The Cleveland Cavaliers won the first ring for the Land by closing in what was one of the most entertaining final stretches in NBA Finals history.
As the Cleveland Cavaliers head to the next round, it’s tempting to look back at what the Cavs accomplished in last year’s NBA Final.
It was Game 7. The game was tied 89-89 and all the chips were on the table for both teams.
They were going to go at each other with all they had and let whatever happened happen.
It was the greatest basketball played in a long time.
First, the Warriors would try get the lead.
Stephen Curry came down the court to set up the offense and passed it to Draymond Green.
Green would pass it to Klay Thompson and he would pass it back to Green. Green would then pass it back to Thompson who backed down Kyrie Irving then took a fadeaway shot.
Thompson missed it.
Kevin Love snagged his 13th rebound and then passed it to LeBron James.
James would then go up the court and call a play.
J.R. Smith would then set a screen for James that caused a switch and Curry was on James.
James found his way to the hole and put up a layup and missed it.
Again, the Warriors have another chance to take the lead.
Draymond took the rebound and then passed it to Curry who then dribbled the ball to their basket and passed to Green who then quickly passed it to Andre Iguodala.
Iguodala took a three and missed.
James got the rebound and when he was about to land got fouled by Curry when Curry tried to undercut him.
That rebound gave LeBron a triple-double, the third triple-double ever posted in a Game 7 of the NBA Finals (joining Jerry West’s triple-double in 1969 and “Big Game” James Worthy’s triple-double in 1988).
On the side-out Smith inbounded to Irving and Irving took the ball up.
Irving then passed it to LeBron who had his back to the basket and looked over to Love and threw it up to him who also had his back to the basket.
Love backed down Harrison Barnes, a little bit, and then he did a jump hook and missed the shot.
Draymond got the rebound again, his fourteenth, and passed it to Curry who then took the ball up the court.
When he got past halfcourt he jumped up and passed the ball to Iguodala who passed it to Barnes in the corner.
Barnes then dribbled to the free throw line and passed it to Draymond who put up a three and he missed too.
The Cavs let the ball go out-of-bounds and set up for the next possession.
This was nerve-wracking.
Irving dribbled the ball up to the other side of the court and took it to the hole himself.
His floater didn’t go in.
Iguodala took the rebound and then started flying up the court looking to score.
He passed it to Curry who passed it back to Iguodala and then he went up for a layup and James ran all the way up the court to deny Iguodala.
Smith took the ball and went up the other way.
When Smith got past halfcourt he passed the ball to James.
James called a clear-out and started dribbling with Iguodala guarding him.
James muscled his way to the hole and threw up a hook shot and then missed.
The game was still tied 89-89 with 1:24 left.
Curry took the rebound and then took the team up the court.
Curry accelerated and shot a three and missed it badly.
Love got the rebound and passed it to Irving and he went up the court. Tyronn Lue called a timeout.
Irving took the ball and set up the offense. Smith set a screen to get Curry to guard Irving and Irving made some dribble moves and hit a three that made the game 92-89.
Curry came back on the other side as quick as possible and made some moves, passed it to Green and got it again to fake taking a long three and then take a closer, lean-in three that he missed.
LeBron got the rebound and Irving took the ball and went up the other way.
He tried to lay the ball up but lost it and the recovered it and got the ball to Love. Love then passed it to LeBron. The Warriors had to foul and then fouled LeBron.
The foul gave the Cavaliers more time on the shot clock and the Warriors had a foul to give.
On the side out, LeBron passed it into the backcourt to Irving who drove up all the way to court and passed the ball to a streaking James. James was about to make the biggest dunk of his career when he was fouled.
James went to the line and then he missed the first and made the second.
The Cavs had a four-point lead with 10 seconds left.
Iguodala inbounded the ball and then made a pass to Thompson. Thompson was stopped at the three-point line with no room to shoot. He threw it to Green who was fouled and that was the Cavaliers foul to give.
Curry took the inbounds pass and made room for a three and then missed while guarded by Love.
That was it for the game. The Cavs won and won their first championship in franchise history.
The 2015-2016 Cleveland Cavaliers were immortalized in the history books and LeBron’s legacy in Ohio was cemented.
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