King James a royal pain for Warriors in Game 6
CLEVELAND LeBron James had to have silenced any remaining doubters of his brilliance Thursday, carrying his Cleveland Cavaliers to a winner-take-all Game 7 with the latest in a string of jawdropping performances.
Already the highest scorer in elimination games (32.4 a game, ahead of Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain), James dropped 41 for a second consecutive game, pushing this NBA Finals to the limit.
The shell-shocked defending champion Warriors tried to rally, but James always had an answer in Cleveland’s 115-101 stunner.
Regardless of how Sunday goes, James has to be the MVP of this series. He has been that far ahead of anybody else.
Suddenly, you can see a future where Cleveland’s 52-year sporting futility streak comes to an end. James, Kyrie Irving and the relentless Tristan Thompson have been that dominant over the past two games.
James added 11 assists and eight rebounds, Irving had 23 points, Thompson 15 points and 16 rebounds and Steph Curry’s 30 points weren’t enough.
James made like an All-Pro quarterback, expertly picking apart his opponent, finding seams to set up easy scores or putting points on the board himself. Irving sliced and diced and once again put up big numbers while the Warriors looked like the dreaded “jump shooting team” pundits like Charles Barkley had derisively described them over the past two years.
While Curry showed up (5-for-10 from three to start the game when he wasn’t battling foul trouble), his teammates started a dismal 2-for18 on three-pointers.
In an ear-splitting Quicken Loans Arena that was shaking to its foundation when James threw down a massive third quarter dunk, the game sounded over, looked over and felt over.
Only it wasn’t. Somehow, a Cleveland team that had been 8-1 in the playoffs and seemed to have a seventh game locked up, let down just a bit in the third quarter, opening the door just wide enough for the potent Warriors to bust through.
Klay Thompson missed all six of his threes in a dismal first half and didn’t play much defence either, but went on one of his surges for the Warriors, scoring 15 on 6-for7 shooting to pull the Warriors to within 11. The visitors crept to within six before James dropped the hammer, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes of the fourth.
He looked like a 31-year-old parachuted into a youth league at times, reaching a foot over an opponent to grab a rebound and lay it in, soaring way above the rim to convert a dunk and emphatically spiking a Curry attempt under the basket out of bounds — with a word or two directed Curry’s way right after. Curry was not pleased. He’d get a lot less happy moments later when he fouled out on an odd play in which James smartly drew a bad one on him.
Curry was extremely demonstrative while he delayed leaving the floor, uttering a few words toward James, then swinging his arms in a windmill motion in anger before letting loose a string of likely unprintable sentences at the officials.
Curry had been angry at the whistle all evening, but should have also been mad at his teammates. Draymond Green returned from suspension and was decent, Thompson was poor other than his one strong stretch while a hobbled Andre Iguodala didn’t have his usual offensive impact.
Harrison Barnes was again unspeakably bad, missing all eight of his shot attempts, including five threes. It was the second straight egg for Barnes. Had he hit some shots in either of the past two games, the series could have been over.
Instead, Golden State looks severely rattled, James looks like a colossus and Cleveland looks poised to flip the NBA on its ear.