes got the ball on the left block against LeBron and attacked him with a dribble inside and drew a foul on the upfake, James’ 4th personal.
However, Barnes made a bad screen on Shumpert on the resulting side-out designed to get Klay open, and LeBron caused the Golden State defense to shift as the Cavs played hot potato, with Mike Miller finding James, who found Shumper open in the right corner for a swish triple.
With those back-to-back threes, Cleveland tied the game at 75-75 with under 10 minutes to go. Ezeli managed to grab a trademark offensive rebound, got stuck on the baseline, and called timeout.
Curry came back to close things out and, after a James left baseline fade went short, scissored by the Cavs’ perimeter defense at the top of the arc and buried a long two.
LeBron answered with a left-side runner over Iguodala, a degree-of-difficulty of ten, and after Green hit both free throws on an inside entry foul on Miller, James came back with a catch-and-shoot of Shumpert’s up-pass, a good 28 feet from the hoop over Iguodala. The triple momentarily gave the Cavs an 80-79 lead.
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But Steph answered the call, going behind the back with a crossover against Dellavedova and drilling a three-pointer…
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…giving a little snarl as he trotted back on defense.
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Then James went down the left side and his bank shot over Green went too hard. Curry got immediately doubled on the right perimeter, threw the ball behind Draymond a bit, so as to stop short his potential attack of the paint, which proved to be a fortunate circumstance.
Green fed Klay on the right wing and he fired on the catch for a triple, good, and the Warriors had an 85-80 lead as Blatt took a timeout with under 6 minutes left.
Cleveland closed the gap to 85-84 with 5:10 to play as James got a left post-up spin fade away to drop over Iguodala, then took Klay baseline on the left side again and, with help from Draymond, bounced a perfect assist to Tristan Thompson for two at the rim.
But Golden State went on an 11-2 run as, out of another double-team on Curry on the perimeter, Iguodala drilled an open three from the left side, assisted by Green.
Steph then got his hands on a Shumpert right corner entry pass to Tristan Thompson and the Warriors were off to the races. Klay missed the early trey attempt from the right wing, but Barnes leaped over James and tapped it to Iguodala at the rim. Andre made the banker and drew the and-one foul on Tristan Thompson and Golden State had its largest lead, 91-84, although Iguodala missed the free throw amid chants of “MVP!”.
The Warriors actually two chances at putting a nail in the Cavs’ coffin, as Iguodala got the offensive rebound of his missed, high-bouncing free throw, but Iguodala and Curry both missed threes on the bonus possession.
James found Tristan on a touchdown as a result, but he got fouled and missed one of two throws, then Curry went down the lane to keep the buffer at 93-85 with 3:10 remaining.
After LeBron attacked and got a favorable call as he put his forearm into Draymond to create space, Steph kind of lost his dribble from the deep right wing, but immediately pulled over Dellavedova. The shot went through and the Dubs had a commanding 96-86 lead with 2:43 to go.
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Steph’s mom, Sonya Curry, was seen on TV celebrating.
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Blatt then went “Hack-An-Andre” in desperation, as James wasn’t coming up with much continuing to go down the left side. It worked for a bit, as Iguodala missed both — he would finish a paltry 2-for-11 from the line — and James pulled from the deep left wing to make it 96-89, giving him 40 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists on the night.
Iguodala got hacked again but got his own rebound, then got hacked yet again and finally made his second free throw to make it 97-89.
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LeBron missed another attack from the left as Green helped, but after a timeout to advance the ball, Green made an errant cross-court pass that James easily stole. LeBron found Dellavedova on the left side, but Delly missed the triple and that was the Cavs’ last gasp.
Curry put an end to any Cleveland hope of a comeback as he got iso’ed against LeBron, ran pick-and-roll with Draymond, and pulled from about 25 feet as Dellavedova was in the middle of switching over. The shot splashed through and the Warriors hit the hundred mark, 100-89, approaching one minute to play.
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Iguodala soon came out to a standing ovation as Kerr knew the Cavs had no chance of coming back, and James also took a seat.
The game ended with fouls to Curry, upping his game totals to 37 points on 13-for-23 field, 7-for-13 downtown, and the Warriors won Game 5 as the Cavs let Steph dribble out the game, which actually resulted in a shotclock violation with 2 seconds remaining.
Dellavedova let the inbound go and the buzzer sounded, with Game 6 coming up in 45 hours.
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