Down Love, the Cavs may now be without Kyrie for the Finals
Very rarely in the NBA do we have a battle of who can declare themselves as the best player in the league. While the Golden State Warriors were the heavy favorite heading into game 1, the best player in the universe shrugged off any doubts of whether his Cleveland Cavaliers would have trouble with keeping a steady pace in the post-season premiere of the NBA Finals. The sold-out ORACLE Arena in Oakland, as well as fans outside of the stadium to support greeted their MVP Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the rest of the Warriors with their loudest cheers of the season – in hopes of winning their first title since 1975.
Cleveland would soon quiet the entire arena in the first quarter scoring nearly 30 points, on pure dominance from LeBron James, who had 13 alone in the period. Golden State, however, would get some rejuvenation to their team and arena on a James turnover that led an Andre Iguodala lay-up to bring them within 10 points. With the first quarter jitters of their first ever NBA Finals game together collectively out the way, Golden State would look to Marreese Speights, who hasn’t played since May 9th against the Memphis Grizzlies.
During the second, he would lift the team scoring three consecutive jump shots, before the splash bros. would finally wake up and score a multitude of shots to tie the game. Before halftime, J.R. Smith would make an impossible 29-foot three-pointer to give Cleveland the lead again in the 2nd. LeBron would continue his scoring spree, scoring 12 points throughout the third, but nothing was holding the Warriors from making their imminent run. The 4th quarter was the epitome of back-and-forth basketball for an NBA Finals series fans would love to see.
With LeBron surpassing a total of 40 points in the 4th, Klay would keep Golden State in the game scoring 7 key points, while Steph Curry showed signs of improvement with a pair of key jump shots to tie the game. But that was until Kyrie Irving blocked a last second shot to give the Cavaliers a last shot. Luckily for the Warriors, James would settle for an outside last shot, sending the game to overtime on a miss.
Things didn’t get better for Cleveland, who saw their superstar point guard exit the game – noticeably limping back to the locker room and saying “this feels different from before.” The Warriors would sniff blood from their opponents who nearly went the entire overtime without scoring to steal game 1. Kyrie’s set to be revaluated tomorrow, which should reveal whether he can suit up over the weekend.
FINAL: GSW 108 | CLE 100 | Warriors Lead Series 1-0 | Game 2 is Sunday at 8:00pm ET on ABC.
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