Cleveland Cavaliers make it 1-1 in the 2015 NBA Finals
The Cleveland Cavaliers brought the 2015 NBA Finals back on level terms on Sunday night with a tight 95-93 win over the Golden State Warriors in Over Time to level the 7-game series 1-1.
LeBron James was the star for the visitors, scoring 39 points on the night and accounting for 16 rebounds and 11 assists as the Cavaliers put forth a courageous performance in the absence of Kyrie Irving. Matthew Dellavedova started in place of the Melbourne-born point guard.
Despite being the key man behind the win, the 30-year-old James was humble enough tp praise the rest of his teammates, saying that it was complete team effort that helped Cavaliers to bring the series back on level terms.
"I tried to give it all to my teammates. And they do a great job of giving it back to me. Total team effort. To be back in the same position we were in three days ago and to come back and even the series is big time,” James said after the game.
The former Miami star, who is playing his 5th straight NBA Finals, also said cautioned that the Cavaliers squad weren't here to play easy basketball.
"It's the grit squad right now. If you expect us to play sexy cute basketball, that's not us right now. Everything is tough and it has to be that for rest of series,” he added.
Had an off game tonight: Curry
For Golden State, Stephen Curry had a rare off game as he managed to score a mere 19 points and speaking after the game, the 2015 MVP said that he just got the feeling that shots were going to miss the mark as soon as they left his hand on the night.
"Shots I normally make I knew as soon as they left my hand that they were off. That doesn't usually happen. Mechanically, I don't know if there is an explanation for it, just didn't have a rhythm and didn't find one the whole game,” he said.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said that no one expects the NBA Finals to be an easy contest and admitted that his boys had to get better, ahead of Game 3 on Tuesday night at Cleveland.
“This is the finals. It's hard. It's supposed to be hard. We had a tough night. So you have to move on. You've got to learn from it and get better, and that's what we're going to do,” he said.