OAKLAND -- LeBron James and Kyrie Irving became the first teammates to each top 40 points in the same NBA Finals game, and the Cleveland Cavaliers staved off elimination by beating the Golden State Warriors 112-97 on Monday night.
James had 41 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. Irving had 41 points on 17 for 24 shooting and added six assists for the Cavaliers. Game 6 of the series is Thursday in Cleveland.
Klay Thompson scored 37 points and Stephen Curry had 25 for the Warriors, who were without the suspended Draymond Green for the game. They lost Andrew Bogut early in the third quarter to a left knee injury.
Green, who was suspended by the NBA on Sunday for a fourth-quarter scuffle with James in Game 4, watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night in a baseball suite next door to Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum, where the Athletics hosted the Texas Rangers. The league said Green "made unnecessary contact with a retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin" of James. He was issued a retroactive Flagrant-1 foul for his fourth flagrant point of the postseason, drawing an automatic suspension.
Green was sitting out for only the second time all season, and the Warriors lost 112-110 at Denver five months earlier the last time without him back on Jan. 13 when he had a night off to rest. He has played in every game the Warriors have won this season -- a streak that continued Monday night.