The Cleveland Cavaliers were on the brink of elimination. Game 5 was the story of how two men did not let Cleveland’s season end at the hands of the Warriors for the second year in a row. Sure, some people will point out that the Cavs got the win while Draymond Green was busy watching a baseball game, but when the final horn went off, Cleveland walked off the court at Oracle with a 112-97 win.
The first man who requires praise is, unsurprisingly, LeBron James. We know by now that James is capable of unparalleled brilliance when his back is against the wall in the postseason – just ask the Boston Celtics.
But even by the lofty standards of James, standards that are unreachable for basically everyone else to ever play basketball, he was outstanding. He was cool, he was calm. His jumper that has seemed broken all postseason was suddenly fixed, and James punished the Warriors from the perimeter. He also did all the fun LeBron stuff that he’s able to do with relative ease: his defense and rebounding were both tenacious, and despite dropping 40+, he kept dishing out assists. For the night, James had 41 points on 16-for-30 shooting with 16 rebounds, 7 assists (six of which came in the second half), 3 steals, and 3 blocks.
The other man is Kyrie Irving. While Kevin Love has received the lion’s share of criticism this postseason, and while he has had some really great performances, Irving hasn’t consistently been the star guard he is expected to be by most fans and pundits.
Any criticism of Irving went out the window on Monday night. On an evening where James went for 41-16-7-3-3, Irving may have been even better. He went off for 41 points on a super-efficient 17-for-24 shooting (5-for-7 from three), and with James’ offensive output on the night, this was the first time in Finals history that a pair of teammates went for 40+ points in a game.
So now we’ll sit and wait. The best news possible after this game was that we’d get another basketball game before the cold, dark offseason consumes us all, and thanks to the Herculean efforts by James and Irving, we’re getting that. Green will be back, and the thought of a motivated Draymond Green in front of a crowd in Cleveland that will be out for blood is one that will make the next few days so much fun.
If the Cavaliers want to win, everyone knows that they’ve needed two things: their stars to show up, and their defense to put the clamps on the Warriors. Considering the nights that James and Irving had, and considering that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 62 of the Dubs’ 97 points (Golden State’s two best scorers after them had 15 points and seven points), it’s not crazy to think that the Cavaliers can maybe do this again.
The big question, though, is whether they can do this two more times. We’ll revisit that question on Thursday night once the dust settles and we know if we’re heading to a Game 7.
