Top Five NBA Finals Performances in Game 5
And we're back! Now, we're back to the idea that the Warriors are the better team right? After the Cavaliers willed their way to victory… excuse me, after LeBron James willed the team to victory in games two and three people started to question the Warriors.
Can a jump-shooting team really win a championship? Will LeBron eventually get tired? What's wrong with Steph Curry? How many more times can Matthew Dellavedova dive on the floor?
Then game four happened and the Warriors did Warrior things. They made their three pointers (12) and reverted back to playing like the number one defensive team in the NBA in the regular season (82 points for the Cavs on 33% shooting).
So now we have game five on Sunday night in Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA. If the Cavs have any shot of winning the game they need LeBron to play out of his mind. Scoring forty points is probably the minimum and some sort of meaningful contribution from either JR Smith (2-12 and 0-8 from 3-pt in game four) or Matthew Dellavedova (3-14 from the field in game four) needs to be there. If LeBron and the Cavs win, and LeBron gives a Herculean performance he'll be among these five legends who put up historic performances in game fives of the NBA Finals.
Hakeem Olajuwon in 1986 vs. Boston Celtics
32 Points 14 Rebounds 8 Blocks 3 Assists 2 Steals
After being down 3-1 in the series the Rockets took game five in Houston behind Olajuwon nearly having a triple double without really caring about assists. Hakeem played 47 of 48 minutes and forced a game six in Boston where the Rockets lost to the champion Celtics.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1980 vs. Philadelphia 76ers
40 Points 15 rebounds 4 Assists
Now maybe you look at this and say, "So what, LeBron did this and more in the first two games." Yes, but in game five Kareem twisted his ankle in the third quarter badly enough that it forced him to the locker room. He returned later to play the rest of the game, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter in order to help the Lakers take a 3-2 series lead. Abdul-Jabbar missed game six because of that ankle but the Lakers won the series behind Magic Johnson's 42 point 15 rebounds and 7 assists.
Bill Russell in 1961 vs. Atlanta Hawks
30 Points 38 Rebounds
Here's a stat for you. Bill Russell had 38 rebounds. The rest of the team combined had 43. Bill Russell had 30 points in game five but averaged only 14.5 points in the other four games. This was the close out game for the Celtics and they needed Russell to be at his best and he was. Oh, and he also played in all 48 minutes in that game.
Elgin Baylor in 1962 vs. Boston Celtics
61 Points 22 Rebounds
Elgin Baylor gets a bad rap. He never won a championship as the main guy and had to retire from the NBA in 1971 because of knee problems. Immediately after his exit the Los Angeles Lakers won 33 straight games and won the title. Still, he holds the record for most points in an NBA Finals game with 61 points along with 22 rebounds. Unfortunately for Baylor his Lakers lost to Bill Russell's Celtics in seven games.
Dwyane Wade in 2006 vs. Dallas Mavericks
43 Points 4 Rebounds 4 Assists 3 Steals 21-25 FT's
On the surface this game doesn't look as impressive until you see the free throws. Dwyane Wade, himself, shot 25 free throws. To put that into perspective, the Maverick team that he faced shot 21-25 from the free-throw line. Wade, all by himself, shot 25 of them and made 20. You can make jokes about the refs all day long (and they're pretty warranted if you watch the game) but to put up over 40 points in a game and score 17 of them in the fourth quarter in only his third year in the league is pretty impressive.
So there you go LeBron. That's your competition going into game five. Get Dellavedova some caffine, keep Iman Shumpert away from the Jimmy Kimmel Show and make sure the JR Smith doesn't have any social media incidents. You're going to need everything working for you when game five is in Oracle Arena.
