Bruce Jenkins:
The Warriors may have won, but James showed off his dominance of the game.
Sporting legends have an unmistakable look about them, and we’ve known a few in the Bay Area, from Bill Russell to Willie Mays to Joe Montana. A certain visitor to Oakland, by the name of LeBron James, had that look Thursday night.
The Warriors won Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena, 124-114 in overtime, but not before James left the patrons in awe. Like a master burglar unchecked, he glided through the premises and took what he wanted. In the wake of his performance, you wondered if there were a few fancy cars missing in the parking lot.
In the end, after James’ 51 points sent an ongoing shudder through the crowd, it was one man against five. James’ teammates let him down, in the most discouraging manner, and the Warriors turned the overtime into a festival of brotherhood.
Picture a man forgetting the
score in a game this important. Consider the Warriors’ gift of a missed foul shot. Through all of Golden State’s efforts, notably a combined 53 points from “Splash Brothers” Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, this game will be remembered for the Cavaliers’ foibles.
With 4.7 seconds left in regulation, George Hill hit the first of two free-throw tries to tie the game — but then missed what could have been the clincher. Poor J.R. Smith must have thought it went in.
Smith soared to grab the rebound, then took the ball out near the three-point arc — where he calmly held onto it. James was screaming and gesturing at him — as in, “Give me the ball!” — but Smith thought the game had been won. By the time he passed it back to Hill, it was too late for a reasonable shot and the game lurched into overtime.
Smith wouldn’t cop to his mistake afterward — that would be one hell of an admission — saying, “I knew the game was tied. I was just looking for us to get a timeout.” But his head coach, Tyronn Lue, saw it differently. “He thought we had the lead,” Lue said. “He thought it was over.”
As Draymond Green said afterward, “Sometimes you need a little luck. I mean, you gotta know the score. We’ll take it.
”I thought he was lookin’ for LeBron. I would have looked for LeBron, too.”
By the time the teams walked off the floor, a lively feud had been launched. The Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson challenged Green to a fight after the two engaged in a brief skirmish in the final seconds. Kendrick Perkins, a noted NBA enforcer who wasn’t on the Cavaliers’ roster and watched the game in street clothes, was shouting and pointing at Kevin Durant. There was no escalation of the hostilities, but add a subplot to Sunday night’s Game 2.
In fact, just tear up the script as written for this series. The Warriors were supposed to win, rather easily, and it wouldn’t be terribly exciting. Right now, there can’t be many NBA followers with a single complaint.
For the Oracle faithful, it was especially sweet that Smith, a 14-year veteran who has carried a “knucklehead” label for years, made such a crucial mistake. Midway through the first quarter, with Klay Thompson about to receive a pass, Smith slipped (on an apparent wet spot) and crashed awkwardly into Thompson, sending him writhing to the floor in pain. Smith has a reputation for being a dirty player, and although this was an accident, thousands of angry fans really let him have it.
Thompson retreated to the locker room for several minutes, and the injury was diagnosed as a left lateral leg contusion, but he returned in fine form. With fellow wingman Andre Iguodala already out with a knee injury, the Warriors couldn’t afford to be down another man.
This was a memorable night, meanwhile, for Curry. Standing 35 feet from the basket with time expiring in the first half, he unleashed one of his fabled long-range shots and connected as the buzzer sounded. This time, Curry didn’t unveil his famous “shimmy” or anything terribly dramatic. He just removed his mouthpiece, turned to the crowd and flashed a finger, then two, then three. In that moment, the three-point shot felt more like a dozen.
But, as Curry said, “This was a crazy game,” and James made it so. “The King,” as he’s called, scored in every conceivable way: violent dunks, shots kissed off the glass, brazen three-pointers. There’s a ferocity about the man, without question the NBA’s best player, that often tends to override everything else on the court.
When it came to the overtime, though, the Warriors’ matchless team concept took over. Shaun Livingston scored on a 6-foot hook and a dunk. Green nailed a three-pointer, and Thompson had two of his own. All of a sudden, after looking a bit out of sorts, the Warriors’ offense clicked — and it was a thing of beauty.
At game’s end, a torrent of yellow-colored confetti cascaded down from the rafters, which seemed a bit silly. That’s the sort of thing that honors a climax, a championship, the end of the road. In fact, these Finals are just beginning, and there’s an obstacle in the Warriors’ road. It doesn’t appear that LeBron James will be stepping aside.