ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Three nights after taking a stranglehold of the series in Cleveland, the Golden State Warriors (3-1) were back home to face the Cleveland Cavaliers for a potential close-out in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
However, the news was dominated by the automatic one-game suspension of Draymond Green, triggered by a retroactive upgrade of his altercation with LeBron James to a Flagrant One. The Warriors were required to keep Green on as an active player, forcing head coach Steve Kerr to make a difficult decision. He opted to place backup shooting guard Ian Clark on the inactive list. That meant James McAdoo and Brandon Rush would be made available, with most of the speculation going towards either Rush or Andre Iguodala to start in place of Green. The Warriors were also without Kevon Looney again (left hip surgery).
Green was forced to stay away from the arena and watched the game nearby at one of the suites at the Coliseum’s Oakland Athletics game.
1st Quarter – Iguodala Hot Start, But LeBron Answers
Iguodala got the start. Andrew Bogut turned the ball over on the first possession, leading Iguodala too far out of bounds, but after James tried to post up on Iguodala and Iguodala tapped the ball away, the Warriors scored as he went coast-to-coast for a finger roll.
Kyrie Irving answered with a three fed by James, then after a missed open three by Klay Thompson in the left corner as J.R. Smith got lost on defense, LeBron spun and faded on the left baseline over Iguodala, but back-rimmed it.
Stephen Curry pulled up from the right arc in transition as Tristan Thompson doubled and Bogut was slow to get to the front court:
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Irving tried to respond going coast-to-coast, but got the ball tapped out by Curry, Klay got a lot of body contact inside against Tristan Thompson but no call and lost the ensuing jump ball.
But Klay atoned on the next possession, drilling a three from the top, but the momentum was lost immediately as Steph got called for an off-ball foul on Smith. After the side out, James got blocked by Bogut, who then tipped the ball out to Curry, and Klay missed a runner and Iguodala got the offensive rebound finger roll, with contact and no foul again…
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Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue called timeout as the Warriors jumped out to a 9-3 lead with 8:36 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Irving hit a runner lefty reverse, but Klay answered with a swish from the deep right arc…
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…LeBron, however, responded with a three.
Klay couldn’t one-up him, airball the next triple, and Smith took it to Bogut for an “and-one”, and Kerr opted for Festus Ezeli off the bench.
Curry hit a three from the left wing…
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…and Ezeli had a hard foul on Thompson that got reviewed but stayed a common foul…
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…then later Harrison Barnes missed a fade-away, Ezeli got the offensive rebound, missed too hard, but Iguodala was there again with the putback slam:
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McAdoo got the call early, hustled, but got called for a couple rebounding fouls, even though it looked like James elbowed him on this whistle:
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Iguodala started missing from downtown, but Klay hit one. LeBron answered, and Leandro Barbosa got one back, and the Warriors were up, 25-22, with 3:30 to play.
Matthew Dellavedova came in for Irving and promptly picked up three personals and a turnover, but James hit two buckets to close things out, matched by an “and-one” on a dribble-and-pop by Shaun Livingston.
The Warriors took a 32-29 lead into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – Klay-Pot
The Cavs raced out to a 36-32 lead as Smith found Richard Jefferson for a dunk against rather soft defense. Jefferson then followed that up by spinning past Barnes for a runner, and Irving hit a three.
Livingston got a dunk over Jefferson…
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…but the game stayed tight as both teams traded blows.
Klay hit a three on a catch as James narrowly swiped the ball away with what would have concluded with a breakaway dunk…
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…then Ezeli got a catch inside and seemed to be mauled by Thompson, but once again no call. James also got away with a charge on Varejao that was not called:
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After getting clobbered by Irving but with no review for a flagrant, unlike Ezeli’s play…
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…Klay hit another two threes, one over Irving at the top from Iguodala…
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…but LeBron came back with a layup past Ezeli and a putback, then Curry committed two straight turnovers, getting a lefty sling pass that wasn’t capitalized on, before Klay hit another from deep, pulling up as he realized Thompson was guarding him:
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Steph dribbled off his foot from the left side on the next possession, however, and a TV timeout stopped play with the Warriors up, 49-58, with 5:09 to go.
Bogut came back in but promptly committed his third personal setting a bad off-ball screen, then Steph threw a bad entry pass to Klay in the pinch-post and Irving stole the ball easily for a run-out layup.
Kerr called timeout as the Cavs inched ahead, 54-50, with 3:45 left.
Out of the timeout, LeBron gambled on a pass to Iguodala, and he spun away, and dunked home the free lane to the bucket.
Klay added another triple to give him 26 points on the night, but James answered with a pull-up over Marreese Speights, and a layup past Iguodala going left to right.
Curry found himself isolated against Kevin Love and stepped back for a splash from the left arc, but James up-faked Speights and got a two-hand slam with the harm.
With 9.2 seconds remaining in the half, LeBron missed a pull-up three over McAdoo and the game went into halftime tied, 61-61.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @nba)
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