NBA: KD Gala! Warriors also grab Game 3 in Cleveland

The Golden State Warriors also won Game 3 of the finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers thanks to a brilliant Kevin Durant. In the 110:102 win, KD scored 43 points to cover the weak performance of Stephen Curry. For the Cavs, LeBron James is playing a triple double.

Both coaches made no changes to the starting five, but for Golden State, Andre Iguodala was available again for the first time since Game 3 of the Conference Finals, this time giving the sixth man. JaVale McGee gave the center again like in game 2.

The Cavs started with a lot of foam in front of their mouths and scored their first 5 posessions, driven by a frenetic audience, among them a Dunk by LeBron James, who created an Alley Oop out of the setplay itself. The dubs seemed impressed, Kevin Durant gave up the ball twice and Warriors coach Steve Kerr took his first break after four minutes (14:4).

The Warriors then defended a little better as the Hampton Five was now on the peloton, but offensive rebounds thwarted Golden State. Stephen Curry remained on the field despite two fouls, but it was Durant (13 points in the first quarter, all 7 Warriors rebounds) and not him who brought the guests back. Cleveland led after a quarter only with 29:28.

Without Durant, however, the offense faded again because Curry didn’t hit the litters from game 2 and Cleveland got solid minutes from roleplayers like Larry Nance and Rodney Hood (!). Solid was also the work of the Cavs in the defense, which allowed significantly less easy points on the basket. Kevin Love, who played a really strong first half and on the other hand also scored his trio this time, played a part in this. Curry and Draymond Green were on the bench at the end of the quarter with three fouls, while Durant’s efficiency prevented a higher deficit. 58:52 for Cleveland on break.

This lead was then quickly gone, as McGee got some easy finishes at the ring and Durant remained hot. The Cavs had lost their rhythm and Golden State now came to slight points in transition, a 17:6 run was the consequence. Cleveland got a little relief from three from Smith and George Hill, but the Warriors now scored at will and led 83:81 after a 31-point quarter.

Meanwhile, Hood surprised the Cavs with some jumpers, which the Dubs probably didn’t have on the bill at all. The former Jazz-Guard scored again and again to Isos and was in this phase actually the best option of the Cavs, since even LeBron had some problems and could not make his mark on the game after a strong first half.

The leadership now changed back and forth. Curry’s first three-pointer brought the Warriors a 4-point lead 2’30” before the end, James countered after a wild sequence. This was followed again by Durant, who, like last year, delivered the dagger 49 seconds before the end with a low three-point. Cleveland couldn’t answer anymore.

The Warriors’ best scorer was the one who played efficient and crazy 43 points (15/23 FG). Curry (11, 3/16 FG) and Klay Thompson (10, 4/11 FG) disappointed about much of the game. Jordan Bell (10) and Shaun Livingston (8) brought some relief from the bank. For Cleveland LeBron (33, 13/28 FG, 10 Rebounds, 11 Assists) played a triple double, while he got support from Love (20, 13 Rebounds), Hood (15, 7/11 FG) and Smith (13).

Cleveland Cavaliers v Golden State Warriors 102:110, Series 0:3 (BOXSCORE)

The fact that Golden State actually won the third game and was not sent home with a package was mainly due to Durant. It seemed as if he could not miss at all and hit one Jumper after the other. But this did not only happen through Isos, but also through movement. Also his eye for the free teammate was not to be sneezed at (7 Assists), especially Bell and McGee profited from the passes. Oh yes: The Dagger was of course again withheld from him, his three-pointer at the last minute was almost a copy of Game 3 from last year.

The best backcourt player of the Cavs that evening was actually Hood, who played very well. The starters on the small positions were extremely weak. Hill was offensively with partly completely failed passes a minus factor, Smith made again inexplicable mistakes in the defense, whereby Golden State could score a lot of easy points.

The Cavs’ offense looked much better in the first half. Of course, this was also due to the fact that the litters were cast. But the tests were much better played out. LeBron already had 9 assists at the break, but this time the king acted more from the high post and had more freedom to operate. The Warriors then tried less to switchen, but this had little success because James punished it with drives. But LeBron left quite a bit there, probably because he had a nasty twist once in the second quarter. After the change the creativity went down the drain, many well defended threesomes were taken, while James didn’t get a chance either.