Cavaliers 95, Warriors 93 (OT)
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Point guard Matthew Dellavedova hit two free throws with 10.1 seconds remaining Sunday night, giving the Cleveland Cavaliers a 95-93 overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors and tying the NBA Finals at one game apiece.
The best-of-seven series heads to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. A Game 5, now assured, will be played next Sunday back in Oakland.
Cavaliers forward LeBron James recorded his fifth career triple-double in a Finals game with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, helping Cleveland offset a 108-100 Warriors win in overtime in Game 1 on Thursday night.
The NBA Finals never previously opened with back-to-back overtime games. The Warriors rallied from an 11-point deficit with just over three minutes left Sunday to force the extra session.
The Cavaliers were able to even the series despite the absence of point guard Kyrie Irving, who sustained a season-ending broken left kneecap in the Game 1 loss.
After point guard Stephen Curry gave the Warriors their first lead since the second quarter, 93-92, with 29.5 seconds remaining, Dellavedova was fouled while attempting to follow in a missed 3-point try from forward James Jones.
Scoreless until the fourth quarter, Dellavedova, a product of Saint Mary's College in the Oakland suburb of Moraga, Calif., calmly hit both free throws for a one-point lead, which he helped preserve when he harassed Curry into an airball at the other end.
James, fouled on the rebound, capped the scoring with one free throw with 4.4 seconds remaining.
Center Timofey Mozgov had a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double for the Cavaliers, who won despite shooting just 32.6 percent from the field. Supersub J.R. Smith added 13 points and Dellavedova scored nine in 41 minutes.
Shooting guard Klay Thompson led Golden State with 34 points. Curry finished with 19 but missed 18 of his 23 shots, including 13 of his 15 3-point attempts. The 13 missed 3-point shots were an NBA Finals record.
The Cavaliers, held to two points in the five-minute overtime in Game 1, surpassed that total on their second shot this time around, with shooting guard Iman Shumpert taking James' 11th assist and converting it into a 3-pointer 1:13 into the period.
Two free throws by James increased the lead to 92-87 with 3:17 left before Golden State, as it had at the end of regulation, rallied again.
The Warriors missed their first five shots of the overtime, but power forward Draymond Green tipped in the fifth failure, then followed in a miss of his own, making it a one-point game with 2:00 remaining.
Neither team scored again until Curry's two free throws with 29.5 seconds left.
As in Game 1, the Cavaliers had the final two shots at a regulation win, but James couldn't finish a driving left-hander and power forward Tristan Thompson was too strong with a tip-in attempt in traffic just prior to the horn.
Cleveland, up 11 with 3:13 to go, couldn't hold on down the stretch of regulation. Golden State reserve swingman Andre Iguodala and Curry hit consecutive 3-pointers to spark a 15-4, quarter-ending run, with Curry's driving layup with 7.2 seconds remaining forging the 87-all tie.
Dellavedova and Smith helped the Cavaliers take the big lead that appeared to be driving them to a regulation win.
Dellavedova, who started in Irving's place but was scoreless through three quarters, hit his first two jumpers of the night early in the fourth period, breaking a 62-all tie.
The lead extended to 73-66 before Smith and Dellavedova sandwiched a pair of Thompson free throws to push the margin to 79-68 with 5:00 remaining, the Cavaliers' first double-digit lead of the night.
A 3-pointer by James gave Cleveland its biggest lead at 83-72 with 3:13 to go before the Warriors' late frantic flurry.
Mozgov scored all 17 of his points in the first three quarters, helping the Cavaliers to a 62-59 lead through 36 minutes.
James had 26 points through three periods, but the Cavaliers were able to extend a 47-45 lead to three points by the end of the third quarter despite their star missing eight of his 10 shots in the period.
Mozgov had six points in the period, as well as five of his game-high 11 rebounds, to help the Cavaliers gain their slight advantage.
The Warriors managed to hang close despite a 3-for-13, 10-point effort by Curry through three periods. The point guard missed eight of his first nine 3-point attempts.
Thompson, helped keep Golden State within arm's length with 25 points in the first 36 minutes. Thompson had three 3-pointers among 11 field goals.
Jones came off the bench to score 10 second-quarter points, helping the Cavaliers gain a two-point halftime lead.
The Warriors led by as many as eight in the first quarter, and the Cavaliers by seven late in the second period before the first 24 minutes ended on near-even terms.
James led all scorers in the half with 20 points.
NOTES: The Cavaliers have experience rebounding from a Game 1 loss in the postseason. They lost the opener to the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinals before taking the series 4-2. ... PG Matthew Dellavedova started in place of Cavaliers PG Kyrie Irving, who fractured his left kneecap in Game 1 and is done for the series. ... The Cavaliers' complete injury list of players who will not be returning to the Finals consists of: Irving, PF Kevin Love (dislocated left shoulder) and PF/C Anderson Varejao (ruptured left Achilles tendon). ... While admitting before the game that being an underdog is not a bad thing, Cavaliers coach David Blatt insisted, "We've also played short-handed in the past, and we've won a lot of games. We're not looking to win one more. That's not our goal." ... Warriors coach Steve Kerr took time in his pregame press conference to congratulate fellow University of Arizona alum Bob Baffert, trainer of Triple Crown-winning American Pharoah, as well as French Open champ Stan Wawrinka, noting, "I like watching other sporting events, and I do draw inspiration from them."