Last night, the Golden State Warriors won their first title since 1975 by defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 6 of the NBA Finals. While the end result was in line with expectations, nobody could have imagined the weird, winding path the series would take before it got there. Here are the pivotal moments in one of the most unpredictable finals in recent memory.
Kyrie Irving’s injury forces LeBron to go it alone
Let’s start with the obvious: James should have been named the finals MVP even though he was on the losing team. This series could have been over when Irving crumpled to the ground in Game 1. Instead James single-handedly kept his battered team in contention.
Coming into the series, the Cavaliers were without Kevin Love, who was knocked out of the postseason with a dislocated shoulder. Now they had lost Irving to a fractured knee. Without the team’s second and third best players, James was tasked with beating the team with the best record in the NBA with a starting lineup full of bench players and a bench full of near-retirees (Mike Miller, James Jones and Shawn Marion).
Oh, and the Cavaliers were already down 0-1 after scoring just two points in overtime in Game 1.
LeBron James scored or assisted on 57.7 points per game during the 2015 Finals, the most in Finals history: pic.twitter.com/OSCrTQjQgE
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) June 17, 2015
James responded with one of the best individual performances in NBA finals history. He collected two triple doubles while averaging 35.8 points, 8.8 assists and 13.3 rebounds per game. He accomplished this despite having to play nearly every minute of every finals game while working with a supporting cast stretched thin with the absences of Irving and Love.
Earlier in the series, James was criticized for calling himself “the best player in the world.” Maybe not the most humble move, especially as it came after his team’s Game 5 loss, but he’s right. Replace James with any other player in the league and the Cavaliers would have been swept.
The Dellavedova rebound
Not that LeBron didn’t get some help during the series. Irving’s injury forced undrafted guard Matthew Dellavedova into the starting lineup for Game 2 where he made, arguably, the biggest play in Cleveland Cavaliers history.
The Cavaliers were in trouble as they blew an 11 point lead, mostly thanks to some astoundingly boneheaded decision-making from JR “Always A Knick At Heart” Smith. With eight seconds left in the game, the Warriors were able to tie the game 87-87 and force overtime.
Dellavedova had already kept the Cavaliers afloat with his defense on league MVP Steph Curry, who went 5-23 in the game. In overtime, Delly secured the first NBA finals win in Cavaliers history by coming up with a brilliant offensive rebound after Draymond Green blocked a shot attempt by James. Fouled on the play, Dellavedova made the two free throws that ended up being the difference in the 95-93 Cavaliers victory. The series was tied and Cleveland had found itself a new cult hero.
Steve Kerr lies, LeBron collides
The Cavaliers went on to win their first home game in the NBA finals in Game 3, and somehow the Warriors, the best team in basketball, were down 2-1. It was clear Golden State head coach Steve Kerr needed to make a change, which made it curious when Game 4 came around and he told the media he was sticking with the same starting line-up.
However, as he admitted after the game, he was lying.
Minutes before the game was to start, the news came that Kerr was starting Andre Iguodala, who had already proven to be the team’s most effective player, over bruising big man Andrew Bogut, making a rather unconventional center out of Draymond Green. Kerr didn’t tell the truth because he didn’t want to give Cavaliers coach David Blatt any time to adjust and didn’t want to fuel any potential controversy by being noncommittal.
It was a wise move. After three straight close games, the Warriors exploded in Game 4, beating the Cavaliers 103-82 in a lopsided blowout that will best remembered either for LeBron’s collision with a camera, as well as his “wardrobe malfunction.”
With the win, the Warriors tied the series 2-2 and did not lose another game. Iguodala, who hadn’t started a single game during the regular season, ended up being named the Finals MVP while Kerr became just the seventh rookie coach to lead his team to a championship.
Curry with the dagger
As injured and thin as the Cavaliers were, there was no way that the Warriors were going to beat them without Curry having a MVP-caliber game. Reportedly frustrated by the media attention being given to Dellavedova’s suffocating defense, Curry responded with a 37 point performance in Game 5, his game heating up while the exhausted Cavs were wearing down.
No moment better encapsulates the player Curry can be than the ridiculous contested three-pointer he hit over a desperate Dellavedova late in the game’s fourth quarter. Curry’s Australian arch-nemesis did all that a player could possibly do on the play, but sometimes there’s nothing than can be done.
Festus Ezeli dunks
Let it be noted that the Cavaliers held a lead early in Game 6. In the third quarter a Tristan Thompson basket put the home team up 47-45. It was miraculous, really, considering that the Warriors lead was as large as 13 points in the first half.
The Cavs’ surge also didn’t last for long. The Warriors responded with a run of their own that forced the Cavaliers to play catch up for the remainder of the game. For long-suffering Cleveland fans, the most deflating moment of the entire game, was when big man Festus Ezeli, who somehow scored eight straight Warriors points in the third, made a monstrous dunk over a comically ineffectively Timofey Mozgov, whose useless flailing attempt at a hack put Ezeli on the foul line.
One made “and one” later, Golden State were up 69-55. While the Cavaliers would whittle down that lead, they were effectively running to stand still. They lost the game 105-97, and the series 4-2.
In a way, the Ezeli dunk symbolized the immense gap between these two teams. Golden State could bring a little used bench player like Ezeli into the game at a crucial time and expect him to be productive. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers, their depth depleted by injury, age and overuse, couldn’t rely on anyone not named LeBron.
The best team in basketball beat the best player in basketball. That, really, is the story of the 2015 NBA finals.
