Immediately following Game 3, when asked if Love, if healthy, would regain his starting spot in Game 4, Lue demurred on making a decision. “It was just a collective team win”.
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“There’s no point in celebrating or jumping up and down saying, ‘Look at us, ‘” said Curry. When we lost a couple games in Toronto, or when we struggled in Games 1 and 2 of this series, it wasn’t all his fault. And the Warriors insist they’ll play differently on Friday night, when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of The Finals. For the first time in the series, they were the team with an edge.
Jefferson told the website that it “wasn’t normal” for Handy to lay into the team “but sometimes people step out of their norm and say what they feel needs to be said, and it was definitely something that needed to be said”. “We got bullied. We can’t get bullied”.
These are the NBA Finals and, on Wednesday, the Warriors got blasted by a team they’re pretty sure shouldn’t be doing that to the Warriors.
“We weren’t ready to play”, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Game four is Friday (NZT Saturday) in Cleveland, where the Warriors will try to avoid the same sluggish start they made in game three when the host Cavaliers raced out to a 20-point first-quarter lead that proved too much for Golden State to overcome.
With Love ruled out for Game 3 shortly before tipoff, the Cavs started Richard Jefferson in his place and moved LeBron James over to Love’s usual power forward spot. Just a awful way to start.
OK, solid point, Coach, but here’s another one: Neither Curry, the two-time reigning National Basketball Association most valuable player, nor Thompson, his partner in long-distance artistry, has yet broken 20 points in a game in these finals.
“We were very physical defensively and we were aggressive offensively, attacking the basket, ” said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue. “So, you just keep playing”.
Lue said he hadn’t yet thought about how he might integrate Love into the lineup. “That was just my mindset”. “So we’re going to have a better showing tomorrow and I really believe that”. They had to have Game 3 or this series was over.
Stephen Curry managed only two points in the first half and finished with 19 for the Warriors, while Harrison Barnes added 18 points and Klay Thompson contributed 10.
Combined, they’re shooting 31 for 77 (40 per cent) from the field in the series, 16 for 45 (36 per cent) from 3-point range, and have shot a combined nine free throws between them.
“It’s a trap to think that we’ve figured things out, that we have the ideal formula to beat Cleveland, and they have no chance in the series”, said Curry. We competed, we played harder, and we were able to get matchups in transition.
For a 73-win team, that wakeup call at Quicken Loans Arena could be just what the Dubs need to steal Game 4 on the road and finish off their historic season with a gentleman’s sweep at home.
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The defending champion Warriors showed some signs of life in the second quarter as they chipped away at the Cavaliers lead, getting to within eight points by halftime despite Curry being held to two points.
