Durant's 3-pointer dooms Cavs again

Star forward steps up to put Warriors on brink of second straight title.

CLEVELAND — This was not exactly the same shot from Kevin Durant.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals again, yes.

Left wing pull-up, yes. Back in Cleveland, yes. Final minute again, yes. But this one was deeper than his dagger was a year ago — and it cut deeper as well. And on a night where Stephen Curry couldn’t shoot, and Klay Thompson wasn’t much better, Durant put the Golden State Warriors on his slender shoulders and carried them to the brink of becoming back-to-back NBA

champions for the first time.

Durant’s 33-footer was the final act in his 43-point night, and the Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 110-102 in Game 3 of the Finals on Wednesday to take a 3-0 lead in the series for the second straight season. A year ago, his shot from a bit closer — 26 feet, officially — put the Warriors ahead to stay in what became a five-point win. This time, the lon-

ger one put Golden State up by six and sent fans starting to head toward the exits.

“Different game, different season, different feel,” Durant said. “Just a different vibe around the team.”

No, it isn’t.

That team had a championship vibe. Soon, maybe today, maybe not until Monday, this team will have the same.

This was why the Warriors needed Durant, and this is why Durant needed the Warriors. He was an elite player before he went to Golden State. He’s now about to be a two-time champion because he went to Golden State. And it’s a reminder to the rest of the NBA that when the freeagency shopping kiosks open July 1, this is the team to be chasing.

They did not have a super regular season. They are a Superteam, without question.

To win any NBA Finals game, on the road, when LeBron James has a triple-double, when they trailed most of the night, when the deficit was as many as 13 early, when Curry and Thompson shot a combined 7 for 27 ... only a Superteam can pull that off.

“It’s almost like playing the Patriots,” Cleveland superstar LeBron James said Wednesday. “You can’t have mistakes. They’re not going to beat themselves. You know, so when you’re able to either force a miscue on them, you have to be able to capitalize and you have to be so in tuned and razor sharp and focused every single possession. You can’t have miscommunication, you can’t have flaws ... because they’re going to make you pay.”

James is not conceding. But he is clearly tipping his cap to the Warriors, his nemesis in each of the past four Junes and a team that’s one win shy of beating him in three of those series.

“That’s what championship teams do,” James said. “That’s what championship players do. They rise to the occasion, and that’s what Golden State has done the last four years.”

JASON MILLER / GETTY IMAGES Kevin Durant had 43 points in Game 3, including a late 3-pointer, to help put the Warriors a win from sweeping the Cavaliers.