CLEVELAND — In one game, it all became right. The more than five decades without a major Cleveland sports championship — the Drive, Jose Mesa, the Fumble — was erased. The pain of watching local star LeBron James depart, without a trophy for Miami in 2010, only to win two titles with the Heat in absentia, all of that, gone with one stunning win in what was one stunning NBA Finals series.
In the process, Finals MVP LeBron James and the Cavaliers completed the greatest comeback in the history of the Finals, rallying from a 3-1 deficit and completing their championship journey with a 93-89 win over the record-setting Warriors here at Oracle Arena.
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This game, unlike any in the series, took massive swings of emotion and momentum. The game was deadlocked at 89-89 from the 4:39 mark of the fourth quarter until just 53 seconds remained, when Kyrie Irving (who finished with 26 points) sank an incredible contested three-pointer from the right wing to give the Cavs the lead.
"Everybody counted us out," James said after the game on the ABC broadcast. "This is what I came back for. ... It doesn't feel real right now."
Neither team was able to fully employ what has been its usual winning formula, and had to scratch and claw for its points. The Warriors’ two high-scoring stars, Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, were not themselves, combining for 31 points, while Cavs star James struggled until a heroic fourth-quarter showing, in which he scored 11 of Cleveland’s 18 fourth-quarter points.
James, who returned to the Cavaliers in 2014, has consistently deflected the notion that he has been under any special pressure to be the guy who eases Cleveland’s championship pain. Before the game, he said, “I came back for a reason, and that is to bring a championship to the city of Cleveland, to northeast Ohio and all of Ohio and all Cavaliers fans in the world. That’s been one of my goals. But I don’t add too much pressure on it.”
That sentiment was belied, however, by the wild celebration and outpouring of emotion from James when the final buzzer sounded. It was clear over the course of the week just how much was at stake for him in this Cavaliers’ rally.
That was evident from the beginning of what was a hard-fought finale. The first quarter opened, as usual, with a very loud Warriors crowd, but with Golden State unable to find much space in the Cleveland defence. The Warriors shot 8-for-20 in the quarter, weighed by the continued struggles of Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli, but did go 5-for-11 on three-pointers, buoying an offence that could not do much else right.
But the Cavaliers found the Warriors defence, which had been damaged the past two games by the loss of Draymond Green (Game 5 suspension) and Andrew Bogut (season-ending knee injury), similarly energised. The Warriors held Cleveland to 9-for-21 shooting and 0-for-4 from the three-point line, also forcing four turnovers in the first quarter. The Cavaliers did not make a three-pointer until Iman Shumpert hit one from the wing at 7:03 of the second quarter, part of a four-point play. But Cleveland was 1-for-14 from the arc in the first half.
For the Warriors, everything was going just right for Green. With 3:47 to play in the second quarter, Curry took the ball from the top of the key to the right wing, and three Cavs followed him, including James, Green’s defender. That allowed Green to slip behind the scrum and accept a pass from Curry, with no Cav defender within eight feet of him. Green seemed to shrug at his good fortune—or perhaps the lack of respect from the Cleveland defence—and sank his fifth straight three-pointer. Green had 22 points, six rebounds and five assists in the first half.
The bulk of the half was a wash, with 13 lead changes (there were zero lead changes in Game 6, of course, as the Cavs led wire-to-wire) and seven ties. Neither team was able to produce a lead bigger than four points until a Leandro Barbosa corner three-pointer put the Warriors up, 47-40 with 2:06 to go in the half. That seven-point lead held into the second half, the Warriors up 49-42.
The Cavs took control of the game’s momentum in the third quarter, and were able to do so without a major contribution from James. Cleveland made nine of its first 11 shots in the third, including two three-pointers from J.R. Smith and two fast-break layups for Kyrie Irving, and took its first lead of the half, 60-59, with 6:24 to go. Cleveland put consistent pressure on the Warriors defence in the third, and went to the free-throw line 12 times in the quarter, putting Golden State back on its heels.
Cleveland led by as many as seven in the third, but the Warriors roared back with a 13-5 quarter-closing run to establish a 76-75 lead heading into the decisive fourth. At that point both teams seemed utterly gassed, and only Irving’s miracle shot broke the grind.
And from there, the Cavs ground out the final 12 minutes, preparing to make history.