OAKLAND — On June 4, 2015, Kyrie Irving left Oracle Arena with a fractured knee cap and a broken spirit.
More than a year later, the Cleveland Cavaliers point guard who missed all but one game of last year’s NBA Finals helped heal the sporting wound of an entire city with a shot for the ages.
The Cleveland Cavaliers earned their revenge against the Golden State Warriors and ended a 51-year old curse on Sunday night, unseating the defending champs with a 93-89 win in Game 7 in large part because of the 24-year-old whose talents helped lured LeBron James home from Miami two summers ago.
With 53 seconds remaining at Oracle Arena, the epic game that featured 20 lead changes tied 89-89, he stepped back on the left wing as back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry came closing fast. Irving’s shot was high and true, falling through for the lead they would never relinquish.
"I don’t know how close I was to him. I tried to reach at the ball, stay in front of him, make it a tough shot," Curry said. "It was a tough step-back that he just stepped up and made. It doesn't matter how good or bad defense I played, he made the shot. So credit to him. He stepped up and took advantage of the moment. It was not a good feeling turning around and seeing it go in."
Curry tried to answer, dancing around on the other end as the seconds of a would-be dynasty ticked away. His three-pointer was off, and the Cavs were on their way. Not since the Cleveland Browns sat atop the NFL on Dec. 27, 1964 has a major pro sports team won a title in the tortured city of Cleveland. Now, with “the King and Ky” leading the way as the local sports pages had deemed, the title is unbelievably theirs.
After becoming the first team in NBA history to win it all after trailing 3-1 in the Finals, they celebrated amid a bitter road crowd just as Golden State had done to them the year before. Irving finished with 27 points and 11 assists. James, who had 27 points (11 in the fourth), 11 rebounds, 11 assists, two steals and three blocks and won Finals MVP honors, put his final stamp on the series just before Irving’s dagger fell through.
With 1:45 left, Andre Iguodala seemed to have a clear lane for a layup that would have put the Warriors up two. But James came out of nowhere, soaring up to the glass and swallowing his shot at his peak.
"He’s been doing that all series," Igodala said. "He’s made some great plays for their team. What he’s done for them and tried to help build there finally came to fruition. They won a championship, and give those guys a lot of credit."
James, the Akron, Ohio native who won two titles with the Heat but always dreamed of doing it for his hometown team, relished what was clearly a surreal moment.
“I’m home,” James said as he spoke with ESPN’s Doris Burke on the stage afterwards. “I’m home. This is what I came back for. I’m at loss for words. This doesn’t feel real right now.”
The Warriors, whose historic 73-win regular season will forever be seen as stained, simply couldn’t close the deal. Curry, who was so inconsistent throughout this series, had just 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Fellow All-Star Klay Thompson had just 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting. All-Star forward Draymond Green was the only one who executed with force and fury, finishing with 32 points, 15 rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
"Yeah, yeah, we're stunned. We thought we were going to win," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "I was extremely confident coming into tonight, especially having Draymond back from the suspension from 5 and now 7, Game 7, at home. But this is why you can't mess around. Not that we messed around, but this is why every game counts. Game 5 was really the key. That was the turning point of the whole series. We didn't play well enough to win. It was a tough game for us with the circumstances, and I thought they had two guys who played epic games, Kyrie and LeBron. And that changed the whole series. But with that said, I thought we were going to take care of business tonight at home, and we just couldn't get it done."
As NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke on the floor afterward, Warriors fans who will never forget the league’s decision to suspend Green for Game 5 booed mercilessly.
After a pathetic Game 6 showing in which the Cavs led 33-11 after the first quarter, the Warriors couldn’t afford to get off to another bad start. Amid all the talk of rigged games and questionable calls on Curry that eventually led to his ejection, that was the overlooked part of that night. In that regard, their 23-22 deficit after the first quarter on Sunday was certainly manageable.
They hit five threes in the opening period, as good a sign as any that they were back to playing to their long-range identity. And to hear the crowd go crazy after the first one — a Harrison Barnes conversion from the right wing that put them up 5-4 — was to understand the angst that this team had caused its fans in the past two games. From Barnes’ 2-of-22 shooting in the previous two games to Curry’s struggles and Green’s disappearing act (both because of his Game 5 suspension and Game 6 performance), this wasn’t the team they’d come to know.
But the Cavs, it was clear from the start, weren’t about to get out of their way. With Warriors center Andrew Bogut out after his Game 5 knee injury, Cleveland dominated down low (16 rebounds to eight) while getting a rare appearance of the good Kevin Love. The much-maligned Cavs forward was engaged and physical, grabbing seven rebounds in the first quarter to go with his five points.
Unlike every other game in this series full of swings, there was no breathing room to be had by either side throughout most of the first half. But late in the second quarter, reserve guard Leandro Barbosa buried a three from the right corner that capped a 9-2 run and put the Warriors up 47-40.
Green had sparked the key stretch, hitting a three from up top and following with an up-and-under reverse layup through J.R. Smith that turned into a three-point play after he was fouled. He shared his vintage move with the electric masses — both arms flexed in the air, his right elbow inches from Smith’s chin — and was on his magnificent way.
Green, who had so much to make up for after his crotch shot of James in Game 4 led to his Game 5 suspension, was spectacular in the first half that the Warriors led 49-42 (22 points on eight of 10 shooting, five-of-five from three-point range, six rebounds, five assists). Not since the New York Knicks’ Walt Frazier back on May 8, 1970 had a player scored 22 or more points in the first half of a Finals Game 7.
What’s more, he had already come within one of the record for most three-pointers made in a Finals Game 7 (the Miami Heat’s Shane Battier, a teammate of James’ at the time, had six in 2013). With Curry and Thompson a combined five of 17 from the field in the first half, Green had their backs in more ways than one.
Midway through the second quarter, after a Green three put Golden State up 35-33, James swatted a Curry layup attempt in much the same way he had in Game 6. And as was the case back then, he glared at Curry afterward just for good measure. But this time Curry barked back, turning into the man who seems twice his size and going chest-to-chest. Green and the officials came to separate the two, but the words from both just kept flowing.
The long-range disparity was stark by the break, the Warriors having hit 10 threes (on 21 attempts) to the Cavs’ one (on 14 attempts). Cleveland’s best three shooters — Irving, Smith and Love — were a combined 0-of-8 from beyond the arc. James had 12 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in the first half.
The Warriors, who had never lost three consecutive games since the Steve Kerr era that began two summers ago, led 76-75 after three quarters. They survived the Cavs’ 8-0 run to start the third because of Curry, who answered with a one-man 5-0 run. He swatted Smith’s alley-oop attempt, then finished over Love on the other end, then hit a three-pointer to put Golden State up 59-54. Irving kept the Cavs close, though, scoring 12 in the third while wearing down every Warriors defender who came his way.
Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.
