Cavs Seize Home Court
The NBA playoffs are often criticized as being too predictable.
Sure, there's an occasional upset, but the No 1 seeds are usually there come June.
This NBA Finals is no different.
Sure the Thunder shocked the NBA for a bit, but at the end of the day, we got the Cavaliers-Warriors series we were all anticipating and expecting since last season.
While the Dubs came in with basically the same roster, the Cavs had the added bonus of having stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love healthy and ready to play this time around.
Cleveland also came into the Ffinals with a new coach in Ty Lue, as previous coach David Blatt was universally disliked by his players, with shadow GM LeBron James being the prime candidate.
Regardless of the improvements on the Cavs roster, this series had thus far been proven to anything but. The regular season champ Warriors utterly obliterated the Cavs at Oracle Arena in the first two games by a combined 48 points, the majority of which came in a 110-77 Game 2 Golden State win.
Stories about the Warriors shifted quickly from, can they repeat to are they the GOAT?
This theme was fueled heavily by the comments of Klay Thompson, who said that their 2016 edition would beat Magic and the Showtime Lakers.
No doubt the Cavs were slighted by the thought that Golden State was seemingly overlooking one small detail: this series was only two games in.
Sure, the Dubs had thus far looked like the better team, but they've still gotta win four to win the war.
With the series shifting back to Cleveland, LeBron and the Cavs were looking to show the NBA world that they weren’t dead yet. OK, they might've been mostly dead, especially considering the fact that Kevin Love had been ruled out of Game 3 with a ruled out of Game 3 with a concussion.
The Cavs refused to die though, as they walloped the Warriors, 120-90 on their home court at Quicken Loans Arena.
Cleveland took a 33-16 lead early in the first quarter, and -- save for a slight Warriors comeback in the second -- never looked back.
Irving, who'd been heavily criticized for his poor play early in the series -- and justifiably so -- came up big with 30 points and 8 assists. LeBron was no slouch either, as his near triple-double of 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists showed they wouldn't go quietly into the silent night.
On the Warriors' side of the ball, Steph Curry led the team in points, though his mere 19 came up 'way short of his scoring potential yet again this series. Klay Thompson -- who suffered a contusion in his thigh due to a somewhat cheap play by Mozgov -- and Draymond Green scored 10 and 6 points, respectively.
Now the Cavs have finally racked up a W, this may actually be a series.
|
Then again, it’s hard to call it a series when the average margin of victory is 26 points.
Plus, the Cavs obviously can’t afford to let the trend of the home team defending its court continue.
For now at least, Cleveland should be pleased they defended their home court, even if there are still lingering questions as to whether or not they should continue to play OG Richard Jefferson over Kevin Love.
Meanwhile, Golden State's left to wonder if they can be the first team to beat the Cavs at home this post-season, as well as if Curry can get himself back into MVP form.
Game 4 will be Fri 10 Jun, where casual fans will most likely wonder if a close game might occur.