Still the king
LeBron James put in one of the great NBA Finals performances last night as his Cleveland Cavaliers defied the odds to level the series against the Golden State Warriors at a game apiece.
After losing star point guard Kyrie Irving for the rest of the series to a knee injury suffered in overtime of their loss in Game 1, Cleveland's hopes of making the series a close contest were all but written off. But James had other ideas, tossing up a fabulous 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists as the Cavaliers held off a late Golden State rally to win 95-93 in another overtime classic.
Without Irving, who had 23 points in Game 1, James either scored or assisted on two-thirds of Cleveland's points, but was still reliant on back-up guards Matthew Dellavedova and JR Smith hitting big shots and holding up on defence against the deepest team in the league.
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The Warriors entered the night with a 47-3 home record this season, but it was a rare off night for regular season MVP Stephen Curry, who shot just 5-23, but he was still able to produce a couple of trademark moments of magic as the Warriors kept pace with LeBron:
Cleveland led by 11 points with three minutes remaining but the Warriors fought back to level things with 34 points from Klay Thompson and Curry coming through in the clutch to force overtime.
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But LeBron would not be denied, taking the series back to Ohio all square ahead of Tuesday's Game 3. The Warriors will still be heavy favourites to claim the series, but James made everyone aware he isn't going down without a fight.
