LeBron Hits Hard, Warriors Grab Game 1

LeBron Hits Hard, but Warriors Grab the Opener

Strong defense in overtime as Dubs bolt with Game 1

OAKLAND —Stephen Curry MVP and the Golden State Warriors showed why they are number one in the overtime period of their first Finals game in 40 years, a memorable defensive stand against LeBron James earn a 108-100 at Oracle Arena on Thursday, and Game 1 of the NBA Finals belonged to the Warriors.

The Cavaliers almost failed to score a single point in overtime on a night when James had been dominant during regulation, finishing with 44 points and the loss.
The Warriors saw the Cavaliers miss their first eight shots of the extra period and allowed only James’ meaningless layup with 8.9 seconds.

“We really only had zero points,” James said.

Curry finished the game with 26 points and eight assists, and his steal with 1:52 left sealed the win. It came after Harrison Barnes’ 3pointer gave the Warriors a 105-98 lead.

“It was just a classic five minutes that we needed to get that win,” Curry said.
The Cavaliers might have suffered another huge blow. Point guard Kyrie Irving, who scored 23 points, left the game in overtime after apparently injuring his knee once again and left the arena on crutches.

The night during regulation belonged to James, with an 18-for-38 shooting performance, eight rebounds and six assists. The 6-foot-8 James, backed down defenders including, Green, Iguodala, Thompson and James Barnes for baskets on his way to a 44 points night.

In overtime James misfired on three shots and committed two of his four turnovers. He hardly had anything left in the tank after missing in the final seconds of regulation with a chance to win the game with a final layup and losing on an effort that ended a stretch of 12 straight misses for the Cavaliers.

“We had so many opportunities to win this game, and we didn’t,” James said. “I don’t think I was great.”

The Warriors, on the other hand, kept fighting.
Green said of wearing down James, who played 46 minutes, fatigue was a plan on James to make sure he struggles if we go to overtime. “That’s the plan.” Klay Thompson after having recovered from a concussion, added 21 points, and Andre Iguodala came off the bench to make key stops on defense going up against James, and also score 15 points.

Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams said – of bouncing back to stop James. “It’s just the hallmark of this team,” “That’s who they are. They don’t get down. They have obviously a good connectedness as a team, because they always believe they’re going to win.”

The MVP in Curry came out in the second quarter as the Warriors shot their way back into the game after trailing by as many as 14 points in the first. He scored the final eight points of a 12-0 run that gave Golden State a 41-36 lead.
Marreese Speights also gave the Warriors a lift, coming off the bench on a 3 for 4 from the field in the second.

James responded, leading an 7-0 run to finish the first half with 19 points.

Iguodala besides his defensive effort on James came through with two big dunks that changed the feel of the game.
One came as he was matched up one-on-one with James, who got off-balance and could only watch as he blew by for the jam that closed out the first quarter with the Cavaliers leading 29-19. The other came after he stole the ball from James and then on the other end dunked with 1.5 seconds left in the third to tie the score at 73.

Curry had put the Warriors ahead with a jump shot with 53.6 seconds left in regulation. But Timofey Mozgov calmly hit two free throws to tie it, and Irving blocked Curry on the other end to give the Cavaliers the last shot.
The game went to overtime with the score tied at 98 after James missed a step-back jump shot over Iguodala and Iman Shumpert missed off the rim at the buzzer.

“I didn’t even think we were going to have overtime because I thought Iman’s follow was going in,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It looked good the whole way. It was right on line.”

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