Cavaliers face now-or-never home stand

DEFENDING champion Golden State has seized command of the NBA Finals as the series shifts to Cleveland, where the Cavaliers must continue their home playoff magic to sustain any title hopes.

The Warriors, seeking their third crown in four seasons, could complete a sweep in the best-of-seven showdown with road wins on Wednesday (at 8am on Thursday morning Cambodian time) and Friday after they swept into a 2-0 lead with a 122-103 home triumph on Sunday.

“I don’t think we’re close to our ceiling, which is good for us,” said Warriors forward Draymond Green. “We can play so much better. We’re going to need that going out on the road.”

While the Cavaliers made the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history from 3-1 down to beat Golden State in 2016, no team has ever rallied from 3-0 down to win the title.

“We have to make sure that we really bring it in game three because that’s really the game right there,” Cavs forward Kevin Love said. “This is a team you don’t want to be down 0-3 against.”

The Cavaliers are 8-1 at home in this year’s playoffs, losing only in their first-round opener against Indiana.

“We feed off our crowd. We really get up to play at home. We know that come Wednesday we’re going to have to be better,” Love said. “Just being in front of our crowd will be huge for us.”

But the Cavaliers, facing Golden State in the finals for the fourth year in a row, are only 4-4 against the Warriors at home in all finals.

“We have to do a better job at home,” Cavs guard JR Smith said. “We can’t keep taking positives from losses. We’re doing some good od things, but it’s not translating nslating into Ws so we’ve e got to figure it out.”

The Cavs were the most recent victims of an NBA Finals sweep, being ing blanked by the San an Antonio Spurs in n 2007 in the first st Finals trip for r LeBron James, who is now playing in an eighth c o n s e c u t i v e finals and ninth overall.

“It sucks to o lose, that’s for r sure, but it definitely won’t stop me from preparing to be better,” James said. “We’ve played some really good basketball [at home]. But that shouldn’t give us any comfort. We should still be uncomfort uncomfortable.

“Just becau because we’re going home doesn doesn’t mean we can relax. This i is the last team in the wor world you want to relax a against.”

J Ja me s ( p i c - tu tured, AFP) won tw two titles with M Mi a m i a n d a achieved his goal of bringing a crown to h i s h o m e region, but the four-time NBA M Most Valuable P Player would fa fall to 3-6 in the finals with a loss this year.

The Warriors have imposed themselves upon the Cavs early and see that as crucial for more success.

“We’ve got to come out with a sense of urgency to start,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said. “They have only lost one game so they are very confident there. We’ve just got to come out, stick to our game plan, keep playing hard and we’ll be fine.”

It will be hard for Golden State to top Game 2, when Stephen Curry sank a finals-record nine 3-pointers in a 33-point effort.

“We had some slip-ups and things we can correct going into Game 3,” Curry said. “But the energy and effort and physicality and all that from the jump was pretty dialled in and it gave us a lot of momentum and confidence.”