With the Cleveland Cavaliers on the bring of elimination in the 2016 NBA Finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors, the mood was very tense headed into Monday night’s game 5 showdown in Oakland. The Warriors were without their star forward Draymond Green, as he was suspended following an incident with LeBron James in game 4. Though the Warriors hung in there for much of the game, they were eventually outlasted by the Cavs 112-97.
The constant knock against Cleveland throughout this series has been the lack of help for LeBron James from his teammates. This was certainly not the case last night as Kyrie Irving exploded for a 41 point performance to match James’ 41 points, the first pair of teammates in Finals history to eclipse the 40 point mark. It will be very interesting to see how things turn out when Green returns to the Warriors line up in game 6. Watch the full clip of Irving’s highlights from game 5 below.