Historic season ends in epic Finals collapse for Warriors

OAKLAND - The Golden State Warriors closed out a record-smashing season with an even more epic playoff collapse on Sunday, falling 93-89 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game Seven of the NBA Finals.

After storming through the regular season with a record 73 wins from 82 games, the Warriors penned another unwanted mark in the NBA record books on Sunday when they became the first team to squander a 3-1 Finals lead.

Until the Cavaliers no team in 32 tries had ever come all the way back from 1-3 down to win the NBA Finals.

To make it sting just a little bit more, the Cavs capped the greatest comeback ever in the NBA postseason at Oracle Arena, a virtual fortress where the Warriors had lost just four times all season.

Sharp-shooting Stephen Curry, the NBA's first unanimous most valuable player, struggled all series and in Game Seven again failed to deliver the type of scoring that had become his trademark, when a "Curry flurry" would put so many games out of reach.

"At home in the fourth quarter, I felt like we could go for that dagger punch and didn't really put any pressure on the defense," Curry said after the game. "That's something that is tough to kind of swallow with the opportunity we had in front of us."

Possibly still hobbled by lingering injuries he picked up during the lengthy playoffs, Curry never looked comfortable against the Cavalier defense, which sent multiple defenders at him and chased him off the three point line.

Cleveland also frequently set screens to switch him onto the Cavaliers LeBron James, ensuring Curry would get no rest on the defensive end of the court.

"We're stunned," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. "We thought we were going to win. I was extremely confident coming into tonight."

So too did a confident Warriors fan base who had not seen their team drop three consecutive games all season long.

Without starting center Andrew Bogut, who suffered a knee injury in Game Five, Kerr elected to start Festus Ezeli, a surprising move announced just before tipoff.

The stage appeared too big for the untested big man, who failed to score and was ultimately limited to just over 10 minutes of playing time.

Kerr turned to backup center Anderson Varejao, but like Ezeli he was unable to score against the Cavaliers big men. Varejao and Ezeli combined for just one point and one rebound.

The Warriors were nearly saved by the aggressive play of All-Star forward Draymond Green, who made six three pointers, electrifying the crowd and helping push the Warriors to a seven point lead at the half. Green finished with 32 points.

But no one else was to able to match that kind of offensive production, including Curry, who scored 17 points, as Golden State were unable to claim the back-to-back championships that had seemed all but certain after seizing early control of the best-of-seven series.

"So win or lose, you appreciate the stage we were on and just that back and forth that we live for," said Curry. "So, yeah, it stung. It sucked to watch them celebrate, and we wish that would have been us.

"But at the end of the day, you congratulate them for accomplishing what they set out to do, and it will be a good image for us over the summer and all next season to remember so that we can come back stronger.

"That's all you can do."

(Editing by Steve Keating.)

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WATCH: Nike celebrates end of Cleveland's sports curse

Nike commemorated the Cleveland Cavaliers' first-ever NBA championship with a video focusing on the city's long-suffering fans.

Cleveland has not celebrated a major sports championship in 52 years, not since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship.

That "curse" ended on Sunday (Monday in Manila) when the Cavaliers stunned the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, at the Oracle Arena to complete a truly historic comeback.

"After years of holding its breath, Cleveland can finally breathe easy," Nike said. "They always knew this day would come. They just didn't know when."

"A curse broken. A city can rejoice."

The Cavaliers became the first team to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals. LeBron James was named the Finals MVP.

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Curry, Kerr fined over Game 6 incidents

NEW YORK - Golden State star Stephen Curry and coach Steve Kerr were each hit with fines on Friday following incidents in the Warriors Game Six loss to Cleveland, the NBA said in a statement.

The league fined Curry $25,000 (22,200 euros) for hurling his mouthpiece into the crowd in disgust.

The incident prompted a technical foul and Curry's ejection with more than four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Kerr meanwhile was fined for scathing criticsm of the officiating during the post-game press conference.

The Warriors slumped to a 115-101 loss on Thursday as Cleveland leveled the series a 3-3 to set up a decisive final Game Seven on Sunday in Oakland.

Curry, the NBA Most Valuable Player and scoring leader, scored 30 points in the loss but stormed off the court after fouling out for the first time since 2013.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr backed Curry after the game before slamming officiating that he said allowed some players to be more physical than the league MVP.

"Let me be clear, we did not lose because of the officiating. They totally outplayed us and Cleveland deserved to win," Kerr said. "But those three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league."

"As the MVP of the league, we're talking about these touch fouls in the NBA Finals. Everybody's competing out there. There are fouls on every play. It's a physical game.

"If they're going to let Cleveland grab and hold these guys constantly on their cuts and then you're going to call these ticky-tack fouls on the MVP of the league to foul him out, I don't agree with that."

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Cavaliers blow out Warriors to force Game 7

CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Cavaliers took another step in their historic comeback attempt with a 115-101 win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday to force a once-unthinkable decisive seventh game to the NBA Finals.

The LeBron James-led Cavaliers, one victory away from becoming the first team to win an NBA championship after falling behind 3-1 in the Finals, will now head to Oakland for Sunday's deciding game riding a wave of momentum.

Cleveland used an explosive first half in which they led by as many as 22 points to set the tone and never allowed the usually sharp-shooting Warriors to settle into a rhythm or get any closer than seven points the rest of the way.

The Cavaliers built a 24-point lead in the third that looked like it might spell the end for the Warriors but the reigning champions finally closed out the quarter on a 10-0 run to pull within nine points.

But the Cavaliers, who got a game-high 41 points from James, managed to hang on for the win and keep alive their hopes at a maiden NBA championship.

Stephen Curry scored a team-high 30 points for the stunned Warriors but the two-time reigning league Most Valuable Player fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter and then, in a rare display of frustration, threw his mouthguard into the stands to earn the first ejection of his career.

After falling behind 2-0 in the series, the Cavs were left for dead by many impartial observers who expected the top-seeded defending champion Warriors to run away with the series, some even calling for a four-game sweep.

But after splitting the next two games, the resurgent Cavs used a sparkling Game Five performance to shift momentum in their favour and, perhaps, place a seed of doubt in the minds of the Warriors.

The Cavaliers are now just the third team to force a Game Seven after falling behind 3-1, joining the 1951 New York Knicks and the 1966 Los Angeles Lakers.

With the win, the Cavaliers also kept alive their quest for a maiden NBA title that would be Cleveland's first professional sports championship since the 1964 Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. (Editing by Steve Keating)

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Green has extra motive to spark Warriors after ban

CLEVELAND -- Golden State forward Draymond Green could only watch as his teammates missed a chance to capture the NBA Finals, but he's back from a suspension and more motivated than ever.

"I owe it to my teammates to come back and give all I have, all I can do to better the situation," Green said Wednesday. "To come back and be a piece of that great team is what I owe my teammates. I'll move on from the suspension. It's behind us."

Facing Green and the defending champion Warriors is Thursday's sixth game of the NBA Finals, with host Cleveland down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series after taking game five 112-97 while Green was banished.


Green, the only Warrior to play in all 88 combined regular-season and playoff triumphs this season, was banned for accumulated playoff flagrant fouls, the latest when a flailing hand struck Cavaliers star LeBron James in the groin late in a game four Golden State victory.

"I missed game five. I let my teammates down," Green said. "I have to be better and not put myself in that position."

Another flagrant or technical foul Thursday by Green would bring a ban for a Sunday game seven.

"I don't go into game six thinking, 'Will my patience be tested? Will it not?' It's a hard enough challenge trying to win a game in the NBA Finals," Green said.

"I've got to come out and play my game regardless, but there are those little fine lines where you just know you can't cross them. I just have to make sure that I'm well composed when those situations come about, that I control my emotions."

Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said there will be no thought to trying to entice Green into losing his cool, as some accused James of doing in game five by stepping over a prone Green.

"We're not going to go in trying to make him pick up a technical foul or flagrant foul," Lue said. "You've got to play the game the way it's supposed to be played."

Instead of playing Monday, Green was exiled to watch on television from a luxury box in an adjacent stadium during an Oakland A's baseball game, near enough to run over for a title celebration.

"It would have been the ultimate video to see him running across from the baseball stadium with a camera following him into the arena," said Warriors star Stephen Curry. "It didn't happen. But we're going to have another opportunity and nobody will remember this down the road if we get this done tomorrow night."


- 'Emotional roller coaster' -

Green was in misery, feeling helpless and that he would have made the difference.

"I have strong belief that if I play game five, we win," Green said. "I do my teammates no justice in street clothes watching at the A's game.

"It was brutal, man. It was one of the weirdest days ever for me. My emotions were all over the place. At times, I'm excited. At times, I'm frustrated. At times, I'm down, an emotional roller coaster."

Warriors general manager Bob Myers watched with Green while co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber texted him constantly as he watched.

"The support that I received, I can't take that for granted," Green said. "It's my time of need and who can you turn to? ... Sharing that tough moment with me, it meant a lot."

But the punishment taught Green he must keep better check on his emotions.

"I learned a lot, as a basketball player, as a man, just things you have to do," he said. "One thing I've already been teaching myself and trying to learn how to do is control my emotions.

"Me not being out there on the floor to battle with my guys is being a bad teammate. I take pride in being a good teammate and the way I view it, it's awful. Terrible teammate."

"It's an exaggeration to say he's a bad teammate," Warriors forward Harrison Barnes responded. "He said that, but we're not going with that. Things happen."

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Cavaliers down Draymond-less Warriors to force Game 6

LeBron James powered the sharpshooting Cleveland Cavaliers to a season-saving 112-97 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Monday to climb within 3-2 in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

OAKLAND, Calif. Cleveland, facing elimination at the hands of the top-seeded Warriors, got 41 points each from James and Kyrie Irving and displayed a tenacious defense to set up another do-or-die game for the Cavaliers on Thursday in Cleveland.

"We are just happy we got another day, that's all we can ask for. We got another day to survive," James, who also had 16 rebounds and seven assists, said after the game.

"We understand this is a great team no matter who is out on the floor for those guys. They are the champions so we've got to be ready."

With their season on the line, the Cavaliers exploded with their best game yet of the NBA Finals as James and Kyrie Irving proved too much for a Warriors team playing without suspended defensive stalwart Draymond Green.

The Cavaliers duo became the first teammates to score at least 40 points in an NBA Finals game.

"They had two great games, two breakout games. We need those two guys to give us confidence early, and they both did that," Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said about James and Irving.

"But I'm just very excited and proud of the way we scrapped and continued to play hard. That's how we've got to play. That's us."

The game got off to a wild start and produced the best 24 minutes yet of the Finals as the Warriors and Cavaliers each displayed some incredible shot-making that left the teams tied 61-61 at halftime.

It marked the highest-scoring first half in an NBA Finals game since the 1987 championship between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

But after a tight first half it was Cleveland who finally pulled ahead by 10 points late in the third quarter as Irving carried over the shooting clinic he put on during the first 24 minutes to keep the home crowd in check.

With a chance to clinch the title on their home court, where they had lost just three times all season, the Warriors were unable to find a way back into the game as the Cavs stymied any bit of momentum Golden State tried to generate.

Klay Thompson had a team-high 37 points for the Warriors on 11-of-20 shooting, including six three-pointers, but it was far from enough on this night.

"We had a good offensive first half, made some shots, had 61 points, and then kind of got bogged down in the second," said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. "We tried a lot of different things, and nothing seemed to work. It was one of those nights."

Green will be back in the Warriors lineup for Thursday's pivotal Game Six after serving a one-game ban after being assessed his fourth flagrant foul from his scuffle with James in the previous contest.

The Cavaliers are trying to become the first team to win a championship after falling behind 3-1 in the NBA Finals. (Writing by Frank Pingue; Editing by Steve Keating)

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Warriors take Game 4, close in on back-to-back titles

CLEVELAND - The Golden State Warriors bounced back from an embarrassing road loss two days ago to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-97 on Friday and move one win away from a second consecutive NBA championship.

The win was a devastating blow to LeBron James's Cavaliers, who lost their first home game of the postseason and now trail the best-of-seven NBA Finals 3-1 with Game Five scheduled for Monday in Oakland.

"All of our guys played extremely well. We just competed like crazy," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "It was a great response from Game Three, where we were really embarrassed by our performance."

Stephen Curry powered Golden State, who lost by 30 points on Wednesday, by scoring a game-high 38 while Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 34 points. James had 25 points and 13 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the postseason.

Of the 32 teams that have faced a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals none have ever come back to win the championship.

But Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, well aware that the odds are stacked against his team, had a blunt message.

"If you don't think we can win, don't get on the plane. I just think we've got to come back anyway, so we might as well come back and play," said Lue, about the possibility of forcing a Game Six. "We've got to come back to Cleveland, don't we?"

The Warriors, who fell behind by as many as 20 points after a miserable start to Game Three, responded with a much stronger effort to start this one as each team traded shots for much of the first two quarters.

The tightly-contested first half, easily the most intense 24 minutes of the series so far, included 15 lead changes, which was more than the previous three games combined.

Cleveland looked ready to pull away to start the second half when they extended their lead to eight and whipped the home crowd into a lather but Golden State would not fold.

The Warriors quickly took over in the final quarter when they shored up their defense and kicked their offense into a higher gear.

With just under six minutes to play Harrison Barnes gave the Warriors their largest lead of the night up to that point when he drained a three-pointer for a 93-84 lead.

It marked a 17-point turnaround from the third quarter when Cleveland, who went without a field goal for a six-minute stretch of the fourth, led by eight points.

"I thought we played hard. I thought we competed. I just thought we made some defensive mistakes that cost us," said Lue. "And every time we made a mistake, they made us pay."

Late in the fourth quarter the game was briefly interrupted when a shirtless fan with "Trump Sucks" painted on his chest ran onto the court inside Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, which will host the Republican National Convention next month. (Editing by Steve Keating/Sudipto Ganguly)

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Cavs use Love's absence as motivation in NBA Finals

CLEVELAND - Kevin Love missed Game Three of the NBA Finals with a concussion but he still had a major impact in the Cleveland Cavaliers' critical victory as his team mates used his injury as a source of inspiration.

Love was placed in the league's concussion protocol during Game Two of the NBA Finals after an accidental elbow from Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes, and his injury was viewed by some as a death knell for the Cavaliers' title hopes.

But rather than fret the absence of their starting forward, a three-time All-Star who was averaging 16.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, Cleveland rallied around Love in a season-saving Game Three rout on Wednesday.

"Before we left the locker room, I know Kyrie (Irving) embraced him, I did as well. Told him, don't worry about it. We've got him tonight," Cleveland's LeBron James told reporters after practice on Thursday.

"This is what a team is all about, for them to pick their brother up in a time of need, and him not to put too much pressure on himself or the team, and that we're going to try to take care of business, which we were able to do.

"So I know it was uplifting to him, for sure, and it was for our team as well."

Without Love in the lineup, Cleveland stormed back into the NBA Finals with a 120-90, wire-to-wire win over the top-seeded defending champion Warriors to cut the best-of-seven series deficit to 2-1.

It was the latest setback for Love, who missed all of last season's NBA Finals with a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the 2015 postseason.

"I know he definitely wanted to play for sure. Looking in his eyes, knowing in his heart, being at The Finals is what we've both dreamt of," said Cavaliers guard Irving.

"Knowing the magnitude of the game and knowing the challenges that we face going into Game Three, we needed a full team effort, and he was there in spirit, and we just knew that we had to take care of business for him, and we did that.

"And going out and doing what we did in Game Three was definitely a valiant effort for him, and we dedicated that game to him."

Love started 77 games for Cleveland in the regular season in which he averaged 16 points and 9.9 rebounds per game as the Cavaliers secured the Eastern Conference's top playoff seed.

He participated in Thursday's practice with the Cavs but has yet to be cleared to play in Friday's Game Four.

"I know he's eager to play, he wants to play, and we definitely need him back. We miss his rebounding. We miss his post presence. We miss his three-point shooting. So we definitely want him back, but he has to take the steps necessary to get himself back," said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue.

"We know it's a tough time, being in the NBA Finals. It's something you dreamed about your whole life, and having to deal with this is tough. But myself, my coaching staff, team mates, we all have his back and we wish him well and need him back." (Editing by Larry Fine)

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