OAKLAND, Calif. -- With the NBA's Most Valuable Player struggling, LeBron James showed his worth to the Cavaliers by leading Cleveland to an improbable 95-93 overtime victory vs. Golden State on Sunday in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
James dominated the Warriors with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, slowing the pace and picking the NBA's top-rated defense apart most of the night.
Despite being without guard Kyrie Irving due to a knee injury, the Cavs held the Warriors in check for all but the final three minutes of regulation. Cleveland survived a furious comeback that sent the game to overtime and evened the best-of-7 series at 1-1 heading into Tuesday's Game 3 at Quicken Loans Arena.
At the final buzzer, James spiked the ball near the sideline, sending it floating high in the air above the crowd at Oracle Arena, still stunned after watching guard Steph Curry cap a brutal night with an airball and a game-ending turnover in the final 10 seconds.
Timofey Mozgov had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavs, and J.R. Smith contributed 13 points off the bench. Matthew Dellavedova, starting for the injured Irving, had only nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, but made two free throws that finally gave the Cavs the lead for good with 10.1 seconds left and hounded Curry into a miserable 5-of-23 shooting night.
Curry finished with 19 points, but missed the rim on the potential go-ahead jumper in the closing seconds of OT. Klay Thompson had 34 points on 14-for-28 shooting, but Golden State got next to nothing from everybody else.
With Irving done for the series with a fractured kneecap, the Cavs laid out a diabolical blueprint for beating the Warriors. It worked for 44 minutes, 47 seconds.
The Warriors, all but done as they trailed 83-72 with 3:13 left in regulation, rallied to send it to overtime. James had seemingly punctuated an improbable victory with a 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Warriors answered with an 8-2 run. Fueled by 3-pointers from Andre Iguodala and Curry, Golden State cut it to 85-80 with 2:35 left.
Harrison Barnes cut it to 87-85 with a 3-point play with 1:23 left, before James lost his dribble and threw up a 3-point heave that missed from the left side. After a mad scramble for a loose ball and a timeout for Cleveland, Smith missed a corner 3-pointer on a kickout from James, setting up the most improbable play of the night.
After missing 15 of his first 18 shots, Curry squirted free in the open floor and swooped in for an uncontested finger-roll that tied it at 87-87 with 7.2 seconds left. James, whose step-back jumper had missed at the end of regulation in Game 1, attacked the rim this time -- and had a layup carom off the backboard and rim. Overtime.
After Green won a jump-ball from James -- with James irate that Green had held him around the back of the neck -- Curry drew Smith with a pump fake and made two free throws that gave Golden State a 93-92 lead with 29.5 seconds left in OT.
Green then made the defensive play of the game, blocking James' driving layup out of bounds. The Cavs got it back, and after a wild sequence, got two free throws from Dellavedova to take a 94-93 lead with 10.1 seconds left.
Besides the fact that we are exhausted, here's what we learned:
1. Basketball makes no sense
It's hard to overstate how improbable overtime was, given how thoroughly the Cavs had controlled the tempo and handcuffed Curry and the Warriors' potent offense for all but the last three minutes of regulation. The Warriors' season low for points was 86 on Christmas Day against the Clippers, and they didn't surpass it until Curry floated in for the tying layup in the closing seconds of regulation.
2. Who's undermanned, anyway?
The Warriors looked like the shorthanded team, not the Cavs. At the 6:24 mark of the second quarter, with Golden State leading 31-30, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut were a combined 0-for-5 from the field, and Curry was 1-for-6. If not for Thompson's 7-for-10 flame-throwing to that point, the Warriors would've been in even bigger trouble. Curry was 2-for-10 at halftime and only 1-for-7 from beyond the 3-point line. With 1:50 left in the third and the Cavs leading 62-57, Mozgov (17) had outscored Curry, Green and Bogut combined (16). Yeesh.
3. Depth, schmepth
The Cavs played only eight guys, but LeBron had one of them in particular on his radar: Mozgov. When James wasn't shooting or posting up, he was patiently looking for Mozgov to seal off his man in the post or for the help to leave on pick-and-rolls -- and making the Warriors pay. Despite pregame talk about expanding his rotation, David Blatt left Shawn Marion, Mike Miller and Kendrick Perkins cryogenically frozen on the bench until Miller finally got into the game briefly in the third. The Warriors went 10 deep, with two bench players logging double-digit minutes (Iguodala and Shaun Livingston).
Series tied 1-1
| NBA FINALS | ||||||
| GAME | DATE/SERIES | LOCATION | TIME | TV | ||
| Game 1: Golden State 108, Cleveland 100 (OT) | Thu. June 4 | Oracle Arena | -- | -- | ||
| Game 2: Cleveland 95, Golden State 93 (OT) | Sun. June 7 | Oracle Arena | -- | -- | ||
| Game 3: Golden State at Cleveland | Tue. June 9 | Quicken Loans Arena | 9 p.m. | ABC | ||
| Game 4: Golden State at Cleveland | Thu. June 11 | Quicken Loans Arena | 9 p.m. | ABC | ||
| Game 5: Cleveland at Golden State | Sun. June 14 | Oracle Arena | 8 p.m. | ABC | ||
| Game 6*: Golden State at Cleveland | Tue. June 16 | Quicken Loans Arena | 9 p.m. | ABC | ||
| Game 7*: Cleveland at Golden State | Fri. June 19 | Oracle Arena | 9 p.m. | ABC | ||
| *If necessary | ||||||
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