Basketful of questions that will gnaw at Cavs
I’m sitting here and thinking, “How could the Cavaliers lose this game?”
How could J.R. Smith lose track of the score with 4.7 seconds left?
How could the officials overturn a key call with 36.4 seconds left?
How could George Hill miss a foul shot with 4.7 seconds left?
How could LeBron James score 51 points in 47½ minutes — and the Cavs still lose?
How could the Cavs spend most of the game outrebounding, outhustling and out-caring the Warriors — and still lose?
Final score: Golden State 124, Cavaliers 114.
In overtime.
The frustration
I admit, a game like this makes me mad.
Those 51 points by James are a career high for him in the NBA Finals. He had eight rebounds, eight assists and this was yet another postseason performance for the ages.
Or, as Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said: “They have a guy playing basketball like we may have never seen before.”
Remember that Kerr was on a team with Michael Jordan in Chicago. In some ways, James was Jordanesque in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting.
It’s exactly what the Cavs needed to pull an upset.
Coming back from a concussion, Kevin Love scored 21 points and had 13 rebounds.
That was a big plus, as Love often struggles against the Warriors.
Larry Nance Jr. had 11 rebounds and nine points in 19 minutes. He was exactly the kind of spark the Cavs needed from someone off the bench.
The Cavs owned the boards, 53-38. What could have been
This should have been a victory.
Instead, it’s a spirit-breaker. “For us to play our hearts out ... this is just bad,” head coach Tyronn Lue said.
He was talking about the overturned call when it appeared James had drawn a charge from Kevin Durant. Then the officials went to a review and changed it to a block — a key decision with 36.4 seconds left.
Durant made two throws to tie the score 104-104.
Then so much went wrong — and it was the Cavs’ fault.
With 4.7 seconds left, Golden State had a 107-106 lead. George Hill was fouled. He made the first free-throw try, then missed the second. Smith grabbed the rebound with the score 107-107.
He started to dribble out the clock instead of shooting the ball — he was about 5 feet from the rim. His teammates were screaming at him to take a shot at the rim.
“He thought we were up by one,” Lue said.
The fact is Hill and Smith played 69 minutes, scoring only 17 points on 5-for-16 shooting. If one of them had simply turned in an average performance by their standards — the Cavs would have won.
Let’s add in Jordan Clarkson, who shot 2-for-9 for four points. So the Cavs’ guards were 7-for-25 from the field.
A key missed foul shot. A mental mistake. A wasted opportunity to win a game in Oracle Arena — where the Warriors had won 16 of 17 playoff games since losing to the Cavaliers in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
“Our guys played our hearts out,” Lue said. “The game plan was good ...”
His voice trailed off. James turned in an epic performance. He was battered, bruised and exhausted. And brilliant.
But it still wasn’t enough. Meanwhile, Durant scored 26 points, but shot 8-for-22 from the field. The Cavs did what was needed on Durant to win, but it still wasn’t enough.
And right now, the Cavs have to be wondering, “Why didn’t we finish the job and beat these guys?”