2015: Warriors 4, Cavs 2

For the Cavs and their fans, the 2015 NBA Finals appearance against the Warriors is remembered less for its outcome than what could have been were it not for ill-timed injuries.

Despite the heroic efforts of James, the Cavs in the end could not overcome the absences of power forward Kevin Love and point guard Kyrie Irving against the high-powered Warriors.

Love had season-ending surgery after he and Boston’s Kelly Olynyk got tangled up chasing a loose ball in Game 4 of the Cavs’ firstround sweep of the Celtics. Irving was playing well but nagged by knee soreness through the first three rounds of the playoffs. He was held out of playoff games against Chicago and Atlanta to maximize his effectiveness in a hoped-for Finals run. The plan did not pan out.

• Game 1, Oracle Arena: Warriors 108, Cavs 105 (OT)

The Cavs hung tough with the favored Warriors through four quarters before the wheels came off and Irving went down for good in overtime. James led al scorers with 44 points. Irving had 23 before he was forced from the floor early in the extra session with what later was diagnosed as a fractured left kneecap. It did not help the Cavs’ cause they were 1-for-12 from the field in overtime. Stephen Curry finished with 26 points and Klay Thompson added 21 for Golden State.

• Game 2, Oracle Arena: Cavs 95, Warriors 93 (OT)

James again dominated, scoring 39 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, as the Cavs hung on in overtime to notch the franchise’s first Finals victory. The Cavs and James were swept by San Antonio in the 2007 Finals. Cavs center Timofey Mozgov played well, scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Thompson paced the Warriors with 34 points.

• Game 3, Quicken Loans Arena: Cavs 96, Warriors 91

The Cavs had the home crowd buzzing as they went wire-to-wire to take a 2-1 lead in the series. James had 40 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Curry had 27 for the Warriors.

• Game 4, Quicken Loans Arena: Warriors 103, Cavs 82

With full benefit of hindsight, the series pivoted on this game and Golden State coach Steve Kerr’s decision to shake up his starting lineup. He inserted Andre Iguodala at center in place of Andrew Bogut. Iguodala scored 22 points, tying Curry for team-high honors, and bedeviled the Cavs at both ends of the floor. Mozgov had a career night with a game-high 28 points. James scored 20 points but missed 15 of 22 shots.

• Game 5, Oracle Arena: Warriors 104, Cavs 91

Despite another monster effort by James (40 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) and a solid performance by Tristan Thompson (19 points, 10 rebounds), the Warriors and Curry (37 points) surged in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter to take a 3-2 lead in the series and put the Cavs on the brink of elimination.

• Game 6, Quicken Loans Arena. Warriors 105, Cavs 97

The Warriors had the upper hand throughout behind Curry and Iguodala, both of whom scored 25 points. James was great again with 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists. James averaged 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists but was beaten by Iguodala in voting for series MVP honors.

2016: Cavs 4, Warriors 3

The Warriors owned the regular season with a 73-9 finish, but it was the Cavs who stared ignominy in the face and then got down to the business James wanted to finish when he left Miami and returned to Cleveland for the 2014-15 season

• Game 1, Oracle Arena: Warriors 104, Cavs 89

The Cavs clamped down defensively on Curry and Thompson, limiting them to 20 combined points, and still lost. Former Cav Shaun Livingston came off the bench to post a career playoff-best 20 points. The Cavs shot 38.1 percent from the field.

• Game 2, Oracle Arena: Warriors 110, Cavs 77

Another poor shooting effort by the Cavs set the stage for a Warriors’ blowout and a 2-0 series deficit. The Cavs shot only 35.4 percent from the field overall and an even more anemic 21.7 percent on 3-pointers. Golden State dynamo Draymond Green owned the Cavs with 28 points, 15 coming via the 3-pointer. James led the Cavs with 19 points.

• Game 3, Quicken Loans Arena: Cavs 120, Warriors 90

Climbing back into the series emphatically after two lopsided road losses, the Cavs raced to a 9-0 lead in the opening minutes and never turned back. James finished with 32 points while Irving had 30. J.R. Smith added 20 points while Thompson scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Curry topped the Warriors with 19 points.

• Game 4, Quicken Loans Arena: Warriors 108, Cavs 97

Curry and company cashed in an NBA Finals single-game record of 17 3-pointers to shock the Cavs and take a 3-1 lead in the series. Curry broke out of, what for him was, a scoring slump with 38 points. Irving finished with 34 points for the Cavs. James contributed 25 points and was involved in an on-court confrontation with Green that ended with the Warriors’ mercurial center-forward firing a punch in the general direction of James’ groin. NBA officials reviewed the incident and suspended Green for Game 5.

• Game 5, Oracle Arena: Cavs 112, Warriors 97

Green definitely was missed, but the Warriors squandered a golden opportunity to clinch the series their home floor because they were helpless to stop James and Irving from each scoring 41 points. It was the first time in Finals history teammates scored 40 or more points apiece in a single game.

• Game 6, Quicken Loans Arena: Cavs 115, Warriors 107

James and Irving again were lethal, combining for 64 points (41 by James) as the Cavs kept the Warriors at arm’s length throughout. Bridging the third and fourth quarters, James scored 18 straight points for the Cavs. Curry scored 30 points but melted down with just over four minutes remaining when he was hit with his sixth personal foul. Curry snapped at officials and fired his mouthpiece into the courtside seats, earning an ejection.

• Game 7: Cavs 93, Warriors 89

Irving made the 3-point shot heard around the world late in the fourth quarter and James again was brilliant (27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists) as the Cavs gutted out the historic series victory and claimed the first championship for a Cleveland professional sports franchise since the Browns in 1964. James was named series MVP. A few days later, an estimated 1.5 million revelers came to downtown Cleveland for an unforgettable victory parade.