The NBA Finals are officially interesting again. After the most lopsided start to a championship series in league history through the first two games, the Cleveland Cavaliers climbed out of the cellar to dominate the Golden State Warriors from wire-to-wire with a 120-90 win.
No Kevin Love? No problem. LeBron James had his best outing of series so far as he put up a game-high 32 points on 14-of-26 from the floor, to go along with 11 rebounds and six assists (and one absolutely filthy alley-oop jam). But the Cavs were also buttressed by a pair of blistering performances from Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith.
Irving spearheaded the Cavs’ hot start as he went off for 16 first-quarter points to help Cleveland race out to a 33-16 lead. He finished with 30 points and dished out eight assists while going 3-of-7 from downtown. After scoring just eight points combined in Games 1 and 2, Smith erupted on Wednesday night as well, adding 20 points on 50 percent shooting.
Cleveland showed a renewed sense of urgency right from the opening tip as they exploded out of the gates to a 9-0 start while playing solid defense on the Warriors, forcing them into 18 total turnovers for the night and just generally making life miserable for their stars.
From the start, the Warriors were completely out of sorts and were never able to recover. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green combined for a total of just 35 points, the lowest amount they’ve scored collectively all season. In fact, the Splash Brothers wouldn’t get their first points of the game until midway through the second quarter. Curry picked up three fouls in the first half, limiting him to just over 16 minutes of action while shooting just 1-of-5 from the floor. Klay Thompson had 10 points by the break but was held to 1-of-5 shooting from downtown.
But Golden State would claw its way back into it before halftime thanks to the scrappy play of Harrison Barnes (18 points, eight rebounds) and Andre Iguodala (11 points on 5-of-7 from the field). But that would prove short-lived.
In the third quarter, when the Warriors are historically at their most dangerous, they were never able to piece together one of their infamous scoring spurts and instead watched the Cavs take their largest lead of the night, 70-48, by the midway mark of the period. Coincidentally, Curry didn’t make his first three until that point, and it was just his second field goal of the entire game.
Cleveland also dominated the boards 52-32, particularly the offensive glass where Tristan Thompson pulled down seven offensive rebounds by himself, reminding the world that he might be the best in the league in that department when he’s locked in. He grabbed 13 rebounds total and added 14 points on the other end.
Love, who was forced to sit out after suffering a concussion in Game 2 on Sunday, will be re-evaluated over the course of the next two days before the team determines his availability for Game 4 on Friday, which tips off at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
