The Golden State Warriors were at Quicken Loans Arena for Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs were again without Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Anderson Varejao, who are all out with season-ending injuries.
1ST QUARTER: Small Ball Locked In On Both Ends Of Floor
The Cavs jumped out to a 7-2 early, as the strategy was clearly to let the post men set up inside and feed them, especially taking advantage of their size in the paint. The first play was a post-up by Iman Shumpert, but fouled by Stephen Curry.
Tristan Thompson made an inside bucket against Harrison Barnes and Timofey Mozgov spun past Draymond Green to get fouled by Andre Iguodala, plus Curry made a bad pass to Green when he was doubled on the deep left wing and tried to pass it back out to Green. LeBron James took that steal the length of the court and converted a swooping left-handed layup as Klay Thompson hustled back to provide some minimal resistance and prevent a slam dunk.
But the Warriors punched back, as Draymond found Steph on a backdoor cut past Matthew Dellavedova, James’ right-handed bull run was called a charge into Iguodala, and Green got a finesse floater in the paint over Mozgov.
It was an early Cleveland lead, 7-6, with 7:50 to go in the first frame.
The Cavs strategy of the deliberate pounding inside was backfiring somewhat, as they committed an incredible three shotclock violations. A LeBron layup (down the left side as usual) would get challenged by Green and not hit the rim, with the clock so late that even when the Cavs got the rebound, they couldn’t put up a shot in time. Mozgov would get an interior catch late but not make a move soon enough.
And when they weren’t committing shotclock violations, the Warriors defense was causing them fits, as JR Smith‘s layup on a nice dribble drive would hit back iron, but Mozgov’s offensive rebound and subsequent re-attack got tapped out off his leg by Draymond.
Meanwhile, Curry went down the lane nicely for a teardrop finger-roll banker over the helping Mozgov, and Iguodala found his stroke against the collapsed Mozgov two out of three times, as well as another jumper in rhythm as Steph’s inside-out dribble up top got doubled. Green and Iguodala added treys each as James only converted once going down the left side, a much-needed bucket for the Cavs as the Warriors pulled ahead to 20-15 with 2:20 remaining.
Festus Ezeli got an early nod from Golden State head coach Steve Kerr and, although Ezeli traveled on his first catch in the paint, he got a two-handed slam on a putback of a bad miss by Curry from deep that only hit backboard.
Prior to that, Steph made two great defensive plays, deflected a pass from Dellavedova to James in the corner that gave the ball to the Warriors and stealing a dribble from Tristan Thompson as he tried to back in Barnes. Curry then went down the right side of the lane and found Barnes open in the left corner for a triple, and the Warriors darted out to a 28-15 lead with 34 seconds remaining.
The quarter ended as Smith’s right-side pull up went in-and-out, and Curry short-rimmed a forty-footer at the buzzer, but the Warriors had 11 assists on 12 made field goals.
2ND QUARTER: Cavs Defense Steps Up As Klay And Andre Pick Up 3rd Personals
Ezeli continued his active play as he blocked a James lefty left-side drive at the rim, but Mozgov corralled the rebound, nearly traveled, and eventually LeBron got the ball in the deep right corner with Shaun Livingston flailing his arms to disrupt. With the shotclock about the expire, James took a dribble, elevated, and launched and drained a triple in Livingston’s face at the buzzer.
However, Leandro Barbosa, still playing great, came back early on the other end and immediately answered with a triple from the right wing to maintain a 31-21 lead with 10:55 to play in the half.
Klay Thompson, virtually non-existent with just one jumper made in the first quarter, then got called for a bad screen, his third personal, sending him to the bench as Curry came back in.
Both teams’ defense stepped up a notch. After Curry lost the ball which ended up a jumpball, Iguodala went down the lane, shielded off LeBron on the layup, but got met at the rim by Mozgov, who swatted the ball out emphatically off the board. However, Iguodala got the ball back, attacked Mozgov fearlessly again from the baseline, and drew a foul.
LeBron then went must-bucket mode and went hard against the smaller Barbosa, jump-stopping and up-faking for a strong two from the right side, to make it 32-26, Warriors, with 7:32 to go.
After a Shumpert foul on a Green screen, reviewed and ruled a common foul, Curry missed a catch-and-shoot trey from the left elbow, then Shumpert tried to seal Steph down low on the post, but Draymond was there to help and block the shot.
Mozgov answered that on the defensive end as he blocked Curry’s floater after Steph managed to get past James Jones at the top of the circle.
Green got an inside post-up banker over James, Shumpert responded with a jumper swish from the right side over Curry, but after Mozgov got stripped by Barnes on a LeBron drive, Livingston led the break, found Iguodala, who dished to Barnes on the trail for a triple.
That gave Golden State a 37-29 lead with 5:06 remaining.
AFter Iguodala swished a right side jumper, assisted by Livingston, James drove into the lane, got met by three Warriors, then reset himself back on the right wing, drove past Iguodala, and got the foul call as Andre reached. However, LeBron missed both free throws.
David Lee got some burn, but missed a short lefty bank shot and was taken out shortly thereafter after LeBron took him down the lane. James went baseline and Curry deflected his pass, Barbosa recovered the loose ball, and fed Steph for an impressive lefty scoop past good defense by Smith on the break.
Then Barbosa got a steal, but Curry turned it over right back, and James lofted a triple over Green from the top to inch the Cavs back into the game, 43-38, approaching two minutes.
Draymond got a lefty banker as Curry got trapped on the left side again and slung a lefty pass to a cutting Green, but LeBron got fouled by Barbosa, Livingston missed a short jumper, James found Tristan Thompson down low for a reverse, Green traveled on the catch of the open pick-and-roll pass from Steph, and with 3 seconds left, Thompson putback a LeBron running banker that went too hard and slammed the putback with two hands as Draymond went to help.
The Cavs had fought back and trailed just 45-43 at halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @vvsf)
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