ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals.
The Cavs took a 51-48 lead into the 3rd quarter.
3RD QUARTER: LeBron Holds Warriors At Bay
Cleveland managed to manufacture a 59-52 lead in the first four minutes of play, as LeBron James got a lefty in the lane, followed by buckets by Kyrie Irving and more solid inside play by Timofey Mozgov.
But after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout, Klay Thompson hit a jumper, then Draymond Green stole a bad pass from Irving and Harrison Barnes led the break, eventually finding Andrew Bogut inside, who was left alone, but still found Barnes resetting, open at the left wing for a triple that toilet-bowled in, and the Warriors had come back to a 59-57 Cavs lead.
Once again, James imposed his will, posting up at the mid-block, swooping past Barnes, hanging in mid-air as Bogut went on the descent, and dropping in a fading banker.
Draymond came back with a drive inside, a lob to Bogut, who missed, but Green tipped the ball back in off the glass.
Later, after Stephen Curry dribbled to the left wing and lost the ball against Irving, James posted up once again, seemed to hook Harrison Barnes with a right elbow to create space, but Barnes was called for the foul.
The Cavs were up 69-66 after James’ free throws.
With Curry still in, Kerr went with the bench unit and Festus Ezeli got a dunk fed by Shaun Livingston, but LeBron went to work in the post.
James got a baby hook over Barnes and a running banker after posting in the right mid-block, while Ezeli added an assist to a cutting Curry for a reverse layup, and one of two free throws after getting fouled on a roll.
Near the end of the quarter, Andre Iguodala reached in and stole the ball from James at the free throw line, and Barnes found Iguodala with a slam dunk run-out to end the quarter with the game tied, 73-73. James, though, had amassed 31 points through three periods.
4TH QUARTER:
The bench unit did its job, as Barnes tracked down two Marreese Speights misses, and Iguodala got a left corner trey to drop over James Jones, with Shaun Livingston delivering the assist.
Then Leandro Barbosa found Iguodala, pushing the ball up after Irving missed a trey, and Iguodala then found Livingston cutting backdoor for a slam.
With 9:00 to go, Cavs head coach David Blatt did the smart thing: he brought LeBron back in the game. Kerr followed suit not too long after, bringing back Curry and Klay.
Every Warriors punch was met with a LeBron counter-punch. Speights got a catch-and-shoot, but James got an inside jump hook. Bogut got a slam dunk assisted by Curry, but James used the bounce, got to the baseline, and found Timofey Mozgov for an inside bucket.
Steph drove down the right side, but his banker went in and out, and James answered yet again, with inside moves darting into and away from Iguodala’s body, ending with a fade that went through the hoop, taking an 86-82 lead with 6:29 to play as Kerr called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Iguodala drilled a clutch three-pointer from the left side, assisted by Curry, his 7th assist, but James got a swing pass up top, passed up the open trey, and swung the ball once more over to Irving on the right wing and he drained a triple to make it 89-85, Cavs.
After Klay got fouled and made both free throws, LeBron posted up again and scored his 38th and 39th points of the night, but Thompson answered back with an early three from the right elbow and it was 91-90, Cavs, with 4:57 to play.
Curry started to heat up. First, Irving and James played tic-tac-toe to find a cutting Mozgov for a dunk, but Klay answered by finding Bogut on a roll. Then after JR Smith missed a three from the left wing with Green closing hard, Steph got the switch with LeBron, crossed him over, spun, waited, and drilled the jumper to take a 94-93 lead with 3:33 left.
After a LeBron post-up came up short on the fade against Iguodala, where Iguodala almost caused James to commit a traveling violation, Klay drove into the lane and got the call.
Thompson made both free throws and, as LeBron brought the ball up, Oracle got up on its feet.
But true to form, James drilled a three up top, running a pick-and-roll with Mozgov and the tied game at 96-96 with 2:35 remaining.
LeBron did a smart thing on defense, hounding Iguodala who had the ball and forcing him to make a play. Iguodala made a nice crossover on James isolated on the left elbow, but missed.
James found Mozgov on the roll of a screen, but as the ball went through the hoop, Mozgov was called for a travel.
Klay couldn’t take advantage, airballing a three, with both Klay and his close-out defender Smith slapping their hands simultaneously on opposite ends of the court, for opposite reasons.
LeBron then posted up, got a switch with Klay on him, found Mozgov open in the middle, but the Cavs center missed short, and Steph got the ball, crossed both Smith and Tristan Thompson and made the jumper.
The Warriors were up, 98-96, with 54 seconds remaining. Lebron and Smith ran the pick and roll, forcing Steph to switch onto James, who drove and found Mozgov cutting to the basket where he was fouled hard by Bogut. He made both free throws to tie it at 98 with 31.9 seconds left.
Off the inbounds Steph got the ball on the right side and drove past Kyrie, but Irving got just enough of Curry’s layup to force it off the glass and give the Cavs the ball with 24.1 left.
With the final regulation possession, LeBron isoed on Iguodala once again but shot long. The ball glanced off to Shumpert who’s last second heave rolled off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
OVERTIME:
Festus Ezeli started the overtime for Bogut, who struggled most of the game. James opened up the period with a missed hook, but Curry turned over the ensuing transition possession when Dray didn’t roll as hard as expected.
Smith launched way off from the corner, but Draymond couldn’t find the touch to lay in a running shot as he took Tristan Thompson down the left side of the key.
On the other end, the drought continued as Irving put up a reverse layup that went up a little to strong.
Curry finally put up the first two points of the overtime after he drew a foul on Tristan after getting the switch, giving the Warriors a 100-98 lead with 3:17 to play.
JR missed another semi-contested jumper, Steph grabbed the long rebound and the teams traded two more empty possessions before Curry drew another foul, this time on Irving.
Curry drained the first and rattled in the second free throw in almost dead silence to push the lead to 102-98.
Smith missed on the Cavs next possession, continuing their OT drought to 0-6 from the field.
Draymond pulled down the rebound and took off in transition as some urgent passes eventually found Harrison Barnes in the corner for a wide open 3pter that gave the Warriors a 105-98 lead with just over 2 minutes left in the OT.
Steph poked the ball away from LeBron out of the timeout, and some more Andre hustle resulted in the steal. Getting the ball back from HB, he drew the foul and split two free throws to make it 106-98 with 1:40 to play.
The Cavs remained scoreless in overtime as LeBron missed a three over Curry then again after Curry missed a wide open look at the other end.
Draymond’s two free throws made it 108-98 and James added a meaningless layup to make it 108-100 as the Curry dribbled the clock out and gave the Warriors a 1-0 Finals lead.
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