The Golden State Warriors, minus the suspended Draymond Green, were denied the opportunity to seal the NBA Championship on their home floor at Game 5 in the Oracle Arena.
Kyrie Irving and LeBron James became the first teammates
to at least score 40 point in an NBA finals leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to
a 112-97 victory against the Golden State Warriors to force a Game 6 this
Thursday night.
After an underwhelming performance from LeBron James in
Game 3, the Cavaliers forward played like a man possessed. With all eyes on
him, King James dropped 41 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists whilst shooting
53% from the field and 50% from the 3pt range to keep the Cavaliers alive in
their pursuit of their first ever NBA Championship.
Kyrie Irving was just sensational, scoring 41 points
whilst playing fearlessly, especially when being guarded by Klay Thompson and the
unanimous MVP, Stephen Curry. He rose to the challenge last night, with his
unbelievable ball-handling skills helping to get off his own shot.
Clearly, the loss of Draymond Green was a huge blow for
the Warriors.
Andre Iguodala started at the power forward spot in
Draymond Green’s absence, whilst Iggy has defended LeBron near enough
perfectly this series, he had no answer in stopping him last night. Iguodala
did finish with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. However, he and
Steph Curry turned the ball over seven times at crucial periods of the game,
which set the tone for how the game played out. The Cavaliers capitalised from
Golden State’s lack of ball protection, scoring 18 fast-break points from
Warriors turnovers.
Without Green on the floor, the Cavaliers were able to
get into the paint with dribble penetration from Kyrie Irving. Irving looked
automatic shooting from mid-range, shooting 70% from the field. LeBron looked like he demanded the ball much more than he
did in Game 4 on Friday, and was aggressive driving into the paint, drawing
double-teams and finding the open man, finishing with seven assists along
whilst also causing havoc on defence with three steals and three blocks (one of
those being THAT statement block from a Steph Curry layup).
The Cavaliers offense was sort of reminiscent to me to
that of Oklahoma City Thunder’s offense over the past couple of years. It featured a lot of
isolation plays from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. It’s not ideal to play this
way, however if the shots are falling, then why not keep jacking them up?
The
Warriors struggled to stop the Cavaliers offence and their troubles were
exacerbated when center Andrew Bogut picked up a knee injury which forced him
to exit the game in the 3rd quarter, leaving the Warriors without
their usual starting frontcourt, a big reason as to why they struggled
Cleveland’s interior attacks.
The Golden State Warriors, universally recognised as the
greatest jump-shooting team of all-time finished the game shooting 36% from the
field and 33% from three. LeBron James guarded Andre Iguodala for the majority
of the game, sagging off Iggy daring him to take 3-pointers, converting only
once. It was visually obvious Iggy was not confident with his shot, which affected
his performance on both ends of the floor. LBJ sagging off Iggy on defence also enabled
him to play as the help defender, recording three chase-down blocks,
reminiscent of his Miami Heat days.
A mixed night for the Splash Bros. Steph Curry and Klay
Thompson combined for 62 points, but when they needed to make shots, they
simply did not. Steph shot a disappointing 8-21 from the field, whilst Klay Thompson
plus/minus of -21.
With Draymond Green back for Game 6 in Cleveland, the
Warriors will hope that they will find their offensive flow, which has gained
them their 3 victories thus far in this series. The Golden State Warriors will need
Green’s defensive presence also, especially if Andrew Bogut is indeed ruled of
for the game. Watch for Festus Ezeli or possibly even former Cleveland
Cavaliers fan-favourite, Anderson Varejao to start in place of Bogut.
Cleveland will need Kevin Love to step up in Game 6. Love
only scored 2 two points, on one-for-five shooting, last night for the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Both LeBron and Kyrie didn’t look to get Love in areas he
could be a threat to score the basketball. Is there a lack of trust in Kevin
Love from the two real Cavaliers superstars? Anyone who knows basketball, knows
that Kevin Love is a liability on defence, it’s just that simple. Draymond
Green is not worried about Kevin Love defending him one bit, go watch Game 2.
Even Andrew Bogut has been effective from the high post when being guarded by
Love, able to find the backdoor cutters and even simply laying the ball up over
him.
Of course, an argument could be
made that, why should Kevin Love be getting the ball if LeBron James and Kyrie
Irving are both shooting over 50% from the field.
The man who replaced Kevin Love for Game 4, Richard
Jefferson arguably had more impact on the game in 15 minutes than Kevin Love
did in 33 minutes. Should Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue consider starting Richard
Jefferson over Kevin Love in Game 6?
One thing is for sure, Kevin Love will not play much
worse on Thursday than he did last night and the Cleveland Cavaliers will need
him to step up in Game 6, if they are to force a Game 7 back in Oakland,
California.
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