Written by Satchel Price at SBNation.com
The NBA Finals needed some intrigue and the Cleveland Cavaliers have given it to us with a 120-90 win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 on Wednesday night. A series that seemed on the brink of getting out of hand took a hard turn in a new direction with the move to Quicken Loans Arena, where the Cavs breathed new life into their championship aspirations with a big-time win.
LeBron James said before Game 3 that it was a must-win for Cleveland, which was an unsurprising cliche but not really an exaggeration. No team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the NBA Finals, let alone against an opponent that won 73 regular season games with absurd shooting and suffocating defense. The Cavaliers needed to win Wednesday night if they wanted to make this a competitive series.
And not only did Cleveland do that, it blew out the Warriors in a manner that puts this series in a whole new light. While Golden State is undeniably still heavily favored with a 2-1 series lead, the talk of a sweep needs to be tabled. The Cavs are officially back in this, and they did it by whooping the Warriors.
Cleveland jumped out to a 9-0 lead in Game 3, then pushed it out to 33-16 by the end of the first quarter. Golden State punched back from there to cut the margin to eight points by halftime, but the Cavs responded with a 38-26 third quarter that showed there would be no second-half stumble.
James led all scorers with 32 points on 14-of-26 shooting — an impressive turnaround after starting 5-of-14 from the floor. He also added 11 rebounds and six assists, although the five turnovers continue a trend as James now has 16 giveaways in three games. Kyrie Irving also played well, especially in the first half, and finished with 30 points on 12-of-25 shooting and eight assists. J.R. Smith (20 points) and Tristan Thompson (14 points, 13 rebounds) rounded out the big nights for Cleveland.
The Warriors, meanwhile, got relatively quiet nights from Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined for just 29 points on 10-of-26 shooting. Draymond Green had just six points on 2-of-8 shooting. Curry led Golden State with 19 points and Harrison Barnes scored 18 in a turnover-filled performance for the team.
Now the Cavs are down 2-1 to the Warriors in the series and will have a chance to tie things up in Game 4 on Friday night. Golden State may still be in the driver’s seat, but it’s safe to say that we have a series in Cleveland.
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