Warriors Stymied, Curry Ejected As Cavaliers Take Game Six 115-101
CLEVELAND (CBS/AP) -- LeBron James scored 41 points, Kyrie Irving added 23 and the Cleveland Cavaliers sent the NBA Finals packing for California by beating the rattled Golden State Warriors 115-101 on Thursday night to even this unpredictable series and force a decisive Game 7.
Ayesha Curry was angry about getting into Game 6 of the NBA Finals later than she planned. Her husband was steaming when he left the game earlier than he wanted.
A tough night for the Curry family.
A tougher night for the Golden State Warriors.
Stephen Curry was in foul trouble most of the way, then fouled out and got ejected for good measure after that for a combination of throwing his mouthpiece and berating referee Jason Phillips. Draymond Green was a non-factor, Harrison Barnes couldn't make a shot and Andre Iguodala's back was so balky that he often winced when he moved and needed treatment multiple times during the game.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr felt the officiating was biased against Curry.
"He gets six fouls called on him, three of them were absolutely ridiculous," Kerr said. "As the MVP of the league, we're talking about these touch fouls in the NBA Finals. I'm happy he threw his mouthpiece."
They were battered, they were beaten -- and now the legacy of this season for the Golden State Warriors hinges entirely on Game 7. The NBA Finals are going to the ultimate game, after the Warriors fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-101 on Thursday night and let a second opportunity to finish off a second consecutive championship slip away.
Golden State never led, faced their largest end-of-first-quarter deficit of the entire season and now will have an unimaginable amount of pressure when Sunday night's winner-take-all game rolls gets played at Oracle Arena.
The Warriors haven't lost three straight all season. No team in NBA Finals history has ever blown a 3-1 lead. And Golden State better hope both of those things still ring true after the 1,316th and final game of the season, or else their record-setting 73-win regular season will be overshadowed by the memory of not being able to take home the biggest prize.
Curry led the Warriors with 30 points, and Klay Thompson finished with 25 yet neither ever seemed to get totally on track. The other three Golden State starters -- Green (8), Iguodala (5) and Barnes (0 for 8 from the field, 0 points) -- combined for 13 points.
For all that went wrong, and much did, the outcome was in some doubt in the final minutes.
Briefly, anyway.
Golden State trailed 31-9 late in the first quarter before getting within eight points later in the half, then trailed by 24 in the third quarter and eventually cut that deficit down to 86-79 early in the fourth.
To their credit, the Warriors managed to make it interesting on a night when very little went right.
That might have been the only consolation.
LeBron James was unstoppable, dominating play at both ends and finishing with 41 points for the second consecutive game. Tristan Thompson made all six of his shots and finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds for Cleveland -- which outrebounded the Warriors 45-35, taking some advantage of Andrew Bogut's season-ending knee injury suffered in Game 5.
Curry left with 4:22 remaining, ejected after just one technical. He had fouled out for the first time since 2013 and didn't like the call that resulted in his sixth personal -- nor did he like most of the other calls that went against him over the course of the night.
"I've lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money... Or ratings in not sure which," Ayesha Curry tweeted just before the final buzzer. "I won't be silent . Just saw it live sry."
She quickly deleted the tweet.
She'll see another game live on Sunday night.
TIP-INS
Warriors: Kerr started Andre Iguodala for Bogut but he was coy about his choice, joking before the game about his decision being posted on the arena's scoreboard. "I told the person operating the Jumbotron to pick our starting lineup and that's what I'm going to go with," he cracked. ... Green and Thompson played in their 103rd game this season, the most in the NBA. That was also the highest total in the league a year ago, with Harrison Barnes getting to 103. ... Iguodala's start was his third of these playoffs. It was his first instance of consecutive starts this season. ... Kerr is one of 26 players in league history to win five titles as a player. He famously made the title-clinching shot for Chicago in the 1997 finals. ... Bogut's injury will take 6-to-8 weeks to heal, essentially knocking him out of playing for Australia in the Rio Olympics. "We'll re-evaluate it in a month," he said. "If I can get back on the court, we'll see. But as of now it's not looking good."
Cavaliers: Seldom-used reserve G Dahntay Jones came off the bench in the last two minutes of the first and scored 5 points. ... James (198) passed Manu Ginobili (197) for ninth place in career postseason games. ... It was the Cavaliers' 51st and final home game of the season, matching the franchise record also reached in the finals years of 2007 and 2015. ... Power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z sat in the front row across from Cleveland's bench.
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