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CHAPTER 1
NBA Finals: Game 1
Warriors 124, Cavaliers 114 OT
May 31, 2018 | Oakland, California
Working Overtime
Warriors Survive LeBron's 51 points in Epic Game 1
In one of the strangest and yet most exciting NBA Finals games in recent memory, the Golden State Warriors took Game 1 from the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime 124–114.
It was an exciting game, one that featured 15 lead changes and 17 ties. But in the pivotal moments where the game hung in the balance, the Warriors were able to capitalize on their opportunities as they took a 1–0 lead in the 2018 NBA Finals.
After addressing questions about why he hadn't yet won a Finals MVP, Stephen Curry came out in Thursday night's game and played like someone who was looking to win one. Curry scored 29 points in the Game 1 victory, while also handing out nine assists and grabbing six rebounds.
Curry did much of his damage from beyond the arc, going 5-for-11 from three-point range. One of those made three-pointers came seconds before halftime, and he knocked it down from 38 feet just before the buzzer sounded to tie things up at 56 after one half of play.
Curry's offensive impact was vital for the Warriors in the second half. With Kevin Durant struggling, Curry became the best offensive option for the Warriors, and the Warriors turned to him to get the win.
With under a minute to go and the Warriors trailing, Curry got three points the old-fashioned way, making the circus-style driving layup and then adding the free throw to give the Warriors a brief one-point lead. Though that lead wouldn't last as it would take overtime to determine the winner of this game, Curry worked hard to get his team the victory.
While Curry played exceedingly well and led his team to the win, LeBron James put in one of the greatest individual performances in NBA Finals history in Game 1. James scored 51 points in Game 1, the fifth-highest point total in NBA Finals history (and the most in a loss).
The Warriors had no answer for James, who could drive to the basket at will while also making plenty of shots from three-point range. Even if Andre Iguodala had been able to play, the Warriors still might not have been able to slow him down.
"It's tough to stop him," Durant said after the game. "Especially, he's getting a lot of screens, he's getting Steph on him a lot [in switches], and that's what the mismatch is, getting the bigs on him."
The Warriors are going up against one of the greatest players in the history of the game in LeBron James during these Finals. He is a very tough man to deal with, even if the Warriors play better defense. In Game 1 James reminded everyone watching that a dominant performance from him can be enough to (nearly) get a victory.
One scary moment for the Warriors came early in this game as Klay Thompson and J.R. Smith chased down a loose ball. Smith slipped and fell into the back of Thompson's legs, causing the Warriors' All-Star guard to twist his left leg very hard before falling down. In visible pain and limping, Thompson went back into the Warriors locker room, and many thought his Finals might be over.
However, Thompson returned to the Warriors' bench and re-entered the lineup in the second quarter. What looked like a very nasty injury was ruled a left lateral leg contusion, and he was able to return to action. Thompson scored 22 points in the rest of Thursday night's game, going 5-for-8 from three-point range.
After the game head coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson "took a 35-footer on his first possession back on the floor. So we knew he was okay."
It will get lost in the shuffle with James' remarkable performance and the exciting way the game ended, but Thompson quietly played in a very gutsy and important game that allowed the Warriors to get the win.
Even before the closing seconds, this first game of the 2018 NBA Finals was already very exciting. Every time one team seemed to have an advantage, the other one battled back and tied things up as the game went back and forth.
With the Cavaliers up two in those closing seconds, the Warriors got the ball to Durant who drove into the lane to try and tie the game. Durant drew contact from both Jeff Green and James.
Initially, the referees called a very dubious offensive foul on Durant. However, after consulting with replay to see if James was in the restricted area, the officials saw enough evidence to overturn the call and change it to a blocking foul on James and give Durant two free throws, which he made to tie the game.
It was a very important moment in the game, but ultimately the correct call to make as James was not set when he came into contact with Durant and he was turned slightly.
With the Cavaliers trailing by one point with less than 20 seconds left to go, George Hill drew a foul on Thompson and went to the free-throw line. Hill, who joined the Cavaliers as a result of their many trade deadline deals, made the first free throw. However, Hill missed the second, and Smith secured the rebound for the Cavaliers.
Rather than going up for a shot, Smith dribbled the ball out of the paint and to the perimeter, allowing time to expire before the Cavaliers could get a shot up, thus allowing the game to reach overtime.
What appeared to happen was that Smith thought the Cavaliers had the lead and that he should run out the clock. This was what Smith seemed to indicate to James and the rest of his teammates in the moment and was confirmed by Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue.
However, in his postgame comments, Smith offered a different explanation. He said: "I was trying to get enough to bring it out to get a shot off. I knew we were tied, I thought we were going to call timeout. If I thought we were ahead, I'd have held onto the ball and let them foul me."
Whatever the reason, the combination of Hill missing that second free throw and Smith not doing the smart thing after securing that rebound cost the Cavaliers a victory. The Warriors were more than happy to take that opening and steal a game they'd probably thought they had let slip away.
In the overtime period, the Warriors dominated the Cavaliers 17–7 to earn the 10-point victory in Game 1. But in the closing seconds of the game and with the outcome all but decided, there was some extra drama.
Shaun Livingston took a shot with the 24-second clock about to expire and a few seconds left on the game clock. Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson took issue with Livingston trying to score more points (as opposed to taking a turnover, something that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr constantly preaches against). Thompson fouled Livingston hard on the play — so hard that he earned a flagrant-2 foul that ejected him from the game.
As he was leaving the court, Thompson got into a back-and-forth with Draymond Green. Eventually, Thompson pushed the ball into Green's face and shoved the Warriors forward.
Green responded (though he didn't throw a punch or strike Thompson at all), and there was much posturing and trash talking from both teams. Thompson was finally forced from the court. Because he did not exit in a timely manner after his initial ejection, Thompson could potentially be suspended for Game 2, stretching an already thin Cavaliers team even thinner.
But this provided an emotional and exciting end to an exciting first game of the 2018 NBA Finals. For a matchup many professed to be sick of and a series many worried would be boring and stale, Game 1 was anything but that and gave everyone plenty of reason to be excited about what was to come.
CHAPTER 2
NBA Finals: Game 2
Warriors 122, Cavaliers 103
June 3, 2018 | Oakland, California
On Cloud Nine
Curry Sets Three-Point Record During Fourth-Quarter Outburst
After their thrilling overtime win in Game 1, the Golden State Warriors led from wire-to-wire in Game 2, handing the Cleveland Cavaliers a 122–103 defeat. With the win, the Warriors took a 2–0 series lead in these 2018 NBA Finals.
Leading the way for the Warriors was Stephen Curry, who played like someone who is going after a Finals MVP award. Curry scored 33 points in the Warriors' Game 2 win while also contributing eight assists and grabbing seven rebounds. Curry set a record for three-pointers in a NBA Finals game with his nine makes in Game 2, passing Ray Allen and his eight made three-pointers for the Boston Celtics in 2010.
After the game, Curry downplayed the achievement while focusing on the team's success in getting the victory.
"I never woke up and was like, all right, let's go get nine threes and get the record," Curry said. "It was more so about playing the game the right way, having good intentions out there on the court, and good things happen."
Part of what made that three-point barrage possible was the ability of Curry (and the other Warriors players) to get into the lane and score in the paint, especially early in the game. The Warriors scored 50 points in the paint, shooting 25-of-35 in that area. The Warriors also shot 69.5 percent on two-point shots, taking advantage of a Cavaliers defensive gameplan that was much more focused on stopping three-pointers.
Because the Warriors were able to get free in the paint, the Cavaliers defense could not stay out at the three-point line. Once they had to make that adjustment, it freed Curry up and allowed him to get hot from long distance.
The bulk of Curry's three-point assault came in the fourth quarter. Though the Warriors led the entire game, the Cavaliers cut into the Warriors' lead throughout the first and second half, taking a double-digit deficit. Every time it seemed like the Warriors were ready to pull away, the Cavaliers had an answer to keep things close. But in the fourth quarter, Curry erupted and went 5-for-5 from three-point range to seal the Warriors victory and turn the last three-and-a-half minutes of the game into garbage time.
"Nine threes and seemed to hit the big shot every time we needed one," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said.
Part of why the Warriors were able to score like that in the paint had to do with Kerr's decision to start JaVale McGee at center. After playing some very strong minutes in the Warriors' Game 1 win, Kerr elected to play McGee from the very beginning. McGee responded by scoring 12 points in Game 2, going 6-of-6 from the field, and giving the Warriors energy and defense.
Although their defense looked lackluster at times during Game 1, the Warriors did a much better job guarding the Cavaliers in Game 2. After scoring 51 points in Game 1, LeBron James ended with 29 points in Game 2, along with 13 assists and 9 rebounds. Outside of James and Kevin Love, who scored 22 points, no other Cavaliers player was able to get going on offense.
With Andre Iguodala still sidelined, both Kevin Durant and Draymond Green took on the challenge of guarding James. Though James was still able to score and be an offensive force, the Warriors forwards did a good job of keeping the Cavaliers' star from having a similar game to the one he had in Game 1.
That was just one facet of a much better game for Durant, who scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with his nine rebounds and seven assists. In Game 2 Durant was much more focused — whether on offense or guarding James on defense. After struggling at times in the Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets and in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Cavaliers, Durant came back with an impressive performance in Game 2 that effectively complimented Curry's record-setting game.
Though his status remained in doubt until just before tip-off, Klay Thompson played in Game 2 after suffering a scary looking left lateral leg contusion in Game 1. Thompson scored 20 points while also contributing good defense. After walking with a noticeable limp at Saturday's media session, Thompson's play on the court was impressive.
"The ankle feels great," Thompson said. "I won't do much tomorrow and I'll do a little bit Tuesday. But I'm just going to conserve all I've got for Wednesday because I don't want to play with it."
The Warriors also got some help from their bench, including 10 points from Shaun Livingston and a big three-pointer at the end of the third quarter from David West that provided the Warriors with a cushion as the game moved into the fourth quarter.
For the third straight year, the Warriors will head to Cleveland with a 2–0 lead in the NBA Finals. But they know that having that lead guarantees nothing and that they'll need to be at their best come game time on Wednesday.
"It will be very important for us to be locked in from the jump on the defensive side of the ball and not giving those guys easy shots," Green said. "They've got a great crowd and they really feed off it."
CHAPTER 3
NBA Finals: Game 3
Warriors 110, Cavaliers 102
June 6, 2018 | Cleveland, Ohio
Durant Dominates
KD Scores a Playoff Career-High 43 points in Comeback Victory
In the confines of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the Warriors won an exciting Game 3 of the NBA Finals that came down to the final minutes. They came from behind to defeat the Cavaliers 110–102 after trailing for the entire first half. The win gave the Warriors a 3–0 lead in the 2018 NBA Finals, which they could end with a victory in Game 4 on Friday night.
In a hostile environment and with his team struggling to match up against one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA, Kevin Durant played perhaps the greatest game of his career. Durant scored a career playoff-high 43 points on 15-of-23 shooting, including 6-of-9 from three-point range.
In the first half, one in which the Warriors never led while the Cavaliers led by as many as 13 points, Durant scored 24 points while the rest of the Warriors' roster scored just 28.
Three of Durant's 24 first-half points came on a three-point shot in the closing seconds of the second quarter that cut the Cavaliers' lead to just six points.
There was no drop-off for Durant in the second half as he continued his assault on the basket, scoring 19 points over the third and fourth quarters.
Durant's ability to go out and get his shot was extremely important for the Warriors as they went back and forth with the Cavaliers, getting the lead and then watching them take it back. In the second half, there were 11 lead changes, and the game was tied eight times.
Thus Durant's ability to allow the Warriors to keep pace and prevent the Cavaliers from growing any lead was vital.
With the Warriors up by just three points and around a minute left to go in the game, Durant made the killing stroke, the coup de grace.
Pulling up from 33 feet from the basketball hoop, Durant smoothly drilled the jumper that gave the Warriors the 106–100 lead and served as the exclamation point on the Warriors forward's masterful performance.
Durant's shot came from roughly the same spot where he took the three-pointer that won Game 3 for the Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals. But it wasn't quite the same spot.
"No, that wasn't the same shot," James said. "The one he made tonight was about four or five feet behind the one he made last year."
Durant's excellence was not limited to scoring as he finished the game with 13 rebounds, doing a much better job of boxing out and battling for the ball. Even though Durant was an unstoppable offensive force and things seemed to flow through him in Game 3, he still had seven assists and did not become too locked into an isolation-heavy approach.
"It just happened within the flow," Durant said. "I wasn't expecting to come out or shoot a lot of shots or look to score. I was just trying to play great defense and run the plays that Coach draws up and just run with the flow of what our offense is like throughout the game."
It was an amazing performance by Durant and one he gave on the biggest stage in the toughest environment when his team needed it the most.
The Warriors needed every one of Durant's points because their other MVP, Stephen Curry, struggled in Game 3. One game after setting the record for most made three-pointers in a Finals game, Curry was 1-of-10 from three-point range, 3-of-16 overall, and scored just 11 points.
Curry's rough night came about for a number of reasons. Some of it was sheer bad luck; even the greatest shooters can have games where the ball bounces the wrong way. Curry did get some open looks. He just missed the shots.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Golden Age"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Triumph Books LLC.
Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
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