Series has been survival of the fittest,
Sacrificing bodies just part of the gig
When Iman Shumpert headed to the locker room with an injured left shoulder during the first half of Game 3, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ faithful could not be blamed for fearing the worst.
Uh-oh. Not another one.
Already minus All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the last thing the Cavs need is another injury setback as they proceed on this mission to topple the Golden State Warriors.
Irving, watching from home just days after having surgery on a broken kneecap suffered in Game 1, could feel the pain, too. Yet rather than fret, the man with the leg cast picked up his mobile device and got busy.
He tried to connect with Shumpert on Face-Time. The purpose? “To give him a five-minute pep talk,” Irving explained on Wednesday, during his first trip to Quicken Loans Arena since the surgery, “to tell him how much we needed him.”
Shumpert, who returned wearing a compression shirt, didn’t need the pep talk after all.
Yet the thought pretty much underscores one of the essential subplots of these compelling NBA Finals. It is survival of the fittest. “This is what you do conditioning at the beginning of the year for,” Shumpert said. “However many minutes you have to play, you have to play. You have to play as hard as you can until you’re in a state of complete exhaustion.”
Shumpert — whose mark on this series includes clutch plays in overtime in Game 2, when he nailed a go-ahead three-pointer and preserved the win with a lastsecond steal — was hurt in Game 3 after running into a Draymond Green pick.
When he collapsed, concern was heightened because it was the same shoulder that was separated and led him to miss games after he came from the New York Knicks in a midseason trade.
Wednesday, aka Recovery Day, he declared himself good to go for Game 4. Shumpert acknowledged that had the episode Tuesday occurred during a regular-season game, he might have taken precautions and not returned to the game.
“But this ain’t regular season,” he said.
No, this is a chance to win the NBA title. Toughness wins. Time to suck it up.
Consider Matthew Dellavedova, whom Cavs coach David Blatt maintains is “the most Cleveland-like Australian I’ve ever met.”
Dellavedova’s cult hero status escalated in Game 3, when he hounded MVP Stephen Curry with dogged defensive intensity, capped his career playoff-high 20-point night with an incredible, off-balance bank shot in the lane that resulted in a three-point play and lobbed the pass for LeBron James’ alley-oop dunk in the closing minutes. James said Dellavedova also set an NBA Finals record by diving to the floor for loose balls six times.
Then he finished the night in the hospital, getting IV fluids to correct dehydration that caused severe cramping.
You’d think that the Warriors might have an edge, given their deeper bench and rotation. But this is not so apparent, with Golden State trailing in the series 2-1 and forced to play a slower pace.
Warriors center Andrew Bogut likened the physical style to Eastern Conference basketball, with virtually every possession physically contested. Yet they have been here before, having survived grueling series vs. the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets.
Still, this physical toll might go far in explaining why sharpshooting Curry — who suffered a head bruise during the Eastern Finals vs. the Houston Rockets — has been out of rhythm. The Cavs’ plan has been to force Curry to work harder than ever for shots, which means denying him his first look and forcing him to execute extra moves and maneuver around multiple screens. As Shumpert put it, “Hopefully, get into his legs on each and every possession.”
Curry has more minutes than any other Warrior in the series, 128 of a possible 154. But, of course, the Cavs have a player with even more: James.
James has addressed the toll and — on occasion — looked the part by moving ever so gingerly. After Game 2, he talked about the cross-country flight home as an opportunity for five hours of rehab. In the next breath, he mentioned round-the-clock rehab.
Wednesday, he talked about being deprived of sleep — another cost of trying to win big.
When someone mentioned the physical toll the series has taken, he said, “I want it to take it all.”
No doubt, this series will do just that.