QUICKEN LOANS ARENA, CLEVELAND, OH — The Golden State Warriors were at “The Q” to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the 2015 NBA Finals.
Kevin Love, Anderson Varejao, and Kyrie Irving were out with injuries again for the Cavs.
There was speculation that Klay Thompson might have been slightly hurt, but he made light of a “charlie horse” in the thigh that he got in Game 2.
1ST QUARTER: Jittery Start
Harrison Barnes, matched up against LeBron James, came out a little jittery, as he lost the ball on a drive attempt after James opened the game with a bucket to the delight of screaming Cavs fans at Quicken Loans Arena.
Klay was a little off as well, as was Draymond Green, both of them shanking their first attempts, but Stephen Curry started off with a right-to-left step-back on Matthew Dellavedova from the left arc.
Later, Barnes posted up James on the right block on an iso, but the ball slipped out again. After Dellavedova bucketed a runner on a pick-and-roll with Timofey Mozgov, the Warriors found themselves down in the electric atmosphere and head coach Steve Kerr called a timeout with 7:29 to go, down 10-5.
Out of the timeout, Curry missed a designed play that got him open on the deep right wing, with the trey going in and out, and James slid by Barnes down the right lane for a dunk on the ensuing possession. Kerr got Andre Iguodala off the bench to sub in for Barnes, perhaps a possession too late.
Draymond Green then got a left side drive to go, and-one, but JR Smith answered with a pull up over Klay, and Klay answered back with a catch-and-shoot over Smith. The Cavs hit back once more with Smith driving and feeding Mozgov as Festus Ezeli, who had come in for Andrew Bogut at the 6:04 mark, was late reacting and Green was hesitant to leave offensive rebounding stalwart Tristan Thompson.
Curry and Iguodala teamed up for a response down the middle, as Steph noticed that the defense shifted over to him too much and played hot potato with Iguodala, Andre driving down the open lane for a slam to make it 16-12, Cavs, with 4:53 to play in the first frame.
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Green then set a hard pick on Iman Shumpert, slamming Shumpert’s shoulder, forcing him to leave the game.
Curry gave an upfake to Dellavedova, then drove and got an assist to Shaun Livingston and, later, Iguodala got another slam with Livingston finding him on a cut.
With 2:24 remaining, Cleveland held a 22-18 lead.
After both teams had a few trips of misses, Ezeli got an offensive rebound of a missed three by Curry, but threw the ball away trying to get it back out to Iguodala, but he made up for it with nice help on a James drive that resulted in a shotclock violation as Tristan Thompson rebounded and couldn’t put the ball back up in time.
Ezeli then swished from the elbow as the defense shifted way over to help on Iguodala attacking LeBron on the right side. Ezeli swatted a Dellavedova runner…
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…but Thompson was on the receiving end of a lob from “Delly” on the subsequent out of bounds play with 26 seconds remaining.
Curry ended the quarter with a bad pass deflected by Mike Miller on the double-team up top. Miller dove for the loose ball and saved it to Delly, but the Cavs couldn’t convert as James Jones made a bad screen on Livingston with 0.5 seconds left.
The Cavs took a 24-20 lead into the second quarter.
2ND QUARTER: Clank!
To start the second stanza, Livingston made a nice jumper over Miller from the left elbow, Ezeli got fouled at the rim by Jones…
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…and Iguodala made a left corner triple over LeBron to answer a Smith jumper, but James came back with a strong right-hand drive over the helping Ezeli.
Leandro Barbosa crossed over his man twice, but couldn’t finish in traffic in the lane, Smith went with a behind-the-back crossover of Barbosa beyond the arc, and drained the triple. Kerr called timeout and the Cavaliers had a 31-26 lead.
But Livingston turned the ball over from the post on a cross-court pass attempt out of the timeout, Green got called for grabbing Mozgov’s jersey on a rebound of a Cavs missed shot after Dellavedova and Curry both checked back in, and Iguodala bit on a LeBron upfake to send him to the line.
Klay tried to answer with a dribble-pivot-three from the right arc, but was short, and James, still in command of the entire game’s tempo, came right back with a lefty layup to put Cleveland up, 34-28.
Shumpert came back after missed threes by Green and Smith, but even as Draymond hit a three on a catch from Bogut, the Warriors were still not in sync as Bogut had mishandled a pass from Curry inside.
Bogut then fouled the quicker-footed Tristan Thompson on a Dellavedovs missed trey, and that led to a Shumpert three-pointer. Again, the Warriors looked a little off kilter as David Lee came in and almost threw the ball away with a lob cross-court to Iguodala, but got the ball lasered back for an easy two with the Cavs off-balance.
Steph couldn’t get anything going either, missing another ill-advised three-point off-balance trey from the right arc, then James forced the action, attacking Iguodala, losing it with the ref calling a block by Iguodala, then putting it right back in.
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Iguodala came back after a timeout, going down the lane via a missed Smith three-pointer, and dunking it, but inexplicably, Klay got over-aggressive on defending Dellavedova on the right baseline. Delly had nowhere to go, but Klay’s bodied him. The Warriors were in the penalty and the two freebies gave the Cavs a 42-37 lead with the half winding down.
Golden State’s offensive woes continued as Steph fed Ezeli inside, switched against the way smaller Dellavedova, but Festus back-rimmed the slow deliberate move.
After James went one-on-one against Iguodala to no avail, the ball rolling in and out deep inside the paint, Iguodala pushed the ball, found Barnes wide open on the left baseline, but Harrison’s jitters continued as he blew the open jumper.
Shumpert missed a three coming back and Klay got the rebounded, pushed the ball up, and found Barnes wide open again. Again Barnes missed the short banker from the right baseline, but got his own rebound — only to lose the handle again out of bounds, with 46 seconds left, his 3rd turnover. Overall, the Warriors had 7 turnovers.
The Warriors closed the quarter once again with a whimper and even a probable swallow of the whistle by the refs. LeBron attacked again, was met with a lot of contact with Klay helping, but on the next possession, Curry threw the ball away after another missed trey by Klay with 15 seconds left.
Cavs head coach David Blatt called timeout, and LeBron baited the defense with his dribble up top, finding Jones open momentarily for a three-pointer as Ezeli closed out too late.
That gave Cleveland a 44-37 lead heading into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @cestasnuck)
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