OAKLAND, Calif. – It came down to one shot.  Just one shot.

In a game that can only be described as a battle, the Cavaliers’ LeBron James hit a jump shot over Ronny Turiaf sinking the Golden State Warriors with 4.7 seconds left on the clock in front of a sell-out crowd at Oracle Arena Friday night.

After it fell, all there was left to do was celebrate a thrilling victory.  James had 32 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in the win, but none was more important than the final shot – a play drawn up by Coach Mike Brown.

”It’s a great feeling to go out there, especially when you get it like that. You hear the horn and the shot goes in, there’s no way they can make a comeback at it,” James said.   ”It’s a great feeling.  I wish everyone could get that type of feeling.”

The Cavaliers withstood the barrage that the Golden State Warriors love to subject teams.  It was a case of the Cavaliers trying to beating the Warriors at their own game – fast and furious hoops replete with three-pointers with defense being a secondary concern.

But instead of Cleveland getting burned by the three, the Warriors left singed as the Cavs shot 50 percent from the arc on 10-of-20 shots while the Warriors connected on 6-of-15.

Golden State began the game shooting that way as they unleashed a hail of artillery not seen since the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan before settling down later in the game.  With the scored tied at 28 at 11:12 in the second quarter, Golden State went on a torrid pace, outscoring the Cavaliers 16-4 to take a 44-32 advantage.  In possession of a lot of momentum, the Warriors looked as if they were in command of the game. Not so fast.

The Cavs went on a run of their own for the rest of the quarter.  Within seven minutes and courtesy of a 15-2 run, the Cavaliers found themselves up by a point with 3:24 left in the quarter, a slim lead that they would build on behind the rebounding and scoring of LeBron James and Tarence Kinsey.  Tarence Kinsey?  Yes, Tarence Kinsey.

”I think everybody stepped up.  The biggest guy to step up tonight was, of course, Tarence Kinsey,” LeBron James said. ”TK’s number was called tonight and he gave us solid minutes every part of the game he was in. It was great to see him give us some production.”

Kinsey (11 points, three rebounds) rose from the Cavaliers’ bench just past midway in the second quarter and fed by James, made his presence known.  That’s a good thing because the Cavs needed most of the team to beat the Warriors.

With that help, it looked as if the Cavaliers were ready to put the Warriors away.  The captured a lead they didn’t relinquish the lead until 1:17 of the third quarter when Wally Szczerbiak would foul Golden State forward Corey Meggette, who completed the three-point play.

From there the battle continued as the teams traded shots and turnovers until the Cavaliers found themselves on a short end of a 94-90 score with 5:33 left in the game. Mo Williams, so good in the Cavs’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers found himself struggling on this night as on the next possession, he missed a 3-point shot.

Perhaps the return of point guard Monta Ellis, who made his season debut after recovering from an injured left ankle caused by a moped accident, gave the Warriors a lift on the night, but there’s little doubt that they had no plans to give up or bow to the Cavaliers.  They scratched for every point and scrapped for every ball.  That turned into a 95-94 advantage for them.

But neither did Cleveland.  It was a simple case of James not allowing them to give up.  In one mind-blowing series of fortunate events, he had what he thought was a layup easily blocked by Golden State’s Andris Biedrins, but when Biedrins looked the pass it down the court, there was James leaping to snag the ball and put down the shot that he’d been denied, making the score 96-95.

The Cavs, looking to put a little room between themselves and the Warriors, instead turned the ball over, resulting in an easy layup for Ellis.  On the Cavs’ next possession, Daniel ”Boobie” Gibson knocked down a 3-point shot to give the Cavs a 99-97 lead that wouldn’t hold, as the Warriors took a 101-99 lead over the Cavs.

Then for a brief moment the struggling and strife for the night ended for Mo Williams (14 points, six assists), as he connected on a three-point shot to put the Cavs up 102-101.  From there the game turned into pure drama.
Quick shots: Guard Tarence Kinsey hit in double figures for just the second time this season…James became the team’s all-time leading free-throw shooter.

Post mortem:

Cavs win 111-97

Raise your hand if you thought the Cavs were toying with the Golden State Warriors for the briefest moments tonight?

Yeah, me too.

It felt like a poke-poke, let’s see what you have type of affair.  The Cavs took their best shot and knocked them back.  After beginning the game down 12-2, they scrapped back to take a 58-52 lead at halftime.  Then the dam burst.

The key?  Once again – defense.  The Warriors like to run.  The Cavs wanted to keep them in a half court game and succeeded in the second half.   In the third quarter, the Warriors shot a pathetic 23 percent from the field, the Cavs forced six turnovers and had four steals. 

The score game should have ended with the Cavs winning by a wider margin, but with the starters on the getting a break, the bench took on a greater role, a fact that should be valuable as the season progresses.

Quotable:

Coach Mike Brown on third quarter defense: 

They play a funky style of basketball that we’re not used to and because of that, it gives us a ton of problems,’’ Coach Mike Brown said. ‘’I thought that in the third quarter we locked down defensively and tried to make them work for everything they had. 

Broadcast:

TV: FSOhio

Radio:

WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Ben Wallace (F); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G): Corey Maggette (F); Brandan Wright (F); Andris Biedrins (C); Stephen Jackson (G); Jamal Crawford (G)

Injuries:  Cavs: Eric Snow (knee); Warriors:  Monta Ellis (suspended list)

Officials: Tom Washington, Kevin Fehr, Ed Malloy

Streaking:  Golden State is 0-3 on their current road trip and have lost four consecutive overall.  The Cavaliers have won 11-of-12 and three in a row.

Three things to watch:

-          The Cavaliers bench has averaged 61 points in their last two games, a phenomenal feat.  In fact it’s too good to be true.  If they can maintain just half of that throughout the season and the starting five continues to do what they do, the Cavaliers will rack up a lot of Ws.

-          See if rookie J.J. Hickson continues to get more playing time.  Mike Brown isn’t about to anoint him as ready yet, but in each of the last five games his minutes have increased.  No one will expect him to get the 31 minutes he had against the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night when he scored 14 points, but in his last two games where he scored 10 and 14 points against the Knicks and Thunder respectively, he’s had to open Brown’s eyes just a little.  Of course, the four blocks against the Thunder couldn’t have hurt.

-          This is yet another team the Cavaliers should take care of.  The Warriors will tries to beat folks with offense – averaging more than 103 points per game.  The dilemma:  they give up 107.  The Cavs will – surprise – try to slow them down.  Of course, the Warriors are still looking for some consistency having lost Baron Davis in the off-season and acquired Jamal Crawford in a recent trade.

Quotable:

From the coach’s office:

Mike Brown on whether his team, which leads the Eastern Conference in field goal percentage, can hit 50 percent from the floor for the season:

‘Are we capable of shooting 50 percent from the floor this year?  I wouldn’t put anything past this group, but it’s not a goal or anything like that.

From the locker room:

LeBron James on the team’s offensive prowess thus far this season.  They currently lead the Eastern Conference in field goal percentage:

The new offensive system coach put in this year, allowing us to get up and down the floor, allowing us to attack the clock early (and) I think Mo Williams and Delonte West running the team has really gotten us really efficient on the offensive end and we’ve taken advantage of some of the defensive miscues that teams have put on us.