Cavaliers get back in series pound Warriors 120-90
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, LeBron James walked off the court for the last time with 4:38 remaining in the fourth quarter — His job was done. Facing an 0-2 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals after two games out West, James and the Cavaliers returned to the comfy confines of Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and produced their gutsiest effort of the season against a Golden State Warriors team that had owned them through two games.
Behind James’ spectacular 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, the Cavs punished the Warriors throughout Wednesday night en route to a 120-90 victory. Cleveland pushed its record to 8-0 at home in the 2016 playoffs, outscoring opponents by more than 20.0 points per game.
“I think it’s two words, physicality and aggressiveness,” Lue said on the win after picking up his first victory as a head coach in the NBA Finals. “I thought we were very physical defensively, and I thought we were aggressive offensively, attacking the basket, getting out in transition, running the floor.”
From the opening tip, it seemed like James and the Cavs sensed the urgency of the moment. When James put in a finger roll with 5:01 remaining in the first quarter, Cleveland took a 19-4 lead and the faithful inside The Q were heightening decibel levels. When Kyrie Irving, who was also spectacular Wednesday, splashed a three-pointer with 1:22 left in the first quarter, the Cavs secured their largest lead of the first quarter, 30-10.
Irving totaled 16 points in the first quarter alone, helping Cleveland take a 33-16 lead when the first quarter ended. All five Cavs starters scored in the first quarter as Cleveland shot a blazing 71 percent in the period to the Warriors 35 percent.
Meanwhile, the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, didn’t fare well in the first quarter. The duo combined to shoot 0-for-8 in the period and went scoreless as a tandem. James, however, was only warming up with eight points in the first quarter.
“We had a great shootaround yesterday,” James said. “We had a great shootaround this morning. Coach Lue and the coaching staff gave us a great gameplan, and it was up to us to go out and execute that, and I think we did that tonight.”
As the Warriors began to make their run in the second quarter, Curry didn’t score his first points of the game until he converted a layup with 4:05 to play until halftime. The layup capped a 17-10 Golden State run to start the second quarter, bringing the Warriors within a 43-33 deficit. Golden State battled its way back to trail 51-43 at halftime, and clapping hands around The Q turned to surely sweaty palms. However, Cleveland revitalized its rhythm in the third quarter and never let its foot off the gas.
The Cavs started the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 58-43 lead, capped by a J.R. Smith free throw. Smith, who broke out of his NBA Finals funk with 20 points, provided a much-needed boost for Cleveland, which was without Kevin Love. Love suffered a concussion in Game 2 and was ruled out prior to Game 3. When Smith and James sank back-to-back three-pointers, James’ coming with 5:48 remaining in the third quarter, the Cavs took a commanding 70-48 lead. Cleveland took a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter and never looked back.
While James, Irving and Smith led the Cavs offensively, it was Cleveland’s defense that was the catalyst Wednesday. The Cavs held Curry to 19 points on 13 shots, while Klay Thompson finished with 10 points and Draymond Green totaled six points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Curry, Thompson and Green combined for their lowest point total of the season.
“It’s just team awareness, especially with those two guys (Curry and Thompson), knowing their impact and how they can effect the game,” Irving said. “Those guys can get it going in bunches.”
Irving finished with 30 points, four rebounds and eight assists, easily his best game of his NBA Finals career. Irving lasted one game before suffering a broken left kneecap in the Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals, and he hadn’t had a particularly productive Finals leading up to Game 3 this year. The star of the night, however, was James.
James caught seemingly unreachable lobs for dunks, had his jumpshot working effectively and even blocked a harmless Curry layup way after the whistle had blown that wouldn’t have counted anyway. James, who passed Kobe Bryant for 10th place all-time in NBA Finals points, knew that if his team had gone down 0-3 in the series, a comeback to win the series would have been virtually insurmountable.
The Cavs’ backs were against one of the sturdiest walls they’ve faced as a group. The Warriors became the third team in NBA history to win the first two games of The Finals by at least 15 points each, joining the Rochester Royals in 1951 (vs. New York) and San Antonio Spurs in 2005 (vs. Detroit). The Royals and Spurs went on to win their series but needed seven games in each case.
Teams that win the first two games of The Finals have gone on to win 28 of 31 series all-time. The only teams to come back from a 2-0 deficit to win The Finals are the 2005-06 Miami Heat (over the Mavericks), the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers (over the 76ers) and the 1968-69 Boston Celtics (over the Lakers). The Cavs are trying to become the fourth team in NBA history to overcome an 0-2 deficit in the NBA Finals, and a victory in Game 4 on Friday to tie the series 2-2 would certainly help their cause.
POSTED 06/09/2016 01:29
Lake County Sentinel
