OAKLAND, Calif. — In those final, frantic seconds of regulation that must have felt like the interminable eight-day wait for the start of the N.B.A. finals, Andre Iguodala was alone against the best basketball player on the planet.
All around a nearly half-century-old Oracle Arena, which had never hosted a finals game until now, fans wore yellow T-shirts that displayed the Golden State Warriors’ season-long slogan, “Strength in Numbers.” But now, out on the left wing, in a tense and deadlocked Game 1, Iguodala was on his own against LeBron James.
The score was 98-98.