The Cleveland Cavaliers took advantage of their home floor in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, with a dominant 120-90 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. Cleveland came out swinging, and never really looked back behind a loud Quicken Loans Arena crowd.
Kyrie Irving — after having two poor games to start the series — came out with a huge first quarter. Irving had 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including a pair of three-pointers. His quarter was sealed when he hit Stephen Curry with a beautiful crossover, which really set the tone for the game moving forward. Irving seemed like a completely different player in Game 3 than he was earlier in the series, showing much more confidence in his game.
A huge difference for the Cavs was how much energy they came out with. There was clearly more effort put on the defensive end of the floor, and the Warriors looked absolutely lost on offense. Klay Thompson wasn’t knocking down shots; the ball movement wasn’t there; Steph Curry looked lost out there at times. Curry wasn’t his usual aggressive self, and it really hurt his team when the Cavs were on.
There was even one point where the ABC broadcast showed Warriors head coach Steve Kerr asking Curry if he was alright, to which Curry nodded his head indicating that he was.
A huge piece to the success of the Cavs in Game 3 was Tristan Thompson. Thompson finally came out and had the game that Cleveland has needed out of him all series, with 14 points and 13 rebounds (seven of those on the offensive end). That played a big part in the Cavs’ 23-3 second-chance points advantage, as well as their 54-32 points-in-the-paint advantage. Thompson was much more aggressive, and played with a high intensity for the majority of the game.
Similar to Kyrie Irving, we saw a much more aggressive and confident JR Smith, who was taking shots that he had been hesitant to take in the first two games of the series. Smith’s offensive presence was needed, and he delivered in a big way for the Cavs, especially in the third quarter where he came up with nine points.
But the third quarter really belonged to LeBron James, and his efforts helped seal the Cleveland victory. The Warriors were trimming into the Cavs’ lead at the end of the second quarter, but that was put to rest quickly when James became very aggressive. He didn’t settle for jumpers early, but after knocking down a couple towards the middle of the game, he found confidence in his shot, and was nailing jumpers. It’s been something LeBron has struggled with all season, but he was able to do it well in the Cavs’ biggest game yet.
The Warriors’ loss looked very similar to their losses against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. They showed flashes of success just as they did in those losses, but it just came down to them playing sloppy more so than anything. That, along with the intensity of the Cavs, led to the 30-point difference.
It did appear early in the game that they should’ve pulled Andrew Bogut and gone small, as the Cavs’ smaller lineup was working well against them. When the Warriors finally went small in the first half, they had much more success. It was all for nothing, though, as the Warriors allowed 38 points to the Cavs in the third quarter. Poor defensive quarters like those are hard to recover from, and it certainly wasn’t going to happen Wednesday night.
Cleveland was also able to contain Draymond Green, similar to what the Thunder did last round. Richard Jefferson was formidable in the absence of Kevin Love, and helped the Cavs defensively, as they were able to put LeBron on Green, which helped the Cavs on switches. That, combined with 18 turnovers committed by the Warriors — that the Cavaliers scored 34 points off of — was all the they needed to roll away with a big win.
Game 4 will be just as important as Game 3 was for the Cavaliers, and they will need a performance similar to the one they had Wednesday night. The Warriors will certainly come out with a different fire Friday night, but for now, the Cavs have to feel good about how they responded to falling down 2-0 in the series.
