By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With the backs on the wall and facing what could have been their last game of the season, the Cleveland Cavaliers needed a performance for the ages in order to stay alive. And they got it.
LeBron James had 41 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists, Kyire Irving also scored 41 points, and Cleveland capitalized on the absence of suspended star Draymond Green, avoiding NBA Finals elimination with a 112-97 victory in Game 5 (2-3).
“We had a mindset that we wanted to come here and just extend our period and have another opportunity to fight for another day,” James said. “That was our main concern, and we were able to do that.”
James and Irving became the first teammates to score at least 40 points each in an NBA Finals game as the Cavaliers pulled within 3-2 and sent their best-of-seven series back to Ohio.
Afterward, sitting side by side at the podium, they offered back-and-forth shoutouts, with James noting of Irving, “It’s probably one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen live.”
Cleveland handed Golden State just its fourth defeat all season at sold-out Oracle Arena, denying MVP Stephen Curry and the Warriors a chance to celebrate another championship with their golden-clad “Strength In Numbers” supporters. Now, Curry & Co. must try to win on the road, just the way the Warriors did last year and in their only other championship season out west in 1975.
Klay Thompson scored 37 points with six 3-pointers, and Steph Curry added 25 points with five 3s, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. But as the game wore on, the Splash Brothers shot air balls and clanked 3-point tries off the front rim. Tied 61-all at halftime Monday, the Warriors missed 14 of their first 20 shots out of intermission and shot 7-for-24 in the third as James and the Cavs grabbed command.