NBA playoffs have turned into survival of the fittest
CLEVELAND – When Iman Shumpert headed to the locker room with an injured left shoulder during the first half of Game 3, the Cleveland Cavaliers' faithful could not be blamed for fearing the worst.
Uh-oh. Not another one.
Already minus All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the last thing the Cavs need is another injury setback as they proceed on this mission to topple the Golden State Warriors.
Irving, watching from home just days after having surgery on the fractured kneecap suffered in Game 1, could feel the pain, too. Yet rather than fret, the man with the leg cast picked up his mobile device and got busy.
He tried to connect with Shumpert on FaceTime.
The purpose?
"To give him a five-minute pep talk," Irving explained on Wednesday, during his first trip to Quicken Loans Arena since surgery, "to tell him how much we needed him."
Shumpert, who returned wearing a compression shirt, didn't need the pep talk, after all.
Yet the thought pretty much underscores one of the essential subplots of these compelling NBA Finals.
It is survival of the fittest.
"This is what you do conditioning at the beginning of the year for," Shumpert said. "However many minutes you have to play, you have to play. You have to play as hard as you can until you're in a state of complete exhaustion."
Shumpert – whose mark on this series includes clutch plays in overtime in Game 2, when he nailed a go-ahead three-pointer and preserved the win with a last-second steal -- was hurt in Game 3 after running into a Draymond Green pick. When he collapsed, concern was heightened because it was the same shoulder that was separated and forced him to miss games after he arrived from the New York Knicks in a midseason trade.
On Wednesday, aka "Recovery Day," he declared himself good to go for Game 4. Shumpert acknowledged that had the episode Tuesday night occurred during a regular-season game, he might have taken precautions and not returned to the game.
"But this ain't regular season," he said.
No, this is a chance to win the NBA title. Toughness wins. Time to suck it up.
Consider Matthew Dellavedova, whom Cavs coach David Blatt maintains is "the most Cleveland-like Australian I've ever met."
Dellavedova's cult hero status escalated during Game 3, when he hounded MVP Stephen Curry with dogged defensive intensity, capped his career playoff-high 20-point night with an incredible, off-balance bank shot in the lane that resulted in a three-point play, and lobbed the pass for LeBron James' alley-oop dunk in the closing minutes. James said Dellavedova also set an NBA Finals record by diving to the floor for loose balls six times during Game 3.
Then he finished the night in the hospital, getting IV fluids to correct dehydration that caused severe cramping.
"I've pushed the limit a few times, but that's probably the tightest I've been," Dellavedova said. "It's good we don't have to play back-to-backs."
You'd think that the Warriors might have an edge, given their deeper bench and rotation. But this is not so apparent, with Golden State trailing in the series, 2-1, and forced to play a slower pace.
Warriors center Andrew Bogut likened the physical style to Eastern Conference basketball, with virtually every possession physically contested. Yet they have been before, surviving grueling series against the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets to get here.
Still, this physical toll may go far in explaining why sharp-shooting point guard Stephen Curry – who suffered a head contusion during the Eastern Finals at Houston -- has been out of rhythm. The Cavs' plan has been to force Curry to work harder than ever for his shots, which means denying him his first look and forcing him to execute extra moves and maneuver around multiple screens.
As Shumpert put it, "Hopefully, get into his legs on each and every possession."
Curry has logged more time than any Warrior in the series, playing 128 of a possible 154 minutes.
But, of course, the Cavs have a player who has played even more: James.
At several of his media sessions during the series, James has addressed the toll and on some occasions looked the part by moving ever so gingerly. After Game 2, he talked about how he viewed the cross-country flight home as an opportunity for five hours of rehab. In the next breath, he mentioned round-the-clock rehab.
On Wednesday, he talked about being deprived of sleep – another cost of trying to win big.
Although James doesn't have any apparent acute injury, he's admittedly sore all around. In each game, something will happen – like crashing into a courtside photographer on Tuesday – that will cause him to limp, grimace and ultimately, exhale. Right now, that's the cost of doing business.
Reminded that he has played 142 minutes through three games – in which he's averaged 41 points to threaten Michael Jordan's NBA Finals record – James sounded like a man with blinders on while determined to leave it all on the court.
When someone mentioned the physical toll the series has taken, he said, "I want it to take it all."
No doubt, this series will do just that.