Stephen Curry’s only basket in the first 30 minutes came off a broken play. His jumper was nowhere to be found until it was essentially too late. If we want to win, if we want to get this done, it’s war and we have to approach it like that. They didn’t switch as often against Golden State’s steady diet of pick-and-rolls, and they showed the Warriors some new wrinkles – partly out of desperation, partly because they had different personnel units capable of different things. I mean, me and Steph haven’t really shot the ball as well as we want to.
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Love was placed in the league’s concussion protocol during Game Two of the NBA Finals after an accidental elbow from Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes, and his injury was viewed by some as a death knell for the Cavaliers’ title hopes.
“We weren’t tough enough”, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. Curry is shooting 44 percent in this series, including 10-for-25 from 3-point range. It’s the first time he’s had three consecutive under-20 games since March 2015, and matches the second-longest “slump” – such as it is – that he’s endured in the last four years.
Cleveland scored the opening nine points of the game and the first seven of the second half, essentially creating the difference between the two teams in the meaningful portions of Cleveland’s 120-90 rout. He still holds the record for most consecutive seasons (23) as a head coach with one National Basketball Association team.
His play at times suggested otherwise.
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.
Neither sequence cost Golden State the game – an inability to guard Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith was far bigger than any botched possession – but neither was also the sort of play one would expect from the first unanimously selected MVP, either.
The Cavs hardly missed Love, still suffering from a concussion sustained in Game 2.
“All we have to do is take stock”, Kerr said.
“We just got to be better”. “We’re in a great spot”.
“He was happy after the game”, Lue said.
“You have to accept whatever comes your way as a player, especially in the playoffs when everything is more easily changed because of matchups or lineups or whatever”. We weren’t ready to play.
“We can’t afford to go down 3-1 and go into their building and give them confidence going back”. Thompson had to leave briefly with a thigh bruise after taking a hard hit from Mozgov, a play that Thompson said afterward “seemed kind of dirty”.
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But as Lue will spend the hours leading up to Friday’s game trying to handle what will happen if Love can return, the Warriors will likely be contemplating a lineup change of their own. I think we got bullied tonight and we got bullied bad. Don’t be surprised when the Warriors answer back. And losing Game 3’s against Houston, Portland and Oklahoma City earlier in these playoffs obviously didn’t become knockout blows, either. But if the Warriors are going to repeat, Curry probably needs to get somewhere closer to normal soon. Then he looked directly into the right lens and said: “Hey, Turkey!”
