Curry, fellow Warriors just too much for LeBron
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
Revived by a fresh faced shooting superstar and a first-year coach who made them believe, the Golden State Warriors again reign supreme.
Their 40-year NBA championship drought is finally over.
A half century of misery in Cleveland drags on. LeBron James just didn’t have enough help.
Stephen Curry and finals MVP Andre Iguodala scored 25 points apiece, Draymond Green recorded a triple-double and the Warriors — using a barrage of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter — won their first title since 1975 by finishing off James and the Cavaliers 105-97 on Tuesday night in Game 6.
For the first time since Gerald Ford was in the White House, disco was in vogue and Rick Barry was flicking in free throws under-handed, the best pro basketball team resides in the Bay Area.
And these Warriors are a lot like Barry and his old crew: fluid, balanced, together. Just like coach Steve Kerr hoped.
After falling behind by two points early in the third quarter, the Warriors took control with Curry, the league’s MVP, and Iguodala, who made his first start of the season in Game 4, leading the way.
“This was awesome,” Iguodala said. “We talked about staying strong, stay with it. That was Coach’s motto the whole playoffs. Stay with it. They kept fighting. This is unreal.”
Golden State allowed the Cavaliers to creep within eight points in the fourth before unleashing a flurry of 3s to ensure they would be taking the Larry O’Brien Trophy back to California. Curry’s step-back 3 made it 78-68, and after the Cavs closed within seven on J.R. Smith’s trey, Iguodala, Curry and Klay Thompson each drained one in a span of 81 seconds to make it 89-75.
James returned from Miami to deliver a title to his home region, but the 30-year-old, left to do most of the work by himself after All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were injured in the postseason, came two wins shy of giving Cleveland its first pro sports championship since 1964.
They city’s three pro teams — the Cavs, Browns and Indians — have gone a combined 144 seasons without one of them winning it all.
James had 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists and was superbly dominant during the series, showing why he’s the world’s best player.
James was replaced in the final seconds, but before he left the court, the four-time MVP shook hands with Curry and offered congratulations to Kerr and the rest of the Warriors.
“The sacrifice every guy made from Andre and David (Lee) stepping away from the starting lineup, we just played,” Kerr said. “And they were all in it just to win. That’s all that mattered. This is an amazing group of guys.”
Cable subscribers lose game
Some area residents tuning into the NBA Finals game on ABC Tuesday night might have been frustrated by issues with their television service.
Some Armstrong Cable customers reported disruptions to service about 10 p.m., during the second quarter of the game.
A call to the company’s hotline about 10:15 p.m. got an automated response: “Due to an unusually high volume of customer calls, wait times are longer than usual.”
The estimated wait time to speak to someone about difficulties with residential television service was one hour.
A customer service representative told one customer that the issues were isolated to Boardman.