THE HARD game yesterday also went into overtime, just like Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals, but this one was won not by the sharper side, it went to the plodding Cleveland Cavaliers who, as the undermanned underdogs, proved toughest in crisis.
They were down in luck, short on manpower, and maybe only the Cavaliers themselves had believed they could swing it before a riotous homecrowd to nip the Golden State Warriors, 95-93, at Oracle Arena.
The Cavaliers sacrificed, rode on disciplined team defense and organized, if at times scattered, offensive.
The result was one of the more arduous home steals in NBA Finals history.
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LeBron James, who played at a deliberate pace while providing variable leadership, later resumed his aggressive ballhogging and fumbled his crucial shots in the extra period.
Uneven officiating in the closing minutes made the game doubly hard for the Cavaliers, who had to scrape bottom following the complete sidelining of the prodigious Kyrie Irving with a broken knee in the opening game of the Finals.
While there had been cries of “Golden State all the way” in the run-up to Game 2, the Warriors will be hard-pressed for a home steal after the resiliency displayed by the Cavaliers yesterday.
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Unlike MVP Stephen Curry who missed miserably with his fabled clutch shots, James, on the whole, remained the main force behind Cleveland’s comeback win.
It may not be exactly new, what James had done by refusing to play the point from the initial tip-off. He often took possession closer to the goal, and made his teammates involved by kicking off to the wings after drawing multiple defenders.
Cavalier coach David Blatt proved his competence by assigning a proper close-in chaser on Curry, although there was always Klay Thompson to keep Golden State’s perimeter firepower alive.
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Now there’s no predicting how the series will roll starting Game 3 in Cleveland on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
There seems only one sure thing though: It will be grinding tough.
It will hence be out with cute sexy basketball, James announced yesterday.
“Total team effort, it’s the grit squad right now,” he assured. “Everything is tough and it has to be that way for the rest of the series.”