Twelve months ago, LeBron James lost in the NBA finals to the Golden State Warriors – despite putting up one of the most dominating performances in the history of the playoffs. Even LeBron’s historic talents were not enough to overcome a deeper opponent 1-on-5 and the finals ended in six games.
Through the first four games of this year’s finals, it looked like more of the same. LeBron was mostly still his excellent self, but the Warriors remained the better overall team, and Cleveland’s unbalanced approach left them trailing 3-1 and facing elimination in Oakland on Monday night. But no confetti fell after Game 5, and the full-on debate about the 2015-16 Warriors place in basketball history was tabled. The series unexpectedly moves to a Game 6, and the Cavaliers head back to Cleveland after a 112-97 win with hope. Maybe even momentum. At the very least, they’re alive.
James and Irving each tallied 41 points in Game 5, becoming the first team-mates in history to score 40-plus points in an NBA finals game. Of the 112 points Cleveland put up Monday night, James and Irving scored or assisted on 97 of them – or the same number of points the whole Warriors squad produced for the game. It was the closest thing you’ll see to two guys winning a battle all by themselves outside of a buddy cop action movie.
While the 1-on-5, LeBron-does-it-all-himself approach of the 2015 NBA finals isn’t going to win Cleveland’s first major sports championship since 1964, a 2-on-5 attack featuring LeBron and the ascendant Kyrie Irving? That just might. The odds are still stacked against Cleveland, as they always are, but to borrow a common phrase from the 2016 primary season: the Cavaliers now have a viable path forward.
Granted, that path forward will get much tougher to advance through in Game 6 with Draymond Green back and standing (and possibly kicking and punching) there. While the suspended Green spent Game 5 in a luxury box with Marshawn Lynch at an Oakland A’s game, James and Irving took apart Golden State’s interior defense – which was weakened even more early in the third quarter when Andrew Bogut went down with a sprained knee.
The Bogut injury fits a nightmare scenario for the Warriors that would, if no one wakes them from the terrible dream, see Golden State become the first team to blow a 3-1 series lead in the NBA finals – history the 73-9 record-breakers most definitely don’t want to make. The longer Cleveland draws the series out, the greater the chance the Warriors lose a key player or players to injury or the issues with Steph Curry’s knee – which reportedly can lessen his powers to as low as 70% of their maximum if he doesn’t play well – get worse from continued play.
The Cavaliers now get a chance to even the series at home, in front of fans who will be as raucous as possible watching their last basketball of the season. And Golden State are clearly no longer unbeatable at their own home, having dropped four games at Oracle Arena since early April, the 54-in-a-row streak now a distant memory. A possible Game 7 would be played at Oracle, possibly without Green in the line-up again if he’s unable to make it through Game 6 without assaulting anyone.
But the worst scenario for the Warriors, and what gives the Cavaliers real hope, is Cleveland finally finding a true sidekick for LeBron. Kyrie Irving was outstanding in Game 5, and has improved throughout the series. He’s a 24 year-old, highly skilled player who may be making the leap to superstar level exactly when the Cavaliers need it to happen. After struggling mightily in Games 1 and 2, Irving has now put up 30 or more points in three consecutive games, improved his shooting, and cut his turnovers. When James cooled off in the fourth quarter on Monday night, Irving took over and finished off the Warriors. It’s a far cry from a year ago when LeBron’s best option for some help was Matthew Dellavedova, don’t you think?
The duo played an old-school style of basketball in Game 5, dominating the Warriors physically – all while Klay Thompson’s dad was forced to sit there and watch, no doubt struggling to crush the thought that his son’s smaller, finesse team would get destroyed in the 1980s NBA he’s created in his head.
Mychal Thompson: "LeBron (James) couldn't have survived in the 80s with the physicality and the words guys said to each other back then."
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) June 13, 2016
James and Irving were such a force that Kevin Love remaining mostly invisible was hardly noticed. After coming off the bench in Game 4, Love started again in Game 5 and put up two points, three rebounds and four fouls in 33 minutes of action. Through five games of the finals – one of which he missed due to concussion – Love has made a grand total of 13 field goals. LeBron and Irving, the other two members of Cleveland’s supposed Big Three, each had more than that on Monday night alone. No doubt Cleveland would love if Love raised his game to the level of his heralded team-mates, but it’s unlikely to happen at this point and, facing two more elimination games, the Cavaliers don’t have the luxury of waiting for it to happen.
As much as the focus and pressure of winning a championship is on LeBron each and every year, Cleveland’s hopes now rest on Irving. LeBron will be excellent in Game 6 and, if it makes it that far, Game 7. His track record guarantees it. But James can’t do it alone and for Cleveland to have a chance to win the series, they’ll need two more games from their point guard that matched his Game 5 breakthrough, which James called “one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen live.”
Live. The Cavaliers are still alive.
