Golden State Warriors: 5 Takeaways From Game 5 vs. Cavaliers

2. Game 5 Results Probably Aren’t Sustainable

In a do-or-die Game 5, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving carried the load. They scored 82 of their team’s 112 points, and scored or assisted on a staggering 97 of those points. The Warriors only scored 97 points as a team.

In the second half, the Warriors were held to 36 points and made only three of their 21 three-pointers. For the game, the Dubs shot 36.4 percent from the field — their second lowest field goal percentage of 2015-16, according to ESPN’s Kevin Pelton — and missed 28 of their 42 three-pointers.

The Dubs missed nine of their 10 threes in the fourth quarter, they shot under 37 percent from the floor despite a whopping 48 percent of their field goal attempts being uncontested, and they shot just 4-for-19 on three-pointers that NBA.com classifies as “wide open.” LeBron James, meanwhile, outshot the greatest shooter in NBA history from downtown, making four of his eight threes.

Throw in the fact that Draymond Green didn’t play, the Andrew Bogut mid-game injury, LeBron and Kyrie combining for 82 points and the Cavs setting an NBA Finals record for unassisted field goals in a single game and exactly NONE of this feels sustainable.

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Again, that’s not to take anything away from the Cavaliers. This doesn’t even mean that the rest of this series will have to be played the same way for Cleveland to win. Heading back to Quicken Loans Arena, with Bogut hurt, anything can happen.

But when the Warriors — the league’s No. 1 offense — fail to score over the last 6:39 of game time, when it takes the first time in NBA history where two teammates scored at least 40 points apiece, and when Golden State’s most important two-way player isn’t even playing, it’s hard to see how the Cavs do the impossible and beat the Dubs two more times.

LeBron James was everything his harshest critics wanted and more in Game 5. The question is not whether he can do it again; the question is whether he can do it again while Kyrie also does it again while Draymond Green is back in the game while the Splash Brothers go cold while…well, you get the idea.

Next: No. 1