Though they looked shaky at times, the Golden State Warriors overcame 51 points from Lebron James and were able to come out victorious in overtime, 124-114.
The Warriors got an early scare when J.R. Smith slid into Klay Thompson’s left leg. Thompson fell awkwardly and lay on the floor in obvious pain; he was then taken to the locker room. He was shown upright and attempting to run it off in the locker room area. The injury was called a bruised left leg that required re-taping. Thompson returned for the start of the second quarter and would finish with 24 points.
The Cavaliers came out and took the lead in the early minutes and would show the way for most of the first quarter, with the Warriors only leading for brief moments in the period.
Lebron James came out razor-sharp, scoring 11 points in the opening quarter and hitting all four of his field goal attempts; James would ultimately hit his first six shots.
The Cavaliers were able to build a lead by as much as 11 points at 51-40. The Warriors would score eight consecutive points to close the gap to three points and then would tie the game at 53 on a Kevin Durant slam dunk. The Cavaliers would go up three when Draymond Green got T’d up after Lebron James was fouled. Kevin Love knocked down the Technical free throw and James hit his two free throw. A deep three from Stephen Curry as time expired tied the game at 56 headed into halftime.
Golden State would take the lead early in the third quarter and lead for a majority of the second half. Cleveland showed no quit and stayed within striking distance for most of the second half. It looked like they may steal the game when Lebron James’ layup gave Cleveland a 106-104 lead with 32.1 seconds to go in the game. Stephen Curry’s and-one and converted free throw reclaimed the lead 107-106 for the Warriors with 23.5 seconds left.
Klay Thompson fouled George Hill away from the ball with just 4.7 seconds left, putting Hill on the line for two free throws. Hill made the first and short-armed the second. J.R. Smith made a great play to grab that and then proceeds to totally forget where he is and what he is doing by dribbling out nearly the entirety of the 4.7 and then made an ill-fated pass that was too late to have a chance of producing anything fruitful. The game went into overtime tied at 107.
The Warriors seized control of the game in the extra session, outscoring the Cavaliers 17-7 in the extra session.
The Warriors look to go up 2-0 in game 2 Sunday. Tip off is set for 8 PM EST.
