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Key: The Main Event
Stories tend to get magnified during the NBA Finals – there’s a voracious national and international media to feed. But the fascinating battle between the league’s current MVP and the Cavaliers’ undrafted sophomore from St. Mary’s is undeniably must-see TV.
After going scoreless in nine minutes in Game 1, Matthew Dellavedova notched nine points after being pressed into the starter’s role in Game 2. On Tuesday night, the cult hero from Down Under got downright offensive – finishing with 20 points after going 7-for-17 from the floor, adding five boards and four assists.
Delly has proven he can hang with Curry through two games, but it’s a long series and he’s a guy that averaged 20 minutes per contest in the regular season and is averaging over 40 over the last two games. Delly has a high motor, but even he needed a trip to the Cleveland Clinic to recharge after Tuesday night’s battle. Some of that had to do with another furious fourth-quarter rally by the Warriors, with Curry netting 17 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter – going 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.
In the David vs. Goliath battle that these Finals have shaped up to be, Delly vs. the MVP is a perfect microcosm. Delly’s been incredible so far. Will he be able to go another round?
Key: Two Guards
Since the mid-season deal that brought Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland, the off-guard position has been a position of strength. And the tandem of Shumpert and Smith has naturally been big factors in the Finals.
Shumpert is battling through a battery of small but significant injuries, most notably his left shoulder – which he re-tweaked on Tuesday night in a collision with Marreese Speights. But he insisted he’ll be ready to go for the crucial Game 4.
“It would take a lot for me not to play,” said Shumpert on Wednesday afternoon. “It's going to take a lot of people to tell me not to go. It's going to take some structural damage for me to do that. If I'm able to push through it, I'll push through it.”
Shumpert hasn’t put up big numbers in the series – (although his three-pointer from the top of the arc in overtime was huge) –but he’s critical to what the Cavs need to do to Golden State defensively. He already has 10 steals through the first three games of the Finals.
Although Smith has led the Cavs in bench scoring in each of the first three contests, he still hasn’t found his master stroke from deep. The Cavaliers are shooting less threes as they try to prevent long run-outs for the Warriors – (including a playoff-low 21 on Tuesday) – but with LeBron doing so much work in the paint, they’d love for James to kick out to a red-hot Smith.
When J.R. gets hot, he gets red-hot. If that happens, the Cavaliers could get even closer to closing this out.
Key: Defending the Kingdom
LeBron made it known after Sunday night’s win in Oakland exactly what he expected from the Quicken Loans Arena crowd in Game 3, and after a sold-out crowd willed the Wine and Gold to Tuesday’s victory, James reloaded his request. “(The fans) were unbelievable from the start to the finish – we fed off them, and we just tried to give it all back to them for 48 minutes,” said the 11-time All-Star. “As loud as they were, they need to go home now and start soaking up a lot of tea, drinking a lot of tea for the next 36 hours, whatever the case may be, because they need to be just as loud Thursday night.”
The win was the Cavaliers first Finals home victory in franchise history and improves the Cavaliers to 14-3 in the postseason. Since their mid-season renaissance on January 19, the Cavaliers are a league-best 27-2 at home, including a perfect 9-0 record against Western Conference teams. In those 29 homes contests, the Cavaliers have held 24 opponents under the century mark. The Cavs are also 22-0 at home during that stretch when they shoot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc. (They were 9-21 [43 percent] on Tuesday night.)
Every game is critical at this point, but the Cavaliers need to hold serve at home in Game 4 or face losing control of the series. A win forces Golden State to try to beat LeBron James in three straight games; a loss makes it a best-of-three with two games at Oracle Arena.
The Wine and Gold have been almost unbeatable for six months of basketball at The Q – can they maintain their mojo for one or two more contests?
Key: Large and In Charge
For all the fireworks out on the perimeter, this series might come down to who does better work in the trenches.
On Tuesday night, the Cavaliers snapped a playoff trend – winning the first game this postseason in which they lost the rebounding battle. (Although it was a negligible difference overall, 46-43, the Warriors outdid Cleveland on the offensive glass, 18-6.)
Tristan Thompson led everyone with 13 boards and LeBron James followed up with a dozen. Timofey Mozgov finished with five boards to go with six points – enduring his first frustrating offensive game of the Finals. But Mozgov was huge on the defensive end, swatting a game-high four shots as the Cavaliers registered eight on the night. It was the second time in Cleveland’s playoff run that Timo has turned in four blocks in a game.
As for Tristan, the fourth-year big man had tallied just four total points through the first two games of the series before finding a little bit of offense in Game 3 – finishing with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting.
The Cavs iron man will be playing in his 100th game of the season on Thursday night, but he maintains that there’s no chance of him slowing down now.
“There's no more basketball after this,” said Thompson on Wednesday afternoon. “Everyone's tired, from the coaching staff to 1-through-15. It's been a long season, but you can't have fatigue be a factor right now. You have to do what you have to do to get ready for the next game – whether it's treatment, cold tub. Shoot, I'm 24. I ain't got no excuses.”
Key: Reign Man
At just 30 years old, LeBron James is already an NBA icon. It’s almost impossible to list his volume of achievements. But if the “kid from Akron” is able to will the Wine and Gold to the title with the setbacks they’ve faced this postseason, he’ll seal his status as a sports legend.
He’s still got work to do – and make no mistake, he’s doing almost all the heavy lifting. Nobody in the history of the postseason has scored more points (123) through the first three games of the Finals. LeBron’s numbers are staggering so far – averaging 41.0 points, 12.0 boards and 8.3 assists per contest.
Another huge number for LeBron is his minutes total, and he’s pushing 48 minutes per.
“I've never played where two All Stars were out, so it's a different challenge for myself,” said James following Cleveland’s Game 3 win. “It's outside the box, but it's not too far. It's not far for me to go grab. I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to help. I know you guys keep hearing me elaborate on whatever it takes, but that's what I'm trying to do.”
James has put the Cavaliers – and the city itself – on his sizeable shoulders. With the Warriors seemingly unable to slow him down, the only question remaining is whether he can take this the rest of the way.