After not only dropping both games at Oracle, in particularly embarrassing fashion game 2, I wondered how the Cavaliers would respond by returning home for game 3.
The Cavaliers took control from the tip off the strength of a dominant first quarter and never looked back. Kyrie Irving finally made his first appearance in the series, he opened up with 16 in the opening quarter en route to a 30 point evening. Lebron James came out in attack mode and finished up with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists.
As for the defending champions, they could not get it going. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for only 29 points on 10-26 shooting. Draymond Green was also largely ineffective, only scoring 6 points and missing 6 of his 8 shots. Cleveland’s aggressive defense caused 18 turnovers which lead to 34 Cavalier points.
Though we witnessed another beat down in these Finals, unlike the Cavs, Golden State didn’t check out. I will give them that at least because it forced me to stay tuned in longer than normal, as Golden State is capable of getting back into any game. Outside of that, game 3 was another lopsided snoozer. The only questions are now can Cleveland repeat this sort of effort in game 4 and will the Warriors be more competitive?
