OAKLAND, CALIF.: History will be written on Sunday, this Father’s Day, with so much at stake.
Either the Golden State Warriors will stamp themselves as the greatest team in NBA history or the Cavaliers will sink 52 years of frustrations to the bottom of the Cuyahoga River once and for all.
The Warriors never expected to be in a Game 7, not after they were heading home up 3-1. They’re still one win away. Truthfully, there was doubt within the Cavs as well. No team has ever rallied from 3-1 down to win the NBA Finals. They’re the first to even get it to a Game 7 in 50 years. The Warriors, meanwhile, haven’t lost three straight games in nearly three years.
“I think coming into Game 5 we just expected it to be over,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “Fans, players, everybody just expected it to be over, and it wasn’t.”
LeBron James made sure it wasn’t. James has guided the Cavs to this point with magnificent performances in Games 5 and 6. He can clinch his third NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award with a victory Sunday and has even made an argument — for the second time in as many years — if the Cavs lose.
Those within the organization have joked all season that the Cavs find the most difficult, dysfunctional way to go about things.
Now they’ve done it to themselves again.
“I don’t think people imagined it this way, the route that we’ve taken, and that’s fine,” James said with a laugh. “Like I always say, every day is not a bed of roses and you have to be able to figure out how to get away from the thorns and the pricklers of the rose to make the sunshine. So we’ve put ourselves in a position to do something special.”
James has only appeared in an NBA Finals Game 7 one other time, in a series just as memorable as this one. The Miami Heat saved their season with a furious rally late in Game 6, capped with a corner 3-pointer by Ray Allen, to force a Game 7.
James scored 37 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and passed for four assists in a 95-88 Game 7 win at home over the Spurs to secure his second Finals MVP.
Overall James is 3-2 in a Game 7, averaging 34.4 points, ninr rebounds and 3.6 assists.
“Every postseason game is very key. You don’t put too much more added pressure on it because it’s a Game 7,” James said. “One thing we all know is it’s the last game of the season, so it’s not like you’re preserving any energy, be out there saying, ‘I’ve got to keep my body ready for the next game.’ There is no next game.”
If momentum indeed carries over from one game to the next, the Cavs certainly seem to have it. They appeared loose on Saturday. James was smiling and cracking jokes from the podium and later singing on the practice floor during the portion open to the media.
The Warriors, meanwhile, are fighting injuries at the worst possible time.
Andrew Bogut’s rim protection was missed during the Cavs’ Game 6 win at home and now Andre Iguodala has been slowed by back problems.
Iguodala said Saturday the back began bothering him during the long flight to Cleveland before Game 6. He did not participate in contact portions of practice Saturday, but he is expected to play.
“I’ve been getting treatment around the clock,” Iguodala said. “The training staff have been doing a helluva job, just making sure I’m good.”
At this point, all of the pressure is on the Warriors, the 73-win darlings who are on the brink of becoming the first team to blow a 3-1 NBA Finals lead.
Klay Thompson keeps mentioning “hero ball” and how the Warriors have to avoid it, coach Steve Kerr has bristled for days at the idea of a failed season if they don’t win the championship and Harrison Barnes, mired in an ugly 2-of-22 shooting slump the last two games (including 1-of-11 from 3-point range), conceded the Warriors never thought they’d still be playing now.
“I didn’t imagine it,” Barnes said. “But here we are.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.