After the Golden State Warriors demolished LeBron James and Co.in Game 2 of the 2016 NBA Finals, spirits were at an all-time low, both back in Cleveland and in the Cavaliers locker room. The Cavaliers, trailing 2 games to 1, host the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 o.
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CLEVELAND (AP) – Turns out, Stephen Curry has not entered some level of basketball infallibility.
The Cavaliers still have a long road ahead of them and it remains to be seen how much of the formula from their Game 3 win is replicable. The other is that J.R.is locking Thompson down and this will continue throughout the series and that Swish will begin snapping out of a funk that had spanned two NBA Finals.
Still, the fact remains Curry has scored just 11, 18 and 19 points, respectively, in the three games while converting no more than four shots from deep in a contest. “We can put him in better position”. Players have to perform. “It’s on all of us to be better”. While no decision has been made at this point by Tyronn Lue, it is believed that he will come off the bench against the Golden State Warriors. But if the Warriors are going to repeat, Curry probably needs to get somewhere closer to normal soon. If the doctors say he can play, then he’ll play – but it wouldn’t seem likely that the Cavaliers will get away from what worked Wednesday. They combined to make just 4 of 16 3-pointers.
If the Cavaliers lose Game 4, they will be on the brink of elimination. Baseline cuts were impeded. Flash toward the ball, and a Cav would take a little swipe at him. “When you allow those guys to move with freedom of space, they’re very risky”. They’re already risky enough. “So when you allow them to run around and not feel any pressure or any physicality or anything, you know, they’re able to just be even more comfortable”. Harrison Barnes scored 18 and Klay Thompson 10 for the Warriors, who had won seven straight over Cleveland – the first two finals games by a combined 48 points – and came back to the birthplace of rock and roll looking to party like they did after winning the title in Quicken Loans Arena past year. He wanted to play, but Love is still in the NBA’s concussion protocol and has not yet been cleared to return by league and team doctors.
Down 0-2, the Cavs had no choice but to be desperate.
Cavaliers’ back-up point guard Matthew Dellavedova appears to have fallen out of favour with Lue, with just two points in seven minutes on the court. Knowing the magnitude of the game and knowing the challenges that we face going into Game 3, we needed a full team effort, and he was there in spirit, and we just knew that we had to take care of business for him, and we did that.
“We finally got back to our game”, said James, whose energy from the start electrified 20,000 fans, and most importantly his teammates.
To knot the series, it nearly certainly means the Cavaliers can’t let Curry or his backcourt mate Klay Thompson – and definitely not the both of them – have big games.
Kerr indicated he would keep Bogut in the starting line-up for Friday’s game four in Cleveland.
The impact LeBron James had covering Draymond Green, while keeping Tristan Thompson defending the opposing center and in position to both rebound and provide some defense around the basket was significant.
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“We were soft”, said coach Steve Kerr. We haven’t played that well.
