ANTONIO GONZALEZ
ANTONIO GONZALEZ
AP Basketball Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. — The final buzzer sounded, and LeBron James wasn’t done.
As fans filed out of the quieting arena, James grabbed the ball and spiked it with all his might. He flexed his arms and pounded his chest, letting out a roar that echoed from California to Cleveland.
James turned in a triple-double to remember, Matthew Dellavedova made the go-ahead free throws in overtime, and the Cavaliers overcame a fourth-quarter collapse to outlast the Golden State Warriors 95-93 on Sunday night to even the NBA Finals at a game apiece.
James finished with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists in 50 minutes, carrying Cleveland’s depleted roster to victory on the NBA’s toughest home floor. The Warriors had been 47-3 at ear-piercing Oracle Arena.
“I tried to give it all to my teammates. And they do a great job of giving it back to me. Total team effort,” said James, who shot 11 of 34 from the floor and seemed to wear down as the game dragged on. “To be back in the same position we were in three days ago and to come back and even the series is big time.”
It was the second straight overtime game, and one the Cavs never should’ve let happen.
Stephen Curry had a horrific shooting performance but converted the tying layup for the Warriors late in regulation. The MVP also put Golden State in front 93-92 on free throws with 29.5 seconds left in overtime.
Then, Draymond Green met James at the rim to block his left-handed layup, but the Cavs retained possession. After James Jones missed a 3-pointer, Dellavedova grabbed the rebound and was fouled.
Dellavedova made both free throws to put Cleveland up with 10.1 seconds to play. Curry air-balled a jumper contested by Dellavedova, James got the rebound and hit one of two free throws with 4.4 seconds left.
“He was huge for us,” James said about Dellavedova. “We knew we could count on him because we’ve been in this situation before. He gave us everything that he had and more.”
After James made the free throw, Curry, without a timeout, raced up court and tried to pass ahead to Klay Thompson. But Iman Shumpert batted the ball away to seal the Cavs’ win.
Game 3 is Tuesday night in Cleveland.
It was a pivotal point for the Cavs, who won their first finals game in franchise history. They were swept by the Spurs in their only other appearance in 2007, when James was just growing into the planet’s best player.
Cleveland was staring at a major deficit again. Teams with a 2-0 lead have gone on to win 28 of 31 series.
Now that’s one thing the Cavs won’t have to overcome.
James is still left trying to carry Cleveland to its first championship in 51 years after Kyrie Irving fractured his left kneecap in Game 1. Irving had surgery in Cleveland on Saturday to join sidelined starters Kevin Love and Anderson Varejao, both of whom had already been lost for the season with injuries.
He got a little help this time.
Timofey Mozgov had 17 points and 11 rebounds but sat out a lot late in the fourth quarter and overtime when the Warriors went to a smaller lineup. J.R. Smith scored 11 points and Dellavedova had nine.
Cavs coach David Blatt went with the same lineup that won Games 2 and 3 of the Eastern Conference finals when Irving was out with an injured knee. He started Dellavedova in Irving’s place, and the scrappy Australian corralled Curry as much as anybody has this season.
Curry scored 19 points and shot 5 of 23 from the floor, including 2 of 15 from 3-point range, and had six turnovers.
“Shots I normally make I knew as soon as they left my hand that they were off. That doesn’t usually happen,” Curry said. “Mechanically, I don’t know if there is an explanation for it, just didn’t have a rhythm and didn’t find one the whole game.”
Klay Thompson tried to pick up the backcourt slack, scoring 34 points. But the Warriors went 8 for 35 from long range and shot 39.8 percent overall.
The Cavs, who shot 32.2 percent, outrebounded the Warriors 55 to 45. It was the lowest shooting percentage for a winning team in the playoffs since at least 1984-85.
“It’s the grit squad right now,” James said. “If you expect us to play sexy cute basketball, that’s not us right now. Everything is tough and it has to be that for rest of series.”
James sat for just 52 seconds in the first half and got two quick breaks in the third quarter. He nearly had to stay on the sideline when Green hit him the face as drove hard for a layup in the fourth quarter.
James dropped to a knee near the baseline and walked gingerly to the bench, where he sat with his head down before returning to make both free throws. He seemed to deliver the dagger with a pull-up 3-pointer to extend the Cavs’ lead to 83-72 with 3:13 to play in the fourth quarter. He stopped and turned to Cleveland’s bench, taking out his mouthpiece and staring at the stunned and silent crowd.
But Golden State gave its fervent fans more reason to cheer.
Curry broke his 18-minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer during the Warriors’ furious rally, which he finished with a tying finger-roll with 7.2 seconds remaining.
Cleveland called timeout, and got James the ball isolated on Andre Iguodala at the top of the key. James drove hard to his left and his layup rimmed out, and Tristan Thompson’s tip missed to send the game to overtime.
“This is the finals. It’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We had a tough night. So you have to move on. You’ve got to learn from it and get better, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Curry’s shot goes missing for Warriors in Game 2 loss
JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer
Cleveland wasn’t the only team missing a crucial component in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. While Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving was back in Ohio recovering from knee surgery, the Golden State Warriors have no idea where Stephen Curry’s shot went.
The reigning MVP missed 18 of 23 shots, including an air ball with 4.4 seconds left in overtime that sent the Warriors to a 95-93 loss Sunday night that left the finals tied at a game apiece.
“Shots I normally make, I knew as soon as they left my hand that they were off,” Curry said. “That doesn’t usually happen. I mean, mechanically I don’t know if there is an explanation for it, just didn’t have a rhythm and didn’t find one the whole game.”
With Curry offering little help to fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson, the Warriors head to Cleveland without home-court advantage and mired in what could be a tough series after many experts practically handed them the title when Irving was lost for the series after Game 1.
Thompson scored 34 points but the rest of the team shot just 34.5 percent as the Warriors lost for only the fourth time in 51 home games this season.
“Our offense was horrible,” forward Draymond Green said. “I think we did a really good job on defense. But we were really, really bad offensively. It’s hard to win when you can’t score and we struggled to score tonight.”
Curry was the biggest culprit as he was just 2 for 15 from 3-point range and failed to deliver in the closing seconds of overtime. With Cleveland leading 94-93, Curry shot the air ball over Matthew Dellavedova.
After LeBron James made one of two foul shots, Curry threw a bad pass to Thompson and the Cavaliers left with the win.
“I doubt this will happen again, with the adjustments I’ll make once I’ll look at the film,” Curry said. “One game is not going to make me stop shooting or alter my confidence at all.”
Curry finished with 19 points and did make the tying layup with 7.2 seconds left in regulation but that wasn’t enough for Golden State.
After swishing his trademark warmup shot from the tunnel on his first try before the game, Curry struggled to make just about anything once the game started.
He was just 1 for 6 in the opening quarter, with the only make coming on a beautiful reverse. But he missed three attempts from long range in what would prove to be an omen for the night.
“Early in the game I thought I was a little hesitant when I had an open shot, kind of pausing for a second and then trying to raise up and shoot it, and you just don’t get a rhythm that way,” he said.
He went more than 18 minutes without scoring a single point in one stretch starting early in the third quarter. He missed two shots on one possession, a jumper and then a 3-pointer from his favorite spot in the left corner. Curry had made 13 of 14 from that spot coming into the game this postseason.
“So sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way, it doesn’t go in, it’s fine. You keep playing,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I’ve seen it with everybody. I’ve seen it with Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan. It doesn’t matter who you are. Nobody is immune from a tough night.”
He finally broke the drought with a 3-pointer with less than 3 minutes remaining in the fourth and added two free throws the next possession to cut Cleveland’s lead to 85-80.
Curry wasn’t alone with a rough offensive night for the Warriors. No other player besides Curry and Thompson reached double figures and Marreese Speights even missed a breakaway dunk in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
Besides Thompson, the best shooter in a Warriors shirt might have been the fan who made a halfcourt shot to win a BMW during an in-game contest.