This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals.
The Warriors took a 45-43 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Release The Kraken!
The Cavs took a momentary lead at 47-45 with 9:46 left as Timofey Mozgov made an inside bucket via LeBron James, Tristan Thompson got a jump hook to trickle in over Harrison Barnes, but Andre Iguodala stole a bad pass by Mozgov — the Cavs’ 15th turnover of the game — and Barnes made a triple from the left elbow, although Draymond Green attempted a soaring strong layup against Thompson, who blocked it.
Cleveland’s woes continued as Mozgov shot an airball, then after Barnes missed a trey attempt, Iman Shumpert lost his dribble to Barnes, Barnes outlet to Iguodala, who made a fake pass to the corner, found the paint completely open, and attacked it with a one-hand slam.
Draymond followed that up with a three-pointer from the top, left open after Klay Thompson got doubled on the dribble. Cavs head coach David Blatt called timeout and the Warriors took a 53-47 lead with 8:13 to play.
But the Warriors kept their foot on the gas pedal, especially taking advantage of the defensive limitations of James Jones. Curry and James traded trips to the free throw line, then Iguodala smelled blood with Jones on him and made a nice move to the hoop for a bucket. LeBron answered by taking Klay, who had three personals, hard to the rack as well.
Matthew Dellavedova then lofted a nice lob to Tristan, but Thompson couldn’t handle it right and the alley-oop hit the rim. Iguodala ended the sequence with another attack of Jones off the dribble, then after a Jones missed three, Festus Ezeli snagged the board, and Shaun Livingston dribbled up, probed the baseline, found nothing going into the right corner, and spun back as the defense left him, converting a lay-in over Jones, the frequent victim.
Dellavedova missed a runner in traffic, Curry pulled out the rebound from the baseline, spun away from Dellavedova, led the break and sent a no-look pass to a cutting Iguodala for a slam dunk. Blatt called another timeout and the Warriors’ lead had stretched to 61-51 with 5:11 left.
Ezeli then came alive. Livingston got an inside jumper on a spin over Shumpert, then after a JR Smith baseline jumper, Ezeli slipped a screen with Curry and LeBron saved a dunk by hitting Festus in the face for a trip to the free throw line.
Ezeli wasn’t done, however. Smith missed the next jumper try from the left side, Curry got doubled up top, floated a pass to Green, who lobbed to Ezeli for a slam dunk alley-oop.
Then Tristan missed a bunny shot on a nice feed by James, Livingston led the break, found Steph on the left side for a three-pointer, but he missed it, only to have Ezeli slam home the putback with Mozgov late and bodying Festus from behind for the and-one.
Ezeli’s free throw gave the Warriors a commanding 69-55 lead.
LeBron couldn’t answer, missing a three-pointer, getting a foul down low but missing one of the free throws. Klay came back and hurried a shot, with Mozgov ending the sequence with a nice inside catch of a feed from Smith, and another lob to Ezeli, which Festus laid up, was blocked by Mozgov at the top of the apex — no goaltending called — and the quarter ended with the Warriors up, 73-61.
4TH QUARTER: Draymond Gets Key Offensive Tap, Records Triple-Double
Golden State opened the quarter with a darting reverse layup from Leandro Barbosa, but the Cavs clawed their way back. Draymond missed a three-pointer, LeBron came back with a quick attack of Barnes in transition, Mozgov got fouled again down low, and James stole a bad pass from Green and slammed it home.
Suddenly, the Cavs had trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 75-68. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Klay missed a catch-and-shoot jumper, but Draymond managed to get his arm around Mozgov for a tip-out back to Klay, who fed Curry for a running three-pointer on the right elbow. Instead of having the ball down 7, the Cavs found themselves back down by 10, 78-68, with 9:46 to play.
Mozgov got a dunk on a nice laser feed from James as he was falling away on the left baseline, but Iguodala made a nice crossover to get past the Cleveland perimeter on the right side, missed the shot, but Livingston was there on the other side of the rim to two-hand slam the putback.
Smith answered with a trey from the right side on a nice find by Mozgov, but Iguodala responded with a three-point swish from the left wing as Steph was doubled and fed Green, who took one dribble and found Iguodala open.
Mozgov backed in Iguodala for a driveway backboard-over-the-garage bucket, but Golden State made another push. Curry continued to be harassed with a double-team up top, so he found Green and Draymond flipped it back to Steph going down the right side, setting a screen in the process. Curry stopped and popped a triple, and the Warriors were back up by double-digits, 86-75, with 7:22 to go.
Golden State helped themselves on defense as well. Iguodala fell down and James fed the ball to Smith in the left corner, but Livingston was there to get a piece of the shot. Curry brought the ball up, spun out of the double-team from Smith and Tristan Thompson, saw LeBron inching towards the top option to take that away, and fed Klay cross-court on the deep left side for a triple.
Shortly thereafter, Iguodala canned a triple from the left corner on a tic-tac-toe from Klay and Draymond, and the Warriors went back up by 15, 92-77, with 6:00 to go. It was Green’s 10th assist of the night, giving him a triple-double.
James answered with a right-side banker, but after Iguodala and LeBron traded missed threes, Livingston slipped another double on Steph up top and got a righty scoop to drop. That was Curry’s 8th assist.
Klay fouled out after that, with a hack of Smith’s drive and then hooking Dellavedova as Klay tried to post up on an isolation play. Thompson finished with just 5 points on 2-for-7 field, 1-for-3 downtown.
Both teams couldn’t get anything going for a bit, as Smith shuffled his feet on a post-up against Curry, Steph lost the ball with a no call going down the right side and running back on defense with no objection to the refs although he was shaking his head wanting a foul, Barbosa stole the ball after James inexplicably picked up his dribble after an attack of Barnes, Barbosa missed a three, and James missed a pull-up three.
Curry grabbed LeBron’s missed and told all his teammates to settle down, crossed halfcourt, then from the left side, slung a pass off the dribble to Draymond at the rim. Green missed the layup but was fouled.
Draymond made both and James found Tristan inside for a righty hook, but the Cavs were running out of time as the Warriors still held a 96-85 lead with 2:40 to play.
Smith and LeBron missed consecutive threes and Green got the defensive rebound with 2:00 to go, then Steph found himself with the left side completely open with Iman Shumpert not guarding anybody, and Curry waltzed in for the uncontested layup with the right hand on the left side.
Smith made a couple crazy threes to pull the Cavs to within 100-92 with 55.2 remaining and Kerr called a timeout, just in case.
Green was immediately fouled, missed both, then James gave an upfake on a three then drove the left side for an easy layup to trim the Golden State lead to 100-94. With 37.2 to go, Curry was fouled and missed the second free throw.
Blatt took a timeout with a 101-94 deficit and 36.7 to play, and Smith made a pivoting trey from the top, rattling it through and, incredibly, the Cavs were within 4, 101-97, but time was nearly gone with 32.1 left.
Smith missed again and Cleveland had no choice but to foul Iguodala. After one of two throws, James missed another three, Iguodala got the rebound, and got fouled. LeBron subbed out with 10.6 remaining, offering congratulations to the Curry and a few Warriors by their bench.
Iguodala missed one of two again, but it didn’t matter. Smith missed another three, Curry got the rebound with 2 seconds remaining, dribbled out the clock, and the Golden State Warriors won the 2015 NBA Finals, four games to two.
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