QUICKEN LOANS ARENA, CLEVELAND, OH — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Cleveland Cavaliers, Game 3 of the 2015 NBA Finals.
The Cavs took a 44-37 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Quite Simply, More Of The Same
Andrew Bogut, virtually non-existent in the first half, started off nicely, although he missed an easy bucket at the rim via feed from Stephen Curry, but got his own tip-in, to start the 2nd half.
LeBron James, as he has been doing all series, answered back going down the lane and getting a finger roll at the rim over Harrison Barnes and the helping Draymond Green.
Stephen Curry‘s runner was short, but Timofey Mozgoz mishandled a James lead pass on a cut, and Bogut played pick-and-roll with Curry and got a bunny banker out of it.
But Matthew Dellavedova got a triple from the right elbow playing pick-and-roll with Mozgov as Curry went under the screen.
Klay, seeming a tad impatient, was way short on a catch-and-shoot over Dellavedova, and Delly came back with a runner that swished over Klay to make it 51-41, Cavs, with 10:00 to play, as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Klay lost the ball against Iman Shumpert, recovered the ball deep in the backcourt, and went strong with the right-hand past Shumpert and dunked over Mozgov.
On the next play, Klay almost got a steal, diving for the ball as Shumpert mishandled, but Shumpert got the ball back to James and, with Green draped over him at the left side arc, attacked left and drew a blocking foul on Draymond, his 3rd personal foul.
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It didn’t take long for Green to get his 4th personal, as LeBron missed a three, but Draymond then set a bad screen for Klay up top. James once again went iso against Barnes on the left side and put the Cavs up, 53-43, with 8:19 to play.
The Warriors offense stalled again as Klay made a backdoor cut, Bogut delivered the pass, but Shumpert slapped the ball away on Klay’s catch. Another James iso on Barnes came up empty as LeBron’s fade went in-and-out, but after Draymond pushed the ball and went strong on Mozgov, only to be blocked, Green got the rebound and fed Klay for a left corner trey. That cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 53-46 with 7:21 to go as Cleveland head coach David Blatt called a timeout.
Then the wheels fell off for the Warriors. After Barnes missed yet another open shot, a three-pointer from the left side facilitated by a Green pick that came close to another foul as Tristan Thompson went sprawling to the floor…
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…but Delly drilled a triple from the left elbow. Klay had fallen asleep watching James draw two Warriors on the right baseline.
Curry momentarily stopped the bleeding scissoring the top of the circle for a toilet-bowl jumper, but Shumpert later swatted a spin move in the lane by Steph, and LeBron hit a three over Bogut from the left wing to go up by 11, 59-48, with 5:43 left.
Draymond attacked Mozgov again and again came up empty, as there was a lot of contact but the refs gave Mozgov verticality…
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…and Kerr subbed in Andre Iguodala for the foul-troubled Green. James then hit a fade-away over Iguodala at the free throw line and the Cavs sported a 13-point lead, 61-48, with 5:07 remaining.
Cleveland pushed the lead to 18 as Curry missed an inside push shot and JR Smith answered early with a right-elbow triple swish and the Cavs had their largest lead at 66-48 with 3:26 to go.
Things got really bleak as Klay’s lefty scoop got blocked by LeBron and with a deliberate slow-paced drive, James got Mozgov a dunk, but Steph came right back with a trey from the right arc.
James answered, going right to left with a runner, but Curry punched back, criss-crossing at the top for a one-handed swish runner. Steph then drew a charge as Shumpert dribbled past halfcourt, then Leandro Barbosa — who had come in for Klay — toilet-bowled a long two from the left corner as Steph was double-teamed.
LeBron drew two free throws against Shaun Livingston on an iso post up, then blocked Ezeli at the rim when Festus got an offensive rebound of Barbosa’s miss, but James missed a jumper with 4 seconds left. Ezeli got the rebound, outlet to Iguodala, who found Curry at the rim, but his put-in was after the buzzer.
The Cavs went into the final frame up, 72-55.
4TH QUARTER: D.Lee Sparks A Comeback
Barbosa played a key role in chipping away at the lead, getting a steal on Dellavedova’s upfake. Leandro led the break, missed the layup, but Iguodala was there to slam home the putback.
Kerr had inserted David Lee and he played a major roll in the pick-and-rolls, as Klay got an open three from the top to swish through, cutting the Cavs’ lead to 12.
Barbosa then got a steal on James, but Klay missed the open early-offense triple, a golden opportunity to cut the game to a single-digit deficit missed, but after Mozgov couldn’t handle another James entry, with Lee bothering the play, Iguodala swished a triple from the left side as Curry and Lee ran action up top. The Warriors had it down to 72-63 with 9:52 to play. Blatt called timeout.
The Warriors continued to chip away. Lee rolled on a screen and got an and-one as James fouled him outside the circle and Mozgov goaltended off the backboard, Iguodala got stuck on the right baseline but found Lee who found Barbosa at the rim, Curry hit a step-back three over Tristan Thompson as he played pick-and-roll with Lee to throw off Shumpert, and after Lee disrupted a James runner, Curry got a switch up top and dribbled past Tristan for a reverse layup.
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Golden State closed the gap to 79-76 with 5:39 to go.
After a drama-filled sequence in which Curry missed a step-back three over LeBron, Smith missed a three playing a two-man game with James in the post, Klay missed a reverse layup, and Dellavedova led the break with an alley-oop to LeBron as James pointed for it, streaking down the right side past Klay.
However, LeBron tweaked his ankle and after an Iguodala corner three attempt went in and out as Steph split a double-team down the lane, Blatt called timeout to get James some treatment. The Cavs were up, 81-76, approaching 4 minutes.
Lee drew two fouls on a switch as Mozgov bit on a Steph up-cut and left Dellavedova inside on Lee, but David missed one free throw. The Warriors got to within one as Smith turned the ball over and Curry rattled in a triple thanks to an Iguodala screen and an assist from the top by Green. It was 81-80, Cavs, with 2:44 left.
But Dellavedova reached into his hat and pulled out another rabbit, getting harassed by Curry while dribbling into the paint and somehow getting a banker to drop as Steph applied too much contact, for an and-one that put the Cavs back up, 84-80, to chants of “Del-ly!”
Curry then ended up turning the ball over as Draymond passed up an open three at the top. He had slapped the rebound out of Dellavedova’s hands, no call, but Steph went with a behind-the-back pass back to Green that ended up in the courtside seats for a critical turnover.
LeBron then pulled up for a triple over Iguodala on the left elbow and the Cavs had an 87-80 lead with 1:44 as Kerr called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Green missed a three-point attempt and Lee had to foul Tristan Thompson on the rebound. Steph got a toilet-bowl three from the top to trim the Cleveland lead to 88-83 with 1:24 remaining.
James then controlled the tempo once more, got a switch against Curry, but his fade-away on the left baseline hit the backboard. Steph attacked with the ball, was met by two Cavs and one more from behind and lost the ball.
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Dellavedova and Lee dove for the ball and, not surprisingly, Delly came up with the ball in the scrum and the refs blew the whistle on Lee.
The Warriors continued to make mistakes as Curry’s inbound, after another timeout by Kerr, to Lee got stolen by James, but Lee got a tip-in of Steph’s extremely deep left arc trey.
Shumpert inexplicably threw the inbound straight to Steph at the top of the arc, but Curry’s shot rimmed out. The ball was loose again, and again Dellavedova got his hand on it, drawing a jumpball in the left corner versus Klay.
Delly won the tip, but Mozgov threw the ball awry back to him under the Warriors’ hoop and Golden State had some life with 29.9 seconds remaining, down 92-85.
Out of the timeout, Steph drilled a triple from the right corner, which was reviewed and confirmed. James hit two free throws after the inbound foul by Klay, then Curry hit another triple from the deep left elbow, swishing it, to make it a one-possession game, 94-91, with 18.8 ticks left.
After a Blatt timeout, Dellavedova got the inbound and Klay hounded him. The whistle blew, although there was no foul. There was, however, perhaps a traveling on Delly. The refs reviewed the “inadvertent whistle” call, saw the replay showing Dellavedova staying inbounds (despite the bunny hop), and gave the ball to the Cavs.
With 16.8 seconds remaining, James hit two free throws to go up 96-91. Without any timeouts, Steph brought the ball up, was immediately doubled, found Iguodala in the right corner. He launched under duress, claiming to be fouled with no call, Draymond leapt for the rebound but could only tip it, and the Cavs rebounded with 4 seconds remaining and the Warriors let them dribble it out.
Cleveland now takes a 2-1 series lead into Thursday, defeating Golden State, 96-91 in another heart-stopping matchup.
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