So where has this Cavaliers team been all NBA Finals?
BELIEVELAND – Guess these NBA Finals could turn into a classic series after all.
Facing ridicule, embarrassment and, well, near extinction, LeBron James and Co. saved face in Game 3 on Wednesday night by demonstrating that there is still reason for their championship-starved Cleveland fans to keep dreaming for a miracle.
Hey, it’s still such a tall task to dethrone the champs. But for one night, at least, the Cleveland Cavaliers served a pretty good reminder that sometimes strange things happen in the world of sports.
I mean, who were these guys?
Kyrie Irving was on fire, pouring in 30 points. J.R. Smith found his shot, hitting half of his three-point shots. Tristian Thompson was a beast on the boards. Richard Jefferson flourished in a pinch as a starter. And King James had a game-high 32 points … but didn’t have to put it all on his back.
This added up to a 120-90 thrashing of the Golden State Warriors. But more than merely reducing the series to a 2-1 margin, the Cavs got their confidence back and a definitive statement.
Talk about role reversal. The Cavs lost the first two games of the series by a combined 48 points – the largest margin through two games in Finals history.
Then they get off the mat with a 30-point blowout. Go figure.
It seemed like the Cavs unleashed all of the frustrating fury that was collected in losing seven consecutive games to the Warriors, dating to last year’s Finals.
No Kevin Love? No problem. With the high-scoring forward not medically cleared to return from the concussion suffered in Game 2, the Cavs rolled with some serious addition by subtraction as Jefferson responded (and played better defense, too) while the raucous crowd provided a sixth-man effect that seemingly more than made up for the manpower lost with Love’s setback.
There’s no place like home, indeed.
So they had a party – no, actually a revival, given the life-support scenario in play – that rewarded the masses who still believe.
Nobody does hype quite like the Cavs. The show includes two mascots, a dance team, piped-in noise, thunderous party-music tracks, a hype man who talks on a microphone during the action and constant pleas on the Jumbotron for more noise.
Then again, you’d have to expect this at an arena where a 1980s disco ball spins from the rafters.
This feel-good scene was too much for the Splash Brothers and their cousins, too.
Never mind the debate about whether the Warriors can beat Magic Johnson’s Showtime Lakers.
They’d better worry about the here and now, because beating the Cavs – with Cleveland legend Jim Brown in the house – is suddenly too hard for comfort.