ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Golden State Warriors.
The Cavs took a 47-45 lead into halftime.
3RD QUARTER: Klay Shoulders Scoring Burden As Steph Remains Cold
Like an evenly matched bout between two boxers, the Cavs and Warriors continued to deliver punch and counter-punch. LeBron James had nice takes to the hoop, but Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green answered back with consecutive swats of his initial shot and putback.
Not even a fan’s halfcourt shot to win a free BMW at the first timeout could help change the flow of the game, nor could Golden State head coach Steve Kerr‘s insertion of Festus Ezeli after Bogut picked up two quickies at the rim, about halfway through the quarter.
With Stephen Curry shooting a dismal 3-for-12, although he did have this nice drive past Matthew Dellavedova…
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…Klay took over the scoring load with a catch, fake, side-step over JR Smith to halve the Cavs’ lead at 57-54 with 4:13 to play, assisted by Andre Iguodala.
But once again, James answered the call by taking Draymond Green on the left baseline for an easy-looking bucket.
LeBron was iso’ed again on the left side and, this time, Ezeli showed himself by going on that side of the paint, and James read the shift perfectly as he delivered a perfect pass for Smith to catch and drain the three-pointer from the opposite wing. That gave Cleveland a 62-56 lead.
A lefty slam putback on a Klay pull-up from the top beyond the arc over two Cavs would’ve given the Warriors a much-needed spark, but the play was called an offensive goal-tending.
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Livingston would get fouled on a break by Mike Miller, but the Warriors were poor at the free throw line and totaled 10-for-16, still behind as Livingston made one of two to make it 62-57.
Cleveland was forced into two straight shotclock violations on smothering defense in the waning moments by the Warriors, although the Cavs were being extremely deliberate with their pace, and Klay made them pay after getting switched onto by Tristan Thompson, taking the Cleveland big off the dribble, left-handed, for a stop-and-fade to close the gap to 62-59 with 50 seconds left.
As the quarter came to a close, Draymond made a nice deflection of a Dellavedova pass, Iguodala retrieved the loose ball, found Speights ahead of him, but Speights blew the dunk with just a few ticks left on the clock, an opportunity to trim a difficult-to-chisel lead down to one.
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Instead, Cleveland took a 62-59 lead into the final stanza.
4TH QUARTER: Comeback!
Dellavedova made a jumper and a runner, and with the Warriors offense now entirely dependent on Thompson, such as this and-one three against Smith…
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…and with Curry on the bench to start the quarter, a James three-pointer pulled over Livingston gave the Cavs some separation once again, as they took a 69-64 lead.
Then Bogut held Tristan Thompson as Barnes made a strong move on the left baseline, attacking the rim, and that was Bogut’s 3rd personal. He would pick up his 4th personal as he held Tristan Thompson on a miss beyond the arc by JR Smith, magnifying the ill-advised 3rd personal.
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The Warriors made some nice plays, such as Curry splitting the defense at the top of the circle and finding Barnes for a driving dunk, but the Dubs couldn’t light the torch that demoralizes opponents.
They came close, however, as Golden State forced another shotclock violation, then Curry missed a jumper trying to attack James Jones off the dribble and pulling up in the paint, but Barnes tipped the offensive rebound to himself and found Steph wide open, resetting for another shot from the side arc, but the shot went in and out with #Roaracle giving a collective sigh.
Smith then came back out of a timeout with a right elbow three-pointer assisted by Jones from the same corner, and all of a sudden, the Cavs had an 76-66 lead with 5:29 to go.
With the facilitation of ball action with LeBron, Dellavedova then drilled a clutch three-pointer on the catch from James, over Iguodala, and the Cavs had their largest lead of the game, 79-68, with exactly 5:00 to play.
Barnes played a momentary hero getting an offensive rebound banker putback in front of LeBron after a Klay right side banker went in and out, but James countered with a step-back against Iguodala and nudging Andre on the way down to draw a questionable whistle to send him to the line again.
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Steph dissected the defense and had a line but passed up a layup to find Barnes wide open from the right corner, but Harrison missed it and LeBron came back with a dagger trey over Iguodala as Curry shaded over, putting Cleveland back up, 83-72, with 3:13 remaining. Kerr called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Iguodala swished a triple from the top and Kerr ordered a “Hack-A-Tristan”, with Curry delivering the intentional foul to send the Cavs’ big.
Thompson hit one of two, then Steph had LeBron on him, James slipped a little, and Curry went with a crossover back to the right for a pivot trey to cut the Cleveland lead to 84-78, then Curry immediately fouled Thompson again.
Tristan made the first but missed the second, Curry got the rebound, and Smith fouled Steph as he squirted out to lead the early offense. With the Cavs in the penalty, Curry buried both throws to make it 85-80 with 2:35 left. Blatt called timeout.
LeBron missed another familiar fade on the left side over Iguodala, and Klay answered with a finger roll at the heart of the Cavs defense, over Jones. Cleveland went small as Blatt had taken Thompson off the floor.
That made it 85-82 with 2:02 to go.
James then passed to Iman Shumpert at the top who did the smart thing and gave it right back to James, and Curry flashed to double, LeBron went behind the back to split the double, and his knee hit Steph’s forcing the ref to blow the whistle. LeBron’s free throws put the Cavs up, 87-82, with 1:41 remaining.
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Curry then pulled a three over James, but Iguodala corralled the rebound and found Barnes for a backdoor dunk, and-one, as Smith fouled him trying to catch up on the cut. With 1:23 to play, Barnes trimmed the score to 87-85, Cavs.
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James then dribbled on his favorite left side again, but lost the ball, recovered, launched with the shotclock down from the deepest part of the left elbow arc, but the shot hit back rim. In the frenzy of the next sequence, Iguodala was stuck in the left corner but found Barnes cutting by the free throw elbow. Barnes took a dribble but missed the pull up. Draymond was in the scramble for the rebound but the Cavs got it and called timeout, up 87-85 with 38.8 ticks left.
This time and differently from the closing moments of Game 1, James went strong baseline, got met with a double, and flung the ball to Shumpert from the right corner, but he airballed it.
Curry took the possession down the court and, with 7.2 seconds left, bypassed James at the perimeter after Draymond caused interference, going right to left down the lane, bypassed Tristan, and got the scoop to tie the game.
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Blatt called timeout for the obvious last play to LeBron.
James got the inbound, started at the top, took Iguodala with his left hand down the left side, Klay converged, and LeBron barely missed a scoop as time expired, with the ball trickling off the rim.
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For the second game in a row, the 2015 NBA Finals went into overtime, tied 87-87.
OVERTIME: Delly Gets Rewarded For The Hustle
Kerr stayed small, as opposed to inserting Festus Ezeli to win the tip (he actually lost the tip in Game 1’s overtime), and Green somehow won the tip against Tristan Thompson.
After several empty possessions with Iguodala missing a knuckleball over Dellavedova, James missing a step-back over Draymond, and Steph pulling up from the arc going off rim, Shumpert drilled a three to start the scoring in overtime, facilitated once again by high action with LeBron.
Klay tried to answer back as Curry set a screen for him, but the open early three from the left wing rolled out. Smith missed a triple, but James got the o-reb and was fouled by Green, putting the Cavs up, 87-82, with 3:17 to go.
Steph got Dellavedova to bite on a fly-by, but missed the three from the left side, James’ left side pull-up went in and out, and Curry came back going down the lane, LeBron converged, disrupted the layup, but Draymond got the putback on the left side to make it 92-89 with 2:38 remaining.
Dellavedova got the roll on a pass with action from LeBron, but missed the layup. Draymond had “Delly” on him in the post on the next possession, drove his body into Dellavedova, missed the first bank, but got his own putback to make it 92-91, Cavs, with 2:02 left.
James again went left down the lane and Iguodala got help from Draymond. Iguodala also added a little hack at the end, but the referee whistled a shotclock violation to LeBron’s chagrin.
Curry, who was not on point all game long, then found another lane open and he attacked it, but a back pass went straight to Shumpert. However, Klay hustled back and played great defense, disrupting the layup, and Kerr called timeout with the Warriors dodging a bullet. It was still 92-91, Cavs, with 1:11 to play.
But out of the timeout, the Warriors committed their 17th turnover and Klay’s desperate save into the baseline went straight to Shumpert again. However, Draymond played tremendous defense, forcing a jumpball against LeBron after James got the (huge) step past Iguodala down the lane.
James then caught his own jump, claiming that Green grabbed him on the shoulder, and the Warriors had yet another shot down by one point with 45.4 ticks left.
Steph faked out Smith drawing contact, fouling out JR, on the perimeter and the refs reviewed the play, ruling it was a two-point shot. Curry made both and the Warriors took their first lead in a long, long time, 93-92, with 29.5 seconds remaining.
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Draymond made a incredible block on LeBron going down the left again, but Iguodala’s save of the rebound bounced right between Curry’s legs out of bounds. James went down the lane, right side this time, leapt, found Jones in the right corner, who missed, but Dellavedova crashed the weak side and got the call on the rebound against Barnes.
Delly drilled both free throws and now it was up to the Warriors to score, down 94-93 with 10.2 seconds left.
Out of Kerr’s timeout, Curry went with a stepback after a few dribbles down the left side, but airballed and James easily got the weakside rebound beyond Barnes’ reach. Harrison fouled him, but there were only 4.4 seconds to go. LeBron missed the first free throw, but it didn’t really matter. The Warriors had no timeouts remaining and had to go the length of the floor, regardless.
After James made the second free throw to make it 95-93, Draymond inbound to a sweeping Steph, who surveyed and found Klay running down the right side, but Curry’s bounce pass was too soft and the Cavs easily deflected it, the buzzer sounded, and we now have a 1-1 series.
Game 3 will be in two nights in Cleveland.
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