Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry let their frustrations with Game 6 of the NBA Finals be known, and it came at a price.

Each was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Friday for separate incidents. Kerr, the league’s coach of the year, was fined for publicly criticizing officiating after the game, which Cleveland won 115-101 to force a deciding Game 7 in the title series.

Curry was fined for throwing his mouthpiece into the stands after fouling out of the game with 4:22 left.

He launched the mouth piece at a supporter in the front row as he argued the call and was thrown from the court for the first time in his storied career.  Curry apologized to the fan he hit before leaving as Cleveland fans cheered.

The league’s MVP scored 30 points for the Warriors, but his team still lost 115-101 to the Cavaliers.

After the game, Curry’s furious wife Ayesha accused the game of being ‘rigged for money’.

She quickly backtracked and deleted the tweet, but only after it had already been shared 84,000 times.

She then claimed her father had been racially profiled and threatened with arrest at the Quicken Loans Arena.

At the post-game press conference, her husband tried to explain his rare outburst.

He said: ‘It was obviously frustrating fouling out in the fourth quarter of a clinching game and not being out there with my teammates.

‘So it got the best of me, but I’ll be all right for next game.

‘It hasn’t gone our way the last two,’ he added. ‘But I like our chances in Game 7.’

It was just one of many things that did not go Golden State’s way on a night that they were hoping would have a champagne-soaked ending.

LeBron James scored 41 points in the victory.

The Cavaliers are now one victory away from becoming the first team to win an NBA championship after falling behind 3-1 in the Finals

Cleveland used an explosive first half in which they led by as many as 22 points to set the tone and never allowed the usually sharp-shooting Warriors to settle into a rhythm or get any closer than seven points the rest of the way.

The King can create history if they upset the odds, and win the Ohio city’s first championship in any sport in 52 years.

‘One more game left,’ James said, ‘and we’re going to give it all we got and live with the results. I’ll play it anywhere.’

James added 11 assists, eight rebounds and again outplayed Curry.

The Cavaliers built a 24-point lead in the third that looked like it might spell the end for the Warriors but the reigning champions finally closed out the quarter on a 10-0 run to pull within nine points.

But the Cavaliers managed to hang on for the win and keep alive their hopes of a maiden NBA championship.

After falling behind 2-0 in the series, the Cavs were left for dead by many impartial observers who expected the top-seeded defending champion Warriors to run away with the series.

Some were even calling for a four-game sweep.

But after splitting the next two games, the resurgent Cavs used a sparkling Game Five performance to shift momentum in their favor and, perhaps, place a seed of doubt in the minds of the Warriors.

The Cavaliers are now just the third team to force a Game Seven after falling behind 3-1, joining the 1951 New York Knicks and the 1966 Los Angeles Lakers.

A win on Sunday would result in Cleveland’s first professional sports championship since the 1964 Cleveland Browns of the NFL.

 

 

 

 

Warriors coach Steve Kerr felt the officiating was biased against Curry, who had never been tossed before.

‘He gets six fouls called on him, three of them were absolutely ridiculous,’ Kerr said. ‘As the MVP of the league, we’re talking about these touch fouls in the NBA Finals. I’m happy he threw his mouthpiece.’

Curry walked off the floor smiling before making the long walk to the locker room.

‘I didn’t think I fouled either Kyrie or LeBron,’ said Curry, recounting fouls No. 5 and 6. ‘It was obviously frustrating fouling out in the fourth quarter of a clinching game and not being out there with my teammates. So it got the best of me, but I’ll be all right for the next game. I had some stuff I wanted to get off my chest tonight after the way the game went.’

On Wednesday, James called Game 7, ‘the two best words ever.’

He’ll live them once more, thanks to a spell-binding effort — the two-time champion had a hand in 27 consecutive points and 35 of 36 during a stretch in the second half — and put away the Warriors after they trimmed a 24-point deficit to seven in the final period. James scored 14 in the fourth before checking out to a thunderous ovation in the final minutes as Cleveland fans chanted, ‘Cavs in 7!’ and ‘See you Sunday!’

‘It’s LeBron being LeBron,’ Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. ‘He’s one of the greatest of all-time. Our back was against the wall and he took it upon himself, him and Kyrie, they put us on their backs. They’ve got us to where we wanted to be — and that’s Game 7.’