Cleveland Cavaliers Narrowly Escapes the Golden State Warriors in A Controversial Win
LeBron James and the rest of the Cavs almost had a bad Christmas with a one-point Warriors lead. But thanks to a Kyrie Irving's fade away jumper, they get to celebrate yet another win, 109-108, albeit in an interesting position.
Tension filled the Quicken Loans Arena, as the Warriors seem to have it in the bag, leading 108-107 with 13.5 seconds left under regulation. After a shot clock violation, Irving takes the ball from the inbound, brings it to down the court, against a defensively-impressive Klay Thompson. Deciding to make a contested fade-away jumper, it sinks and gives the Cavs the one-point lead with 3.5 seconds remaining. Durant misses the three-pointer after the time-out, which seals the deal for the Cavs.
The win is not without its share of controversy, though. After the shot clock violation, the Cavs were supposed to inbound from the baseline, which would have been more difficult for Cleveland. Instead, even without timeouts left, the ball was inbound through the side, as the referees called a timeout to check the validity of the violation. The thing about it is that, according to CBS Sports, the violation was quite obvious, making the "check" unnecessary.
As SB Nation notes, The Cavs played catch-up for the most part of the game, trailing as much as 14 on the fourth quarter. They only took the lead late on the fourth, 105-103, yet lost it quickly with a three-pointer from Stephen Curry, who was quite quiet for the most part of the game. Curry finished with 15 points, with a 4 for 11 field goal shooting.
James led the team with his 31 points, Irving finished with 25 and Kevin Love ended with 20, showing that he is back to his old self. Richard Jefferson ended with 8 points, including a dunk that would shame the young generation.
Durant, on the other hand, led the Warriors with 36 points, followed by Thompson's 24 and Draymond Green's 16. Green started the game on a bad note, committing two fouls early on the game, and a technical foul as well.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com