The Golden State Warriors were up 87-80 on the Cleveland Cavaliers going into the fourth quarter, with LeBron James having played the entire third quarter. He’d have to sit at the beginning of the fourth. This was prime territory for the Warriors to take control of the game and coast to an easy double-digit win. The quarter started according to plan; a layup for Klay Thompson on an out of bounds play, an and-1 for Kevin Durant in the pick-and-roll, and a pull-up jumper by Durant. The Cavaliers were down another seven points in two and a half minutes and it looked like it was once again going to be the non-James minutes that doomed Cleveland.
It’s been a familiar refrain for the Cavaliers. Minutes with Kyrie Irving on the floor and James off have been a throwback to James’ time in Miami; Cleveland came into the Christmas Day showdown with Golden State being outscored by 9.2 points per possession in this configuration in 2016-17.
James remained on the bench out of the timeout. He had already played 33 minutes at the beginning of the fourth quarter and bringing him back into the game at the 9:35 mark wouldn’t have been blasphemous, but he turns 32 at the end of the week and doesn’t need to be playing 42 high-intensity minutes in the regular season. Irving was going to have to sink or swim on his own in the shark-infested water that is any game against the Warriors. At that point, if the game continues to go the Warriors’ way, then Tyronn Lue has just earned James some much-needed rest. If the game turns, then James can come in and help finish off a comeback.
Read More: Nikola Jokic is the best passing big man in the NBA
As it turned out, the same author who penned the Cavaliers’ comeback in June was commissioned once again to give NBA fans a late-arriving Christmas present. Irving, who had been struggling in the game to that point, came alive to lead Cleveland on a 14-3 run over the next 3:23. Richard Jefferson, who didn’t make a shot in the first three quarters, turned the clock back to 2003 with two unbelievable dunks, one over Durant and an absolute monster over Thompson later in the quarter.
The Cavaliers clawed back to within eight points after a three from Irving from the right wing spurred Steve Kerr to call timeout. From there, James was back in for Cleveland, but it continued as the Kyrie Irving show; he scored eight points in the next minute and a half to complete the 14-3 run, including a recreation of The Shot at the end of Game 7 in June, this time over potential DPOY Draymond Green.
Irving followed up that three with a fantastic rotation to stop to the Warriors weave:
The Warriors love to run a weave at the top of the key for Thompson that eventually flows into a pick-and-roll with whichever big is in the game for Golden State. Thompson doesn’t have an opening to get the ball in to the rolling David West, so he passes to Green, who then fires into the paint toward West. Irving recognizes what’s coming, leaves Shaun Livingston to rotate onto West, and is rewarded with the steal.
Irving can’t get a tough layup to go over Thompson on the other end. Stephen Curry misses a 3 on the same sort of broken play the Warriors killed teams with last year, but the Cavaliers knock the ball out and the Warriors get another chance. The two teams trade missed 3s before Durant gets fouled in transition to put the Warriors up 99-94. James delivers the ball to an open Iman Shumpert on the other end for a 3 before the Warriors run the same big-little pick-and-roll that the Cavaliers do with James and Irving; Curry rolls to the rim and hits the layup off the pass from Green to extend the Warriors lead back to four points with 4:28 left in the game.
That’s when Richard Jefferson got back into his time machine and committed one of the most witnessed first-degree murders in history:
Green and James trade buckets and the Warriors bring back Andre Iguodala for Livingston, completing their Death Lineup transformation. Already down J.R. Smith, the Cavaliers have a hard time matching up with the Death Lineup. Lue opted to stick with Irving-Shumpert-Jefferson-James-Kevin Love to close the game once Iguodala came in, but the Cavaliers changed up their matchups to take advantage of the slight limitations the Warriors have with their closing lineup.
Irving was to guard Iguodala, Shumpert was on Curry, and James was tasked with chasing Thompson around the endless screens. That left Jefferson on Durant and Love on Green; despite Durant’s 36 points, Jefferson was solid defensively, giving Durant fits with his physicality. Love is Cleveland’s weak point defensively; forcing him to defend in space is the Warriors greatest advantage in their matchup against Cleveland.
Green set a high screen for Durant, bringing Love way out of the paint. In years past, the Cavaliers would have had Love hang back, scared of how his limited lateral quickness would fare that far from the rim. However, Lue has opted to have Love trap way out on those screens, giving up the 4-on-3 opportunity to Green. Green is one of the league’s best passers, regardless of position, but this time, Irving is once again able to take advantage of his individual matchup to help into the paint and force a turnover. Iguodala is able to space out to the perimeter, but the Cavaliers are willing to give him a 3 every time down the floor if it keeps the ball away from Curry, Thompson, or Durant. Irving has free reign to leave Iguodala and stop Green’s roll to the rim with a steal.
Irving followed it up with a Magic Johnson-esque baby hook across the lane over Durant. Durant comes down to the other end and misses a jumper that was awfully reminiscent of his time in Oklahoma City; it took him 15 seconds to receive the ball and when he did, Jefferson was right in his shirt to force a contested mid-range jumper. This is starting to become a common theme across Golden State’s crunch-time possessions that has to be a worrying sign for Warriors fans. Perhaps Kerr is saving his late-game magic for the playoffs, but there are an awful lot of possessions down the stretch of close games where the Warriors look like the Thunder have the last few years.
Cleveland continued to execute their offense, which mostly just involved getting switches for Irving or James and letting them attack. A Shumpert screen gets Curry switched onto Irving, who drives right past the two-time MVP and drops the ball off for a huge James jam.
Yes, James should have gotten a tech for hanging on the rim for far too long. Yes, I’m happy they didn’t call it. We don’t want the NBA to turn into the NFL. The best part of the NBA is how accessible the players are. We see their every emotion in high definition and nobody wants to turn these guys into robots who don’t celebrate huge plays against their biggest rivals.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors ran one of their favorite ATO plays for a Green layup, tying the game once again at 105:
The simplest things in basketball become almost impossible to defend when the Warriors do them. The ball finds Thompson in the corner and Curry sprints up into a back screen for Green. Green flashes to the front of the rim and Thompson finds him for a dunk. If Green isn’t open, it’s a safe bet to assume Curry would be coming around two screens from Durant and Iguodala and either getting an open 3-pointer or curling into the paint for a layup.
The Cavaliers get a quick look for Irving at the rim on the other end, but Thompson is wise to it and uses his length to block Irving’s reverse layup, leading to a transition three for Curry. That same moment happened countless times for the Warriors last year and it was almost always the beginning of the end for their opponents. Those quick five-point swings were the Golden State specialty.
Lue immediately stops the game, but the Cavaliers can’t get anything going out of the timeout and Iguodala gets the rebound and kicks it up to a streaking Durant, who can effectively end the game with the easiest two points of his night, if it weren’t for the extra effort from Irving to get back and cause Durant to collect the ball in a hurry and spill it to Irving. How often do you see the defense give up on those plays, usually rightly assuming that there’s nothing they can do to stop the inevitable two points? It was Irving’s third steal of the quarter and the most vital of the seven steals he picked up in the game. Irving converts on an acrobatic reverse layup in transition.
That quick five-point swing the Warriors just had? Irving cut it to one with a personal four-point swing of his own by taking nothing for granted on the fast break.
The Cavaliers force a shot-clock violation when Thompson’s three is just a few tenths of a second late, setting up another dagger in the hearts of the Warriors, courtesy of Uncle Drew:
June’s Game 7 had The Block, The Shot, and The Stop. Christmas Day had The Steal, The Stop, and The Shot. Let’s just hope that the third act of the NBA Finals between these teams gives us as much drama.