OAKLAND — The fans didn’t waste any time, booing LeBron James every time he touched the ball in the layup line before Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Nobody can remember a player being booed so much at that point — even his misses were applauded in jest — but the hatred and catcalls poured toward James all evening on Monday night. Big mistake.
The taunts only fuelled the four-time MVP.
With so much on the line, James merely responded with one of — if not the best — games of his stellar career, point guard Kyrie Irving matched James with 41 points, turning in his no-doubt best-ever effort and the Cleveland Cavaliers lived to fight another day, stunning the Golden State Warriors 112-97 to cut Golden State’s advantage to 3-2.
Both former No. 1 overall Cavs draft picks scored over 40, the first time that’s ever happened at the Finals and whilethe game was tied 61-61 at the half, the highest-scoring Finals game since 1987, the Warriors’ splashes turned to splats, with misfire after misfire in a second half the Cavs controlled.
“Nothing seemed to work,” lamented Warriors coach Steve Kerr afterward.
The Warriors wasted a 37-point effort from Klay Thompson, including 26 in the first half alone and also lost centre Andrew Bogut to a knee injury after a scary collision.
Steph Curry was OK, but not up to his usual standard, Harrison Barnes was invisible and the vaunted bench struggled.
Still, Kerr remained confident.
“We’re in a good spot. If you told us we’d be in this position we’d be in, we’d have taken it,” he said.
“I like our position a lot better than theirs.”
Nevertheless, Irving, one of the most talented offensive players in the NBA, showcased his entire arsenal and without suspended defensive lynchpin Draymond Green, the Warriors seemed powerless to stop him, as well as James, who finally solved Andre Iguodala, scoring his second-most points ever at the Finals.
James is now 8-8 in potential elimination games at the NBA’s last round, with ridiculous averages in those contests.
While good from the start, James played a near-perfect third quarter to put the Cavs ahead by nine and the Warriors went ice cold and could not rally.
James had his first six assists of the game in that quarter, along with 11 points, involving himself on 10 of 11 Cleveland baskets.
Now, we are back where we were a year ago: A sixth game in Cleveland, where the Cavs will try to do what they couldn’t in 2015, force an anything-can-happen seventh at this suddenly thrilling NBA Final.
There was a lot of bad blood heading into the game, Green’s suspension will be a major talking point moving forward and it was again a physical affair.
We knew Green was a great defender, but with the big man suspended, both teams erupted offensively.
The Cavs shot 54 per cent in the first half, the Warriors — mainly Thompson and Curry — drained 11 three-pointers and it looked like it would be an offensive night for the ages.
It was, for the visitors.
Iguodala started in Green’s place, with Kevin Love returning to Cleveland’s starting lineup after coming off of the bench in Game 4. Love was only slightly more effective (just two points and three rebounds in 34 minutes. than the absent Green, but it didn’t matter, not with Irving and James doing the work of an entire starting five (J.R. Smith helped out with some strong defence and Tristan Thompson dominated the glass with 15 rebounds and made countless hustle plays to give the Cavs second chances).
Golden State had been 4-0 in closeout games at home the last two playoffs, 7-1 overall, but got exposed defensively.
“Well, he’s their best defender, and I’ve said it all along that he is the best guy in the NBA as far as reading when to help, triple switches and kicking guys out of mismatches, knowing when to go, when not to go,” said Cavs coach Tyronn Lue.
“He’s an underrated shot blocker, and he can guard one through five, so that definitely help hurt their defence. But I’m just proud of the way our guys played tonight and competed.”
It was more than just Green’s absence that propelled the Cavs, though. James and Irving have never been better as a combination and simply would not let the 73-win Warriors juggernaut, a group the Cavs believe to be too cocky, to be crowned championships at home, where the team has still never won it all.
Suddenly, we’ve got a series.