QUICKEN LOANS ARENA, CLEVELAND, OH — Three nights after losing Game 5 in the absence of Draymond Green due to suspension, the Golden State Warriors (3-2) were back at “The Q” to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6.
The Warriors were without Andrew Bogut, who sustained a knee injury in the second half of Game 5 and is expected to be out from six to eight weeks. That meant there would be no Warriors on the inactive list, making James McAdoo, Ian Clark, and Brandon Rush — players who had been at one time or another on the inactive list — active.
1st Quarter – Horrific Start
Andre Iguodala got the start in place of Bogut. The game didn’t get off to a clean start, as J.R. Smith airballed a deep three over Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson got a reverse layup past Kevin Love blocked, and, in transition, a bad gamble of the outlet to LeBron James led to a coast-to-coast layup fouled by Draymond Green.
Harrison Barnes missed his first two looks from deep, Curry added a grabbing foul on Tristan Thompson on a lob attempt by James, but Love committed two early fouls as well, and Richard Jefferson came in for him. Thompson also missed a free throw, so the Cavs only led 2-0.
Barnes missed another bucket, going lefty drive past Thompson (he probably should have just shot the three), then after Smith got his corner three partially blocked by Klay, Klay missed a three and Kyrie Irving came back with a spin and a jumper past Curry.
Later, Klay got picked from behind by LeBron — although Klay wanted a foul — and slammed home the runout dunk, with Steph not wanting to pickup another foul.
After the timeout, Iguodala lost the ball on a behind-the-back dribble to Jefferson, Curry added a brick from the left arc, then a missed crossover jumper over Tristan Thompson, and Green finally ended the drought with a crossover-layup. It was 8-2, Cavs, with 6:54 remaining:
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But Irving got another pull-up over Steph, Barnes lost the ball on a spin versus Irving, and Irving found LeBron for another dunk.
Curry made this volleyball-set-like three to answer…
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…but would be called for a blocking foul on this drive by James:
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Klay hit in the left post over Irving, but Smith and Jefferson hit triples, while Iguodala missed his, and Irving added another jumper from the right baseline. Shaun Livingston hit Festus Ezeli for the layup, and as he often does after a run followed by one opposing bucket, Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue called timeout, with the Cavs now up, 20-9, with 3:53 to play.
Ezeli fouled Tristan to send him to the line in the penalty, Klay missed another three from the left arc, and the Warriors doubled LeBron on the pick-and-roll and he bounced it to Tristan for yet another slam dunk.
Klay then made a bad interior pass to Ezeli, behind him, and James went pick-and-roll again with Tristan, got the switch with Ezeli, and zoomed past him for a lefty layup.
Things got worse as Livingston missed a jumper, then lunged on a corner three fake by Mo Williams, and Williams scored on the baseline runner.
Ezeli got an entry pass under the hoop, but didn’t attack and, instead, tried to give the ball to Livingston who was standing right next to him, which led to a fumble, and the Cavs converted on the turnover yet again as Ezeli ended up fouling Jefferson on a drive.
Livingston missed another jumper in and out, Ezeli couldn’t handle the offensive rebound putback, and at the other end, Tristan talled another dunk on another bounce pass from LeBron.
After more three-point misses by Barnes, Klay, and Iman Shumpert, Iguodala hit a long two from the right side at the shotclock buzzer with 3.1 seconds to go.
The Cavs took a commanding 31-11 lead into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – Chef Appears
Curry opened the quarter drawing free throws, then after another Irving jumper, Steph hit a three.
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Irving and Green traded free throws, and later Curry hit another triple, a stop-and-pop from downtown:
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Shumpert missed a three in response, then fouled Anderson Varejao on a rebound attempt on the next Warriors’ possession, and Klay ended up hitting a three, which prompted Lue to call another timeout as the Warriors closed the gap to 39-24 with 8:54 left.
Out of the timeout, Smith found Thompson for yet another dunk, an alley-oop, but Leandro Barbosa came off the bench and hit a jumper off a curl dribble.
Varejao tipped out a missed three by Smith nicely, but Klay lost the ball on a drive and Irving got the runout layup.
Barbosa made things happen again, got the ball to Iguodala, who hit a triple from the right wing in rhythm.
Although Iguodala coughed up the ball to LeBron on the next play, the Warriors’ defense finally woke up as Steph took a charge on James, hit free throws on the next possession as Shumpert reached in outside the arc, then Draymond took a charge on the right baseline on Shumpert.
Klay got this layup after a few passes, and Lue called another timeout as the Warriors inched forward, now down 46-33 with 5:42 remaining:
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LeBron tried a bully post-up move against Klay, missed, and Curry came back with this triple from the right wing:
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Irving couldn’t hit a lefty over Green, and Steph made the extra pass, up-faking, then finding Draymond wide open under the hoop for a layup and, with the score now 46-38, Lue called another timeout with 4:40 to play:
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Later, Barnes missed another bucket, this time inside, and Curry committed his third personal on a bad reach-in…
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…but Kerr left him in, asking him to call a timeout as Steph motioned not to take him out.
Out of the timeout, Klay missed a three and James found Thompson for — yep, you guessed it — another dunk, then Klay missed again with a right baseline spin and upfake, again to be punished by LeBron as he came motoring down the court for a lefty layup.
Later, Klay hit a three from the top to trim the Cavs’ lead to 54-43, but Dahntay Jones scored inside with the harm by Green to go back up, 57-43, with 1:01 to play.
That was Draymond’s second foul, and he soon got his third as Steph missed a three and Jones boxed out Green, with Draymond swiping at the ball. The referee could have just called it out-of-bounds, Cavs ball, but he awarded the penalty free throws to Jones.
After a step-back from the left corner by Curry went short, which was offensive-rebounded and followed by a miss from up top by Iguodala, James missed a spinning fade-away just before the buzzer, and the Cavs headed into halftime with a 59-43 lead.
Irving led all scorers with 20 points, Curry had 18, and LeBron 14. Tristan Thompson grabbed 10 boards and the Warriors had just 7 assists on 13 field goals. By contrast, the Cavs had 13 assists on 20 made buckets.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @qhaider)
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