Get on my back and I'm going to carry you. "I've never seen a man in my life tell an entire state: 'Get on my back, I got you. James delivered on a vow to his home state and brought the Cavs back from the brink as they became the first team to rally from a 3-1 Finals deficit, beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 93-89 on Sunday night to end a 52-year major sports championship drought in Cleveland. James and his relentless, never-count-them-out Cavs pulled off an improbable NBA Finals comeback, and Cleveland is title town again at long last. "I'm coming home with what I said I was going to do," he said, adding, "I can't wait to get off that plane, hold that trophy up and see all our fans at the terminal." Later, flanked by his three children on Father's Day, a cigar between his lips and winning net as a necklace with the lingering stench of champagne, James began to understand the magnitude of his accomplishment for Cleveland after a half-century wait.
LeBron James cradled the shiny gold trophy and struggled to sum up what might be his sweetest championship yet, the one he is so proudly bringing home to his native northeast Ohio just as he promised to do when he returned to the Cavaliers two summers ago. NBA, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers
James would split free throws to make it a two-possession game with 10.6 seconds left, putting the final touch on what was a tremendously competitive Finals game and series.Cavaliers become first team to rally from 3-1 series deficit in NBA Finals Both teams remained deadlocked at 89 for nearly three minutes until Irving’s three-pointer with 53.0 seconds left put the Cavs in front for good. Unfortunately for Golden State, those would prove to be their final points of the night, and season. LeBron James would then go on to score six-straight points in a span of 31 seconds, and after Klay Thompson drained a jumper on the ensuing possession, the game was tied once again at 89-89 with 4:39 remaining in regulation. The Warriors would immediately battle back though, and Andre Iguodala’s hook shot with 4.1 seconds remaining gave Golden State a slim 76-75 advantage heading into the fourth and final frame.Īfter Cleveland had retaken an 83-80 lead, Curry ignited a 7-0 Warriors’ run to jump back in front. That lead would be completely erased by a 12-5 Cavs’ run to open the second half, and after Stephen Curry subsequently scored five-straight points, Cleveland would go on a 14-2 burst to take their largest lead of the entire night at 68-61 with 4:00 left in the third quarter. Leandro Barbosa would follow up that stretch with a three-pointer of his own to put Golden State up seven, and they’d maintain that advantage going into halftime leading 49-42. Green would add three more three-pointers in the quarter, all in succession, as part of a run in which he scored 12-straight points for the Warriors. The Warriors trailed by the same deficit three minutes into the second quarter before Draymond Green sank his second three-pointer of the night, in what would prove to be a sign of things to come. Golden State got off to a significantly better start than the previous two games, this time trailing Cleveland by only a single point at the end of the first frame.
There were 20 lead changes and 11 ties throughout the game, and when the final buzzer sounded, it was the Cavaliers on top. The two sides played it close all game long, with neither able to generate a lead of greater than eight points. That parity would persist to the final minute of Game 7, with the contest tied at 89 until Irving’s now-historic three-pointer. Through the first six games of the series, both teams totaled the same amount of points, speaking to how evenly matched they were.