QUICKEN LOANS ARENA, CLEVELAND, OH — Three nights after taking a two-game lead in the 2017 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors (2-0) visited the Cleveland Cavaliers for Game 3 with the quest to avoid complacency.
Both teams were at full strength.
HIGHLIGHTS:
No one picks up Curry and it falls apart for the Cavs from there. JR took a shot too pic.twitter.com/DwFRZptEc0
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
Steph rebound, KD splash 9-7
Draymond up top for KD!
Game 3 is LIVE now on #NBAonABC. pic.twitter.com/TxqjMqhnKf
— NBA (@NBA) June 8, 2017
13-15
LeBron gets one to the face from TT. Klay understands that the show must go on pic.twitter.com/s254zhqfBU
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
Steph splash, TT hits LBJ 35-32 ( i think)
Safe to say LeBron is okay pic.twitter.com/DWSDMBCu09
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
19-21
Great hustle. Not sure it constituted a jump ball, though pic.twitter.com/3xoi98WYyz
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
Lebron javale jump ball
Steph Curry too much for Kevin Love, hits the 3. pic.twitter.com/yPS1BkJusZ
— RealGM (@RealGM) June 8, 2017
Steph 3 on love
This is as bad as a pro team can be at transition defense. No communication on the good back screen by Curry pic.twitter.com/qNf6F0TTSj
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
37-32 dime to Shaun for dunk
Yeah…nah pic.twitter.com/w0qa9DhHVt
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 8, 2017
Dray block end of first
.The @warriors set the #NBAFinals record for most 3PM in a quarter with 9 👌s in the 1st QTR of Game 3! 👀 pic.twitter.com/mY19ZXxloX
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 8, 2017
NBA record 9 3s in first
A little Dray to Klay on ABC. #NBAFinals #DubNation pic.twitter.com/BBJo59Xt88
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 8, 2017
41-39
Curry comes from nowhere to strip LeBron. pic.twitter.com/yaRsg563IC
— RealGM (@RealGM) June 8, 2017
Curry strips lebron 4:45 2nd i think
From one 💦Splash 💦 Brother to another. (ABC) #DubNation #StrengthInNumbers pic.twitter.com/IKT51EoM5k
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 8, 2017
49-45
Can't afford to miss these if you're not gonna bust your butt back immediately pic.twitter.com/iZ0T6k61JE
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) June 8, 2017
Steph to KD touchdown 55-40
Steph makes the 3 instead of hitting Durant for the wide open lob. pic.twitter.com/dSRPy9oZWi
— RealGM (@RealGM) June 8, 2017
67-59 steph transition splash
Q1: Early Turnovers
The Warriors came out a little jittered with the turnover bug as Stephen Curry traveled, Zaza Pachulia couldn’t catch a lead pass from Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant tried to dribble too much in transition leading the break, with Kevin Love easily reaching in for a steal that led to a LeBron James layup.
Durant hit two threes in the process though, one from the right corner assisted by Curry, another on from the right wing on the catch over James. He also had an alley oop lay-in fed by Green.
Klay Thompson also had a strong start, getting his first three early to drop, hanging for a nice layup with Tristan Thompson protecting the rim, and playing excellent defense on Kyrie Irving, forcing him into a couple of bad shots.
But after KD turned the ball over again, a pass deflected by Love on an attack of the right baseline, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 7:02 remaining, down 17-13 to the Cavs.
Out of the timeout, Thompson hit another triple, then Draymond made a bad lob pass to McGee, and Klay another triple on a hand-off on the left wing from JaVale McGee, who had come in for Pachulia after Zaza had picked up his second foul.
LeBron had fallen to the floor and the Cavs took a timeout. He would get up under his own power.
Out of the timeout, James got an and-one on a touch foul by JaVale, but missed the free throw, and later Klay hit a three from the left side as Curry cleared out, assisted by Andre Iguodala, which put the Warriors up, 24-21, with 4:59 to play.
Iguodala was then left open from the left arc, hitting the three on a feed by Steph up top, and McGee hustled on a missed three by Curry to force a jump ball with LeBron, which JaVale won, but Thompson missed and James hit a pull-up at the other end.
The Warriors threw the ball away again, and LeBron went coast-to-coast for a dunk through traffic, prompting Kerr to call another timeout with the score tied, 27-27.
Shaun Livingston hit a short jumper on a tic-tac-toe with Green and Curry, Patrick McCaw was inserted and immediately earned an offensive possession crashing the glass and tapping the ball off a Cleveland player.
Steph eventually hit a three on that sequence over Love, giving the Warriors a 32-31 edge with 1:36 to go.
Curry hit another triple as, this time, he played misdirection on the left arc with Draymond and launched on the catch, J.R. Smith couldn’t connect as Green and Livingston converged on him, and Draymond found Livingston cutting down the left baseline for a two-hand smash as two defenders hedged toward Steph on the same wing.
Love made a bad screen to give the ball to Golden State with 37.3 seconds left, but Curry couldn’t hit the two-for-one triple over Love again, although he got his own rebound and eventually Durant found Draymond wide open down the lane for a two-hand slam with 4.3 seconds remaining.
That gave the Warriors a 39-31 cushion heading into the second stanza.
Q2: Late Mini-Flurry Creates Small Margin
After LeBron scored with an and-one to Love off the ball, Klay cut and got a lefty scoop to drop from Green, David West drew an and-one on Deron Williams as Iguodala and Draymond connected on the tic-tac-toe, then West hit a tough runner against Love, but James hit a triple as well.
After a series of empty possessions with turnovers, LeBron eventually got a big step past KD on the right baseline, finishing with a pretty lefty reverse, and Kerr called timeout with Golden State still holding a tight 46-45 lead with 6:55 to play.
More empty possessions ensued until Thompson stole the ball on an entry pass to LeBron that was well-contested in the post by Draymond, and Steph hit a trey in transition on a pass from Klay.
Later, Curry drew a foul on Iman Shumpert with plenty of jawing going back and forth between the two, Durant hit a left baseline turnaround over Richard Jefferson, then after LeBron missed a trey over Durant, KD took off and Steph threw a touchdown pass with James too fatigued to get back.
Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue called timeout as the Warriors pushed their lead to 55-49 with 3:23 left.
But James got an easy scoop out of the timeout, Draymond picked up his third personal as he reached in on a Jefferson upfake and attack, getting whistled for a technical in the process as he argued for a clean block or a foul on the ground, but KD had hit a runner then drew a foul on Jefferson on one more drive.
After Irving got a layup, Klay hit a three, then after a miss, Steph pulled up from distance, and just like that, the Warriors finally found their flurry, taking a 67-59 lead with 39 seconds remaining.
But with 6.2 seconds to play, KD ran pick-and-roll with Pachulia on Shumpert and Zaza got called for the entanglement with Shumpert.
Kerr inserted a defensive-minded lineup, but Irving got the inbound, waltzed past Thompson and the helping Livingston, and got a running scoop to trickle in at the buzzer, salvaging the Cavs a 67-61 deficit heading into halftime.
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(Photo: @gatesmarke on Instagram)
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