The Cleveland Cavaliers pulled off the greatest comeback in NBA history when they stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to take down the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. Draymond Green’s suspension for Game 5 is often pointed to as a big reason why the Warriors lost the series, but Channing Frye made it clear during an interview with Bleacher Report that the Cavaliers would have won regardless.
“I am a firm believer even if Draymond was there, we would have still put that belt on them,” Frye said. “Unless he would have grown two more arms and six more inches. No. Game 5 was crazy. Game 5 was intense.”
Green had been suspended due to the accumulation of Flagrant Foul points during that playoff run. He got his first in the first round against the Houston Rockets for throwing Michael Beasley to the floor.
Green then got two more in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder for kicking Steven Adams in the groin area. He had to be extremely careful from then on out, as one more point meant a one-game suspension, but he lost his cool towards the end of Game 4 against the Cavaliers.
The Warriors were on their way to victory as they led 96-86 with under three minutes remaining in the contest when Green fell to the floor after setting a screen on LeBron James. James then chose to step over the Warriors forward, who didn’t like that one bit. Green swung his arm in response and appeared to hit James in the groin area. You knew he might be in trouble after that.
A couple of days later, the NBA announced Green had been assessed a flagrant one for the act. That meant an automatic suspension for Game 5.
Despite Green’s absence, the Warriors kept it close for much of the night, but ended up losing 112-97. While the defeat was bad enough, they also saw big man Andrew Bogut, one of their best defenders, suffer a knee injury early in the second half that would keep him out for the rest of the series. That was a big blow to the Warriors, and Frye acknowledged that the injuries played a role in that comeback.
“Other things happened that were for our benefit,” Frye said. “Injuries, right? Andrew Bogut going down was huge. I think Festus Ezeli hurt his knee. So they didn’t have any bigs. Now you could throw the death lineup out there for a couple games, but to do that over the NBA Finals, where now we’re going to our bench with Dahntay Jones, Mo Williams, Matthew Dellavedova, Richard [Jefferson]?”
The Green suspension and Bogut injury weakened the Warriors defensively, and James and Kyrie Irving took full advantage. They both scored 41 points in that Game 5 win. James then had 41 again in Game 6 to tie the series at 3-3.
“Whenever you talk about LeBron, you’re like, ‘Oh, LeBron and [Michael] Jordan,'” Frye said. “And I think Jordan is great. And if you have Jordan as the greatest player ever, 100%. There is no way on God’s green earth you don’t have that man, LeBron James, 1A 1B, after what I saw live.
“He was on that court with seven other Hall of Famers and was better at all of them at what they were great at,” Frye continued. “Could you imagine that? You could have put Jesus, Martin Luther King, [Mahatma] Gandhi, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a T1000 out there. We would have beat their a** too. There was no way nobody was beating us Game 6.”
James then scored another 27 points in Game 7, but his biggest contribution that night came on the defensive end. He got a huge chasedown block on Andre Iguodala with the scores tied at 89 in the final minutes. Irving then drilled a three-pointer over Stephen Curry in the final minute to put the Cavaliers up for good. They’d win Game 7 93-89 to complete an astonishing comeback.
It was the first time ever that a 3-1 deficit had been overturned in the NBA Finals. James also became the first player to lead both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks in a playoff series, and was named Finals MVP. It was a special performance by a special player.
