The Warriors had a golden opportunity to seize a commanding 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals, but instead, got bulldozed by the Cavaliers in Game 3 in Cleveland. Lebron James and Co. took it to the visitors early and often, drubbing the Warriors on a barrage of threes, layups and open dunks.
With Kevin Love out of the starting lineup and Richard Jefferson in his place, Cleveland’s defense was faster and more intense, shadowing Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson’s every move and forcing Golden State to take tough shots deep into the shot clock. The Warriors shot 42% on the night, were out rebounded by 20 and committed 18 turnovers. The game was effectively over before the fourth quarter began.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Game 3 loss (I’ll spare you the most grisly details):
1) Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers to this year’s NBA Finals! After two games in Oakland where Lebron’s squad looked overwhelmed and under-prepared, Tyronn Lue finally got his team to put together a complete game on both ends. The defense was swarming from the jump, able to completely flummox the Warriors’ offensive game plan. With Love out and RJ in, Cleveland was able to run its switching defensive scheme a hair faster and tighter. Against the Warriors’ prolific shooters, that sliver of space and time can mean the difference between a clean look and a harried missed three-pointer.
2) Of course, it certainly helped that the Cavs’ stars finally showed up. Lebron was able to hit jumpers for the first time all series (which meant Andre Iguodala had to guard him a bit farther out than he would like. Which also meant Lebron was able to do things like this), and Kyrie Irving finally found a groove offensively, especially in the first quarter where he dropped 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. The James-Irving duo totaled 62 points. The Warriors entire starting five had 47.
3) For the second time in three Finals games, Curry had a hard time finding any rhythm offensively. Part of that was the Cavs’ defense, which spent the whole game hounding him relentlessly before he even caught the ball and then doubled him hard when he did have it. But another reason for the disjointed effort was that Steph was again hampered by foul trouble early in the contest (and again on silly, avoidable reach-in fouls). The Cavs are actively seeking Curry out on offense and forcing him to guard their guys on an island, where he’s most prone to either give up a basket or get whistled for a foul. Thus far, the MVP hasn’t been up to the task (he gave up a backdoor cut to Kyrie Irving and put himself in danger of surrendering layups multiple times by lurching at shooters) and has been prone to unnecessary fouls.
4) In Andrew Bogut’s first-quarter minutes, the Warriors were outscored 21-8. With the Cavs starting small and the Dubs finding some modicum of success in Game 3 with Dray at center (the Green-at-center lineup was even on the scoreboard against the Cavs in its 17 minutes, per @GSWfastbreak), I thought Steve Kerr would start the Death Lineup in the second half, but he elected to stay with Bogut. The Warriors were promptly outscored by seven points in the first four minutes of the second half before Bogues was subbed out.
5) The Splash Brothers have scored 84 points — TOTAL — through three games. That’s 14 per game each. On 40% shooting.
6) Microcosm of the night (and Steph’s motivation for Game 4): Late in the third quarter, Curry went to dunk the ball after the whistle, but Lebron went full Kevin Garnett and blocked it for the sake of blocking it. Nothing was getting past the Cavs on this night.
7) Thing that would’ve sounded absurd two summers ago: Richard Jefferson’s presence on a Finals team is far more valuable than Kevin Love’s.
8) Klay called Timofey Mozgov’s screen “kind of dirty.” Good. With three blowouts tempering the in-game excitement, it’s about time we got some back-and-forth trash talk going. Let’s mix it up!
9) Say what you will about Cleveland fans, but at least they had the decency to boo the Biebs.
10) I called Warriors in five before the series began, and one lackluster performance by the Dubs (and outstanding showing by the Cavs) doesn’t change that. If anything, Game 3 felt a bit like “regression to the mean.” Kyrie finally hit some buckets. So did JR Smith. And the Cavs’ defense found some life inside their home arena. In a seven-game series, that was bound to happen. But now I’m ready for Steph and Klay to hit the “restart” button. It’s only a matter of time before the Splash Brothers start splashing and the cascade of points starts cascading.