Stephen Curry rose up and drained a 29-foot dagger of a 3-pointer to seal the victory.
His 37 points and seven assists helped put the Golden State Warriors one win away from a championship after they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-91, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena on Sunday night.
Both teams fought to the end, but the depth of Golden State proved to be too much in the fourth.
For the first time in The Finals, the Cavs’ LeBron James went through a rigorous pregame workout. He was the first member of the Cavaliers to hit the court. He was locked in during his 20-minute session and never once cracked a smile. It paid off.
James registered 40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his 14th career postseason triple-double. He was gassed in the third quarter. His heavy-duty workload took a toll. He was 1-for-6 in the quarter. He tried to preserve some magic for the fourth quarter and he found some, scoring 16 in the quarter. However, his teammates could only come up with eight.
The Warriors went on an 11-2 run capped off by a Curry step-back, high-arching 3-pointer over Matthew Dellavedova to put them up 10 with 2:43 left to play. It was their biggest lead at that time. The Warriors’ Andre Iguodala had five crucial points during that run and finished with 14 points, eight boards and seven assists in his second straight start.
Cleveland went to a strategy of fouling Iguodala immediately after the run, to which the veteran missed five of his next six free throws. He was 2-of-11 from the line.
But the Cavaliers couldn’t gain substantial ground to get back in it.
Aside from James, the Cavaliers shot 17-of-47 from the field. Center Timofey Mozgov, who had 28 points in Thursday’s Game 4 loss at The Q, started the game but rode the bench for most of Sunday night. He played just over nine minutes and did not score a point.
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