CAVS COME HOME, BUT WARRIORS WIN
Just when you were ready to declare this NBA Finals a series, the Golden State Warriors once again demonstrated the will to make it all their own.
Despite an impressive effort from the Cleveland Cavaliers in general and the duo of Kyrie Irving and LeBron James in particular, the Cavs find themselves down 3-0 in the series following a 118-113 loss to the Warriors.
Irving and James were spectacular, but were spent come winning time when the Warriors took over.
A Kevin Durant three with 35 seconds remaining flipped the script on the Cavs, who appeared to have momentum squarely on their side.
The Cavs’ 113-107 lead with 3:09 remaining seemed somewhat safe until Durant and the Warriors got it going scoring nine in a row to take the lead for good.
“That’s kind of what I think makes our team who we are, is we have got a lot of guys who can play off the ball and make plays and take some pressure off of each other, and I thought that was a factor down the stretch,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “(Durant) looked fresh, Klay (Thompson) was all over Kyrie. I just felt like we just stayed with it, and eventually our defence kicked in.”
James wound up playing all but 2:23 of the game. Irving wasn’t far behind, taking just 3:37 off.
Cleveland got everything it could have asked for out of James and Irving, who finished with 39 and 38 respectively. They even had a third scoring option come through in J.R. Smith, who had 16 in the game and still it wasn’t enough.
Durant, the star through the first two games saved his best for last, finishing with 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists, no basket bigger than that threepointer to take the lead with 35 seconds to go.
No NBA team in history has come back from a 3-0 deficit.
“Overall, it was just an incredibly tough, resilient performance,” Kerr said. “It wasn’t our smartest game that we have played all year, but it was maybe our toughest in terms of our ability to just hang in there.”
The Cavs got the start they wanted at home with a pair of early threes from Smith getting the home side loud and on their feet. But it didn’t last — not with Thompson and Durant equalling things at the other end.
A year ago in this same situation, the Cavs arrived home with the same 2-0 deficit, blew the doors off the Warriors early and then coasted to a 30-point win.
The Warriors spent the better part of the past 72 hours re-living that to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. It didn’t.
The Cavs’ lead got as big as six but Thompson, looking like he was on his way to another 41-point game like his Western Conference finals-saving performance a year ago, put up 30 points and shot six for 11 from distance.
Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue resisted the urge to shuffle things up. Instead, he sent out the same five starters, confident they would feed off the home fans and get the job done.
You can hardly second-guess him given the effort he got, but Lue is still looking for some kind of production from his bench, which scored a grand total of 11 points. He’s also still looking for the Cavs’ three-point game — Cleveland threw up 44 threes and got only 12 to fall.
The Cavs played well enough to win, but it’s becoming clear that against these Warriors, anything less than superhuman just isn’t going to get the job done.
Irving in particular seemed to be buoyed by the home crowd, transforming back into that attacking point guard who finds daylight and lanes when it appears nothing is there, and then finishing through a tangle of Warriors defenders.
He did that countless times on Wednesday, but all for naught.
Even in Game 2, the Cavaliers looked improved and came away with a 19-point loss. In Game 3 they were that much better and still came down on the wrong side of a five-point loss.
Game 4 is Friday in Cleveland, but what the Cavaliers can do to extend this and avoid the sweep is anyone’s guess.
Right now, a sweep appears imminent.