The finals rematch lived up to the hype on Christmas day in the Bay Area. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-92 in a thriller that ended in very questionable fashion. With 1:10 remaining to go in the game and the Cavaliers trailing by three points, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James drove against Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant before Durant reached in and bumped James with his body as the ball sailed out of bounds. Durant was not called for a foul, so the call was out of bounds off James.
“I lost it on the left wing, it got me a little bit, I lost that one,” James said of the play.
With over 24 seconds left and Cleveland still down by three points, James drove to the basket again against Durant. Durant’s arm hit James’ arm during James’ layup attempt. James switched hands of the layup after being hit by Durant while in the air and then James was hit again by Durant as Durant’s arm was still coming down from the block attempt. Again, no foul was called, simply out of bounds with the possession going to Golden State.
“The one, obviously the overturned one, he fouled me twice,” James said of the late-game layup attempt. “But whatever. What are you going to do about it?”
The Warriors went up by two possession, five points, on the next possession, forcing the Cavaliers to force a three on the next offensive trip down the court. Golden State secured the rebound from Kevin Love’s missed attempt and then secured the win after a pair of Klay Thompson free throws. The game was great and lived up to all of its hype, but the outcome of the matchup was partially in the hands of the referees — not an ideal way to end such a big game.
“It felt clean,” Durant said of the no-calls. “It’s probably the same play a bunch of those dudes on Twitter probably arguing about at 24 Hour Fitness that wasn’t a foul. They’ve been in that position before, just not on Christmas at the Oracle Arena. They know that if it’s not called that it isn’t a foul, but I’m sure that if they get that call next week in 24 Hour Fitness they’re going to be pissed that they called a foul. Keep that s— on Twitter.”
