Warriors rip out the Cavs’ hearts to 3-0 NBA Finals lead: 3 takeaways

In the most competitive game of the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors rode Kevin Durant to a 118-113  Game 3 win.

Tonight’s winning number: 35, the number of Cleveland’s most hated man. The number of Kevin Freaking Durant.

Game 3 is the type of contest that makes you almost forget about how awful and noncompetitive the NBA Playoffs have been. Almost.

Game 3 was everything we hoped for — an amalgam of energy, competitiveness, all-world talent and hustle. The Cleveland Cavaliers played their best game; they threw nothing but haymakers and connected on most of them.

LeBron James finished with 39-11-9, one assist shy of another triple-double, which would’ve put him in sole possesion of first place in NBA Finals history. Kyrie Irving bounced back from an 8-23 Game 2 outing, shooting 16-29 from the field and cementing his place as one of the best finishers at the rim in NBA history.

J.R. Smith played his best game of the postseason, scoring 16 points.

But even with their best game, the Cavs couldn’t pull away. The Warriors stayed within striking distance until the very end, when there was Durant. And Kevin Durant has the power to rip everything your basketball team ever wanted into shreds, then use those shreds as confetti after the final horn.

This is the type of loss for the Cavaliers that destroys your soul, and it’s tough to think they’ll muster up enough fight to stave off a sweep. That shouldn’t change the fact that they faced a 2-0 series deficit head on. And not only did they not blink, they hit back. The Warriors just hit harder and they hit with Kevin Freaking Durant.

Here are three takeaways from Game 3.

Takeaways

Yep, this is why the Warriors got Kevin Durant: Much has been made about the Warriors’ improvement at small forward when they signed Durant to replace Harrison Barnes. We all knew it, of course, but Game 3 was worth the season-long criticisms about the Bay Area superteam.

In last season’s Finals, the Warriors struggled in late-game situations. They didn’t have their isolation star to match those back-and-forth possessions like the Cavs with James and Irving. Durant ended that notion when he signed. And then he ripped the hearts out of the Cavaliers.

Durant scored seven of the final nine points for the Warriors, including a huge 3-pointer that gave the Warriors a 114-113 lead. It would turn out to be the game-winner. Durant’s late-game destruction turned thinkpieces about the Cavs’ chances to win the series to a likely sweep on Friday. Let’s just let Slim Reaper be the universal nickname for Durant. Nothing else fits anymore.

The margin for error with the Warriors is so wide: Besides Durant, the biggest story of Game 3 will be how well the Cavs played, yet they were never able to pull away.

The Cavs finished with 46 points in the paint. Their two best players combined for 77 points. Kevin Love — who struggled from the field — finished with six steals and 13 rebounds. They hustled and were physical and energetic. They dove for loose balls. Kyrie didn’t die on screens and was engaged defensively. All those circus shots that didn’t fall in Game 2, fell in Game 3. He only missed two shots in the paint!

The Cavs survived despite getting zero points from Tristan Thompson. They overcame only 17 assists as a team and an abysmal 27 percent from 3. They forced Draymond Green into foul trouble for the third-straight game. They had a four-point lead with about a minute left. The Cavaliers couldn’t have played a better game. And they lost. That’s how good the Warriors are.

Welcome back, [offensive] Klay: Can we stop ever worrying about Klay Thompson on offense? Any time we seem to realize that he can be a bit streaky, he comes out with a performance like Game 3. As the Warriors were in the midst of a first-quarter onslaught by LeBron — who went 7-8 — Thompson matched him, finishing 5-of-7 with four 3s and 16 points.

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Thompson finished the game with 30 points and was the third scorer the Warriors were looking for (because when you’re that good, we have to create controversy to stay engaged). Thompson’s host start kept the door from opening too wide and allowed for the Slim Reaper to pretty much end the Cavaliers’ hopes of repeating. Warriors in four.