Then the fourth quarter came. Stephen Curry lit up with 17 of his 37 points, and the Warriors won 104-91 Sunday night in Game 5 to put the Cavaliers on the brink of elimination. Game 6 is Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET, ABC) in Cleveland, and the Cavaliers now must regroup after consecutive blowout losses.
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James totaled 40 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists and, perhaps most importantly, 45 minutes. His layup with 3 minutes, 20 seconds left in the third quarter gave the Cavaliers their final lead of the game at 65-63.
But he had little help after J.R. Smith — who had all 14 of his points in the first half — cooled down. Tristan Thompson was the Cavaliers’ only other consistent player in the second half, scoring 16 of his 20 points. James and Thompson accounted for 36 of the Cavaliers’ 41 in the half. Timofey Mozgov, who had a career-high 28 points in Game 4, played all of nine minutes and took only one shot for Cleveland.
Meanwhile, the Warriors got something from seemingly everyone. Andre Iguodala continued his Finals MVP push with 14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals. And veteran reserve Leandro Barbosa offered 13 points on 4-for-5 shooting.
But mostly, Curry was the catalyst. Thompson cut the Warriors’ lead to 85-84 with 5:09 left in the fourth, but Curry scored 12 points amid a 19-7 closing run for Golden State. After being criticized for much of the series, the NBA MVP rose to his expectations Sunday.
