What a difference two weeks can make. The Warriors went from facing elimination by a taller, quicker Thunder team to being up 2-0 on the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
Wednesday’s Game 3 will be a night for the stars to shine. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have both had self-proclaimed poor starts to the series. Game 1 and Game 2 were both won by the bench and the will of Draymond Green. As any defense knows by now, you won’t be able to keep those shooters down for long. Cleveland on the other side tried to go smaller and faster, which played right into the hands of the Warriors’ defense. So what are we left with for Cleveland? LeBron James needs to have a game for the ages.
LeBron, like last year at this time, has done seemingly everything possible to try and steal a win and like last year and the start of this year, it just hasn’t been enough. He’s never been a good shooter from distance. It’s just not part of his game, but it’s gotten a lot worse. In four out of the last five years in the playoffs before rejoining Cleveland, LeBron shot 35 percent or higher from three. That is a respectable number and just the ratio needed to keep teams honest when defending his drives. This year and last year, however, he’s been flat out terrible. He finished last year’s playoffs shooting 23 percent and is at 32 percent this year from range.
Kevin Love is out for Game 3. Say what you want about him, but he’s been great this playoffs outside of the first two games of the Finals. He’s another big body that could have taken some of the pressure away from James. Nobody knows what Tyronn Lue will do with his vacant forward spot in the lineup, but none of that will matter if James doesn’t take this game over. You could start Timofey Mozgov and maybe give the Warriors a little trouble, but Andrew Bogut has been playing well and once the Dubs go small he’s going to have to check out.
I’m inclined to think that every game is different. A few days have passed, the venues have switched and the crowd will most assuredly give the home team a huge lift. A fast start by the Cavs crucial if they hope to have any chance. The Warriors have a very deflating offense, where an opposing team can be struggling with two seconds left on the shot clock to get a decent look at a 15-footer whereas Golden State moments later can race up the floor, shoot a three, and be back on defense before you know what happened. Factoring all of that in, we will know within the first few minutes what kind of game/series we are going to have. Warriors allegiances aside, you hope as a basketball fan some life is injected into the series before this thing is wrapped up.
 |
Gary Radnich’s blog is brought to you in partnership with Mason McDuffie Mortgage, the mortgage company you trust, combined with today’s best technologies. Find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and at MasonandGary.com. |