Recap Game 6: Cavaliers 115, Warriors 101(Or, Make Curry Defend and Win)

Recap Game 6: Cavaliers 115, Warriors 101(Or, Make Curry Defend and Win)

2016-06-17 Off By Ben Werth

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the most important game in its franchise history. After their Game 5 victory, the prevailing sentiment was “this isn’t really possible. Even if they win this game, they can’t win the series”. The incredible scoring output from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in Game 5 wasn’t sustainable. The narrative was correct. But it didn’t have to be for the Cavs to win. A year after losing Game 6 and the Finals to the Golden State Warriors at home, the Wine and Gold played with a different confidence. LeBron and Kyrie combined for “only” 64 points, but the team played with an overall synergy that it lacked in Game 5. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter: 

The Warriors put Klay Thompson on Kyrie Irving from the opening tip. On the first possession, it was clear that Thompson was going to do everything in his power to leverage his defensive length without leaving his feet. The first battle went the Warriors’ way as J.R. Smith missed a deep bomb from the left wing. After getting whistled for a tough foul, Kevin Love played decent defense combining with Irving to force Thompson into a wild layup attempt. Kevin got the loose ball and fired it up to a streaking LeBron James. Draymond Green fouled The King in transition to prevent the layup. When James hit the second free throw of the pair, the Cavaliers took a lead it would never relinquish.

Tyronn Lue had Kevin Love show and recover as a Pick and Roll defender when matched up against Andre Iguodala. Kevin was active and spry, but the Cavaliers’ big man picked up a dumb foul trying to rebound a Tristan Thompson foul shot. With 10:30 remaining in the first quarter, the argument of “should Love start over RJ?” become moot. Richard Jefferson checked in on the dead ball and Cavs fans got to have their cake and eat it too.

The Cavs swarmed on defense over the next two minutes, funneling action to Harrison Barnes who obliged with missed shots. On offense, the Cavs aggressively sought out Stephen Curry in screen action and pushed the pace in transition. LeBron’s tipaway steal and subsequent dunk gave Cleveland a 6-0 advantage and forced Steve Kerr to burn an early timeout.

After the timeout, a good defensive switch by RJ forced Curry to miss a tough stepback three. The Cavs found early offense and LeBron punished the NBA’s golden boy on the left-block with some “old-head bully ball.” The “Q” rejoiced! Shortly under the seven minute mark of the contest, Green finally got the Dubs on the board with a nice split of the double-team for a layup. Kyrie got it right back as he drilled a left wing three after Curry and Thompson messed up their switch assignments. A strip/steal from Kyrie led to a James baseline dunk to put the Cavs up double digits for the first time at 13-2.

Curry drilled a three before getting whistled for his second foul of the quarter. He was clearly frustrated. A quick Cavalier flurry led by early offense and ball movement helped the Cavs push the lead. A quick rest timeout from Lue allowed Cleveland to draw up a beautiful set play that resulted in foul shots for the ever active TT. The following possession, JR contested a catch and shoot three from Klay. This beauty followed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSbjQ72vuXE&t=0m54s

Shockingly, Mo Williams checked in for Kyrie to close the first quarter. Shaun Livingston immediately posted him up, but was unable to make the shot. On the other end, Williams Mo-Flowed a baseline variety and the Cavs poured it on. LeBron’s pocket-pass to Tristan off PnR action ended the first quarter scoring for a 31-11 lead.

2nd Quarter:

Kyrie, Iman Shumpert, JR, RJ, and Love started the second frame. The Warriors inexplicably went under screens against Kyrie Irving. Uncle Drew made them pay with a three ball. Unfortunately for Cavs fans, Shump started his stretch of miserably ineffective play allowing Curry a wide open right wing three off limited action. Love got whistled for a cheap third foul relegating him to the bench and shortening Tristan’s rest. It was a shame as Love was playing with spirit and intelligence.

Shump’s defense and Curry’s shot making started to make people nervous in Cleveland. The Warriors began to get much cleaner looks after ball screens from Anderson Varejao. The Cavs dodged a bullet when Andy stole a ball entry that led to a wide open Klay Thompson three. He missed. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief, but the 15 point lead felt precarious. Lue called a great timeout and drew up an even better play that resulted in this masterpiece.

 

The Cavs went on the attack again with steals and transition buckets. LeBron’s left wing three ball special pushed the lead to 17. But, Shump was whistled for a tough foul giving Curry three free throws. He followed up that questionable call by flat-out running over Draymond Green on the right baseline for a bad turnover. Lue got him out of there after that play, but the damage was done. A Klay Thompson layup in early offense cut the lead to 13. If felt much closer with the Warriors having already scored 22 points half way through the quarter. To quote my buddy Kenny, “up 13 and you’d think someone died in here.” Incidentally, Kenny literally brushed shoulders with Beyoncé. Uh, back to the game.

The timeout didn’t help much. LeBron and Kyrie missed some decent attempts in the paint while Curry sank a ridiculously deep pull-up three. Green’s layup shortly after made it an eight point game and forced another Lue stoppage.

Curry attempted an even deeper left wing three in an effort to cut the gap to six. Kerr later called it a poor shot that eliminated some of their momentum. Irving stopped the Dubs’ 9-0 run with two trips to the line to knock the lead back into double digits. The Cavs lost Klay allowing a wide open right wing three, but he bricked. Tristan didn’t brick his.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSbjQ72vuXE&t=1m42s

With 2:18 left in the half, Tyronn Lue surprised everyone by inserting Dahntay Jones into the game. At that point, I assumed that Mathew Dellavedova must have been injured. In any case, Jones immediately allowed Klay Thompson to rebound his own free throw miss. Other than that he played a nice mini stretch of basketball cutting hard for an And-1 in the lane and drawing a foul on Draymond Green. His five points ended the quarter giving the Cavs a 59-43 advantage.

3rd Quarter:

Both teams struggled to make shots early in the quarter, but offensive rebounding by Cleveland gave James a monster jam off a nice TT assist and helped Love draw a fourth foul on Curry. Harrison Barnes could have turned the game around had he made his ridiculously wide open threes. He didn’t while JR nailed his to extend the divide to 22 points. Curry stopped the bleeding with his fifth three pointer. After Love freethrows, Tristan continued his solid decision making as a roll man finding Kevin in the left corner for the Cavs’ biggest lead of the night, 70-46.

The Cavs’ offense stalled a bit over the next few possession. The scariest moment of the game came when Kyrie seemed to jam his left foot, on the foot of Festus Ezeli. Fortunately, it seems he will be fine.

Curry made a nice drive and was gifted an And-1 to cut the lead back to 15. The Cavs responded with a great strip steal from Irving that precipitated arguably the greatest play in Cavalier history.

When LeBron hit a right-wing three to put the Cavs up 19, they thought they had won the game. For the rest of the quarter, Cleveland went into prevent offense, milking the shotclock on every possession and taking tough shots late. Meanwhile, Klay Thompson finally got it going from deep. The Warriors scored the last 10 points of the period to cut the lead to single digits. 80-71. 

4th Quarter:

Kyrie, Shump, RJ, Bron, and TT looked to right the ship. LeBron was not about to come out of the game, immediately drawing a foul on Barnes while working on the left block. The teams went back and forth with mild success before Steph Curry picked up his fifth foul trying to rip Kyrie in isolation. Curry stayed in the game and fired a long pass to Draymond in transition. Somehow, LeBron chased him down, patiently waited for Green to attempt the shot, and swatted said shot with a “get that weak stuff outta here” left hand.

Curry wouldn’t go away quietly. He splashed his sixth three to break the record for most threes in a Finals series. More importantly, he cut the lead to eight. Thankfully, Lue took the struggling Shumpert out of the game subbing in J.R. Still, shortly after, Curry blew by a Tristan on a switch. Somehow he missed the layup that could have cut the lead to six. LeBron promptly pushed it back to 10 with a grown man offensive rebound and putback. Bron was in straight domination mode with another tough jumper and layup. Curry and Kerr whined about a good no-call from the refs during the timeout with the Wine and Gold up 90-79.

Leandro Barbosa answered a J.R. Swish three with a three of his own with the game approaching the final six minutes. LeBron slowed the game down again, but his decision making was amazingly good, taking Iggy down into the paint and finding Tristan with two great alley oops. LeBron was putting on a show for the ages and one could see that he was enjoying himself. It culminated literally and spiritually with an MVP block.

Steph Curry picked up his sixth foul trying to steal the ball from LeBron. It was poor decision making. He compounded his poor decision when he chucked his mouthpiece into the crowd drilling a fan and earning technical foul. His loss of composure was mildly startling if not completely surprising. J.R. Swished after the technical free throw and Tristan drew an offensive foul on Klay Thompson to send the crowd into another frenzy. LeBron put a bow on his game of the ages with a left wing three to push it back to 20. There were three minutes left, but it was over.

Thoughts:

LeBron James was everything anyone has every hoped he would be in this game. One could and should use every superlative to describe his performance. His concentration and dedication to the gameplan dominated the game. His heatcheck threes and very few defensive lapses can be easily attributed to his heavy work load and were completely understandable. LeBron’s passing, ball-handling, off-ball cutting, and overall demeanor were legendary. He is out for Curry’s MVP and he gave himself and his team an opportunity to win a title.

Tristan Thompson played his finest game. He played huge minutes with total concentration and energy. He saw the right angle to attack, and his teammates found him with perfect passes. Defensively, he was a machine, taking all challenges and minimizing offensive opportunities for the opponent.

Kyrie had another great game, if not a huge scoring one(though his 20 first half points were necessary.) His defensive pressure and connectivity running through screens were consistently better than I have ever seen from him. I was for trading Kyrie for the past few years. His big scoring outbursts didn’t really change my opinion. His defensive performance in this game and for parts of this series has me rethinking my position.

Tyronn Lue should be applauded for some of his play calls out of timeouts and the fact his players stuck to a great gameplan. But his lineups choices continue to baffle me. Shumpert has been an abject disaster in this series as the primary defensive breakdown point on almost every possession, while being a negative on the offensive side. Forget Delly vs Mo. Delly, Jones, and Mo should all get minutes over Shump going forward. A win doesn’t mean that all Lue’s decisions were correct. Without Shump’s mistakes, the Cavs would have won easily.

The Cavaliers are one victory away from securing the first championship that most of us would see. It will be a tall task against a great opponent in their own building. It would an all-time sports story. Thank you, LeBron for getting the team this far. Go Cavs.

 

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