Warriors survive James’ 51-point night
Disputed foul call takes steam out of Cavs’ comeback.
The Golden State Warriors somehow withstood LeBron James’ latest brilliance on the NBA Finals stage.
A costly blunder by J.R. Smith and a disputed foul call involving James himself sure helped.
Steph Curry scored 29 points and the Warriors capitalized on Smith’s mistake that sent the game into overtime, overcoming a 51-point performance by James to beat Cleveland 124-114 in Game 1 Thursday night.
With the game nearly over, James jawed with both Curry and Klay Thompson, and then Tristan Thompson and Draymond Green tangled moments later and made contact. After a replay review, Tristan Thompson received a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection with 2.6 seconds left.
James was in utter disbelief as regulation ended stunningly: George Hill made the first of two free throws with 4.7 seconds left after being fouled by Klay Thompson, but when Smith secured the rebound of the second, he dribbled back toward halfcourt instead of shooting, apparently thinking the Cavs had a lead.
“He thought it was over. He thought we were up one,” coach Tyronn Lue said.
Yet Smith insisted he knew the score. Green figured Smith was simply looking for James, saying, “I would have looked for LeBron, too.”
“I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. “If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.” Instead, OT. And why not? Both these teams were pushed to their limits in seven-game conference finals they each had to win on the road.
“I can’t talk about a situation that way because I do some dumb stuff on the court,” Durant said of how the fourth quarter finished. “I don’t know what was going through J.R.’s head. He made a great rebound and gave them an opportunity to win the basketball game.”
Game 2 is Sunday night back at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors have won 18 of their last 19 postseason games. In 2015, when Golden State beat the Cavs to capture the franchise’s first title in 40 years, the first two games of the series went to OT — Golden State winning the opener and Cleveland Game 2.
James shot 19 for 32 to go with eight assists and eight rebounds in the opener of his eighth straight NBA Finals and ninth overall, as well as Cavs-Warriors Take IV. James notched his eighth 40-point game during this playoff run to tie Hall of Famer Jerry West’s feat in 1965 for most in a single postseason.
James drove past Curry for a three-point play with 50 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
But James was given a foul after a review with 36.4 seconds left, and Durant converted a pair of free throws to tie it at 104.
The call had initially been a charge on 2017 finals MVP Durant, and James protested the change — though Durant said afterward that he thought it was the right decision.