The Cleveland Cavaliers are back on home court on Wednesday night, and they really need a win. Golden State leads the NBA Finals 2-0. They’re winners of 14 straight playoff games. For as well as LeBron James and the Cavaliers have done this year, they haven’t been able to match Steph Curry and the relentless Warriors.
But can that change on the shores of Lake Erie? Let’s take a run at simulating Game 3 before it happens using the basketball powerhouse that is NBA2K. Will the Golden State domination continue in Cleveland or can the Cavaliers finally get back in this series and set up the inevitable 3-1 Golden State series lead?
Only one way to find out. As always you can find the entire stream on our Facebook page, but we’ll go through the highlights and see what happens in this one below.
LeBron was one assist off a triple-double, which seems to bode well for the Cavaliers in this one. Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving each have 20-point nights as well, and Kevin Love had another massive game. You read that right: 18 points and 19 rebounds. He also had five assists. What a game.
The Warriors, meanwhile, got a nice balanced effort from their stars. Curry and Klay Thompson. Kevin Durant had a bit of a quiet one here, with just 16 points and 7 rebounds. And even quieter? Draymond Green had just 6 points and 11 boards.
Well would you look at that. Golden State has lost in our virtual postseason before, but this one actually looks pretty convincing. Looks like a huge game from James and a few disappointing shooting numbers for the Warriors finally laid them low.
The Cavaliers are on top with rebounds for the first time in our virtual series, but things look pretty balanced here on the shot chart. Let’s see what the percentages say.
That’s a lot more blue than we’re used to seeing from the Warriors in these games. All blue in the corners from three and at the top of the arc as well. Seeing Golden State not even crack 100 in this one is pretty shocking, but they just didn’t shoot all that well. So who’s our MVP?
It had to be LeBron. And he put on a show in this one deserving of the MVP award. And finally, Cleveland put together a performance good enough to beat Golden State. Now we just have to see if they can manage three more.
