In the third quarter, Curry and Thompson scored 11 and 10 of Golden State’s points, respectively. Varejao started the season with the Cavaliers, but was a salary cap casualty when the Cavaliers waived him in February.
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The pace of the game was much quicker than what’s been dished up so far this series as the second quarter followed a similar pattern to the first – the two teams staying neck and neck for the majority before the Cavs pulled away slightly to go into half-time with a 55-50 lead. “He doesn’t get a fair whistle”.
Stephen Curry finished with 38 points including hitting seven threes, Klay Thompson added 25 and had four threes.
Kyrie Irving dropped 34 points for the Cavaliers, while LeBron James had 25 points and 13 rebounds. While Cleveland wound up leading for large stretches of the first three quarters, there wasn’t a double-digit advantage for either side until Curry’s climactic 3-pointer.
With Love out, Lue went with a smaller starting lineup in Game 3, playing Jefferson at small forward and moving LeBron James to power forward. They scored a combined 63 points after scoring a total of 84 points in Games 1-3. Golden State has 14 3s, three away from setting a finals record.
But the Cavaliers are hanging tight.
All of this storm and stress, including a 3-pointer by James, built two eight-point leads early in the third quarter. He’ll likely be blamed for yet another setback, even though he’s averaging 24.7 points, 11 rebounds and 9.3 assists in this series. The long-distance shots buoyed the Warriors offensively, as they converted only eight of their 22 looks from inside the three-point line.
The game has been tense and back-and-forth all half following three straight blowouts.
Love left briefly, returned to the game but became dizzy and took himself out in the second half. It was his first time appearing in the first quarter of a game since Game 5 of the Warriors’ first-round series against Houston.
Kerr said there is no correlation between shootaround performance and the next game.
McAdoo made an impact: He had a nifty move for a dunk late in the quarter, his first basket of these playoffs.
As if passing Michael Jordan and knocking off LeBron James in one night wasn’t enough, the Warriors also hit an NBA Finals record 17 3-pointers in the game.
“We just got to get one (win)”, James said of the upcoming trip to California. Critics have harped on the ineffectiveness of Love’s defense against the Warriors.
The home crowd greeted Love warmly after he sat out Game 3.
During the run, Kevin Love, who came off the bench for the first time in over six years because of match-up problems after recovering from a concussion suffered earlier in the series, went to the line for two free throws and banged both off the iron.
Then, the US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter waved from courtside as fans joined Dancing With the Stars deaf star Nyle DiMarco to sing the National Anthem as he performed it in sign language.
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The Eastern Conference championship banner for this season is already swaying from the rafters in Quicken Loans Arena, and “2015-16” has been added to the banner displaying Central Division titles next to that one.
