2015 NBA Finals: Game 5 Recap

By Gerald Bourguet | Jun 14, 2015

June 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after a scoring play against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second half in game five of the NBA Finals. at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

Once again, LeBron James had a masterful NBA Finals performance. But once again, on a night where Stephen Curry finally had an MVP-caliber performance, it wasn’t enough for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Behind 37 points from Curry (13-of-23 from the field, 7-of-13 from three-point range), the Golden State Warriors took a 3-2 lead in the 2015 NBA Finals and seized Game 5 at home with a 104-91 victory Sunday night. Curry scored 17 of his points in the fourth quarter to help the Warriors pull away late despite James’ monster night.

With 40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, King James just didn’t have enough left late in the fourth to lift the Cavs to victory over a deeper, more balanced team. James played 45 minutes in the game, which may be why he couldn’t convert a couple of well-contested layups late in the game.

James got very little help from his supporting cast, though it appeared that J.R. Smith had finally come to play in the first half. But Smith didn’t score after halftime, finishing the game with 14 points while Tristan Thompson added 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Draymond Green followed up Curry with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists, Andre Iguodala chipped in 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in his second straight start and Leandro Barbosa added 13 off the bench.

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Despite going 2-for-11 from the foul line, Iggy sparked the fourth quarter run that put the game away, but when it came down to it, NBA fans were treated to a spectacular back-and-forth between each team’s MVP in the final period.

Game 5 got off to an ugly start, with the first basket of the game coming nearly three minutes in. The Cavaliers committed four turnovers in that span, but after starting 0-for-3 from the field, the Dubs started turning turnovers and some ugly Cleveland misses into transition points.

The Dubs scored six of their first eight points on the break, building an 8-2 lead in the process and igniting an Oracle Arena crowd that had been a little more subdued than usual before tipoff. When Andre Iguodala found Draymond Green with a beautiful dime for a dunk on the break, the Warriors’ swarming defense was clearly paying dividends.

The momentum from Game 4 carried over for Draymond Green in particular, scoring nine straight points in his first seven minutes to give the Dubs an early six-point lead.

But the lead never ballooned past six, due in part to J.R. Smith shaking his shooting slump and knocking down his first two three-point attempts. Of course, he followed that up with an unnecessary shoulder charge on Draymond Green that resulted in a Flagrant 1, but at least the Cavs were getting something out of Smith, who finished with eight first quarter points.

Despite Cleveland starting the game 5-for-15 from the floor, they took a 17-16 lead after a LeBron James three-point play over three Warriors defenders and an Iman Shumpert three.

Five straight points from Stephen Curry put the Warriors back on top, but even after shooting 38 percent from the floor in the first period, the Cavaliers went into the second quarter tied at 22. LeBron and Smith combined for 16 points while Green led the Dubs with 10 first quarter points.

Fortunately for the Cavs, J.R. Smith’s onslaught continued in the second quarter, with the often criticized shooting guard lighting it up from downtown. Back-to-back triples from Smith helped Cleveland build a five-point lead, while LeBron James was superb as well, nearly amassing a triple-double (20-8-8) in the first half.

But the Warriors’ balance kept them within striking distance, as they assisted on 12 of their first 13 field goals, with Andre Iguodala’s sixth assist coming on a beautiful find behind the back to David Lee. Timofey Mozgov played five minutes and Andrew Bogut didn’t play at all in the first half as Cleveland decided to match Golden State’s versatility with a small-ball lineup of their own.

Curry and LeBron spent the next few minutes trading haymakers, with LeBron making ridiculously well-contested fadeaway jumpers against Andre Igduoala on one end and Curry draining well-contested threes on the other.

On one such three-pointer, tensions started to boil after Matthew Dellavedova dragged down Draymond Green as the two jostled for position. Green ended up sitting on Delly and the referees ruled it a double foul, but Green had to be restrained by Andrew Bogut on the sideline after he felt Dellavedova had initiated the contact.

An 8-0 run from the Warriors, including a Curry rebound and put-back on a missed free throw, put the Warriors back up 44-42, but Draymond Green picked up his third foul and went to the bench with 3:15 left in the half. The teams continued to trade baskets, but holding a 50-48 lead and the ball for the last possession, the Cavs had a nightmarish finish to the half.

LeBron wasn’t able to get the ball across half court after Cleveland secured a defensive rebound, resulting in an eight-second violation. An ensuing Harrison Barnes put-back dunk on a Golden State miss resulted in LeBron’s second foul and a three-point play that put the Warriors up 51-50 heading into the break.

Still, LeBron had an absurdly good first half with 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists at the break. He also scored or assisted on 16 of Cleveland’s 17 field goals in the first half. J.R. Smith had 14 points in the first half on 5-of-11 shooting.

Stephen Curry led the Dubs with 15 points, Green chipped in 10 and Leandro Barbosa added nine first half points off the bench. Despite shooting 54 percent from the floor in the first half, however, the Warriors led by only one point heading into the third quarter as the Cavs knocked down seven threes.

LeBron drew his third foul early in the third quarter, but the Warriors continued to struggle from the foul line, starting the game off 7-for-13 from the charity stripe. King James struggled with his shot in the third quarter, but Tristan Thompson began to assert himself on the glass as the two teams traded blows, using his energy on the offensive boards to score eight third quarter points.

LeBron got a rare rest with 1:47 to go in the third and the Warriors took a 73-67 advantage into the fourth quarter thanks to some big time buckets from Leandro Barbosa, who had 13 of Golden State’s 17 bench points through the first three quarters.

A Harrison Barnes posterization of Timofey Mozgov got Oracle fired up (even though he missed the free throw that would have completed the three-point play), but LeBron James came out on a mission to start the fourth, scoring his team’s first five points. A three from Iman Shumpert (assisted by LeBron, who nabbed his triple-double on that play) tied the game at 75 with nine and a half minutes to play.

At that point, things escalated to extreme levels of absurdity. First, LeBron James knocked down a three-pointer from Sacramento to put the Cavs up 80-79:

But the Warriors immediately responded, with Curry sinking an insanely difficult, contested three-pointer to reclaim the lead for the Warriors:

On the next play, Klay Thompson knocked down a triple to extend the lead to eight, but LeBron responded with a bucket and another assist to chop the lead back down to one with five minutes to play.

But then Iguodala made his case for Finals MVP known, first knocking down a huge open corner three and following it up with a put-back off an offensive rebound to extend the lead to seven. He missed the free throw, but a Curry layup that put the lead back up to 93-85 with just over three minutes gave Golden State its momentum and some breathing room.

LeBron cut the lead to seven at the free throw line, but Curry decided it was time to ice the game with a ridiculous step-back three-pointer in Dellavedova’s face. The shot extended Golden State’s advantage to 96-86 with 2:43 to play:

A deep LeBron James triple and Iguodala’s shooting woes from the foul line (as the Cavs resorted to Hack-A-Iggy) saw Cleveland pull within eight with two minutes to play, but a ludicrously deep three from Curry supplied the dagger for Game 5…and possibly the series.

Game 6 will be played in Cleveland Tuesday night as the Cavaliers look to stave off elimination.

Next: Stephen Curry: Top 10 Moments From His MVP Season

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