Steph Curry drains a three against the Cavs.

While the Golden State Warriors were massive favorites heading into the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, they looked like they’d trail at halftime of Thursday’s Game 1. The Cavs had the ball with less than 10 seconds left and drained the shot clock before setting up a Jeff Green attempt. But that didn’t fall, and Kevin Durant quickly rebounded it, briefly lost control, recovered and hit Steph Curry near halfcourt. J.R. Smith overpursued and fell down, paving the way for Curry to hit a half-ending three-pointer from almost 40 feet out:

Here’s another look at that.

That’s quite the shot from Curry, and impressive even without a defender on him. It was part of an 18-point performance on seven-of-12 shooting, with six assists and three rebounds. But the Warriors were only tied at the half, as LeBron James had a great first half of his own, dropping 24 points (on nine-of-11 shooting) with four assists and two rebounds. If the Curry-LeBron shooting duel continues in the second half, this could be a fun couple of quarters of basketball.

[Clippit]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.