Guard Matthew Dellavedova couldn’t replace what Kyrie Irving brought to the team.
But the basketball that Dellavedova played in Game 2 came in rather handy in the key moments of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ win over the Golden State Warriors.
Dellavedova played airtight defense on NBA MVP Stephen Curry and scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including a free throw with 10.1 seconds left that put Cleveland ahead for good.
The Cavaliers won on the strength of an amazing, though not-so-great shooting game from LeBron James and the play of role players such as Dellavedova andTimofey Mozgov (17 points and 11 rebounds).
The Cavaliers win was their first in NBA Finals win in Franchise history. They were 0-5 prior to Sunday night.
The Cavaliers are the fourth team to beat the Warriors at Oracle Arena this season, joining the Spurs, Bulls and Grizzlies.
James does just about everything, even on an off-night
James finished with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, despite shooting 11-of-34 from the field.
James wasn’t the only one who had trouble shooting for the Cavaliers, who shot 32.3 percent from the field. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that’s the lowest by any team in an NBA Finals road win in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55).
Elias also noted that James …
- Joined James Worthy (1988 Lakers) as the only players in NBA Finals history to have a 35-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist game. Worthy did so in a Game 7 win over the Pistons.
- Notched his fifth career triple-double in the Finals, second-most all-time, trailing Magic Johnson, who had eight.
- Had his seventh postseason game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Only Oscar Robertson (eight) has had more.
James’ teams have won nine straight Game 2s when his team trailed 1-0 in a postseason series.
Defensive key: Shutting down Curry
The Cavaliers couldn’t shut down both Klay Thompson and Curry in the same game. But though Thompson scored 34 points, the job the Cavaliers did in thwarting Curry was ultra-impressive.
Curry was 5-23 from the field and 2-15 from 3-point range. His 13 missed 3-pointers are an NBA Finals record, breaking the mark of 11 set by John Starks of the Knicks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals against the Rockets.
Curry shot 22 percent from the field, which Elias notes is the third-worst field goal percentage by a reigning MVP who took at least 15 shots in an NBA Finals game. The only player to fare worse was Bob Cousy against the St. Louis Hawks in 1957. He shot 2-of-20 (10 percent) and 4-of-21 (21 percent).
In Cousy’s defense, shots were a lot harder to make in 1957 (when the league shot 38 percent) than they were in 2015 (when the league shot 45 percent).
Cousy also managed to win MVP of that Finals series.
Looking ahead
This is the sixth straight NBA Finals to be tied, 1-1 after two games, the fifth straight involving James.
The Game 3 winner of a tied NBA Finals series goes on to win the series 84 percent of the time (31-6).
The Cavaliers are heading home for Game 3. They’ve won 26 of their past 28 games in Cleveland.
BPI gives the Warriors a 61 percent chance to win the series. That’s a drop from 81 percent entering Game 2.
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