Cleveland Cavaliers: A Villanova-like Dream

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March 13, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts after he dunks to score a basket against Los Angeles Clippers during the first half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

Building To The Finale Part One

The questions about Irving’s defense and Love’s lack of touches in the fourth quarter continued to persist in the media. Yet here they are, the Cleveland Cavaliers are in the NBA Finals again. The city is electric, and buzzing with excitement!

Irving and Love are healthy and with them in the fold, could the Cavaliers play the biblical role of David and defeat the Giant that is the Golden State Warriors? With games one and two at Golden State, everyone knows that the Cleveland Cavaliers have to split and take one game in Oakland. Which game will they take?

Game one started out pretty rough as the Warriors came out gunning from deep, and the Cavaliers defense was left resting on the back of their heels. Lue called a quick timeout in the first quarter and manages to regroup his defense.

The Cleveland Cavaliers fight back to make the game close at halftime, but for the rest of game the Cavaliers are ice-cold from three. As a team, the Cleveland Cavaliers goes 11-40 from three-point range and forward Andre Iguodala‘s defense on James hurts his output. Irving and Love tried their best to contribute, but Love’s shot was off and Irving’s 28 points came off 10-28 shooting. Cavaliers lost 110-96.

In the post game presser, LeBron promised the media he would not let the Cavaliers come out flat in game two. He lived up to that promise.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were the ones to come out swinging in game two. James led the charge with 10 points and 5 assists in the first quarter, while also getting Love open looks from three and hitting Tristan Thompson on a few alley-oops. The momentum from the first quarter carried over to the second quarter, yet, it was Irving that took over, with James starting the quarter on the bench.

Irving broke down the Warriors defense with a few ankle-breaking crossovers and hit J.R. Smith for a couple of three-point shots. The Cavaliers led the Warriors by 10 at the half. The lead was short-lived in the third, as the Cavaliers came out lethargic while letting the Warriors go on a 15-3 run.

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Curry was getting hot and Lue made the switch to Dellavedova on defense, which made a difference. Delly pressured Curry into poor shots and turnovers. The Cavaliers turned the tide, and behind LeBron’s 38-12-12 stat-line, the Cavaliers had an edge in a 120-115 win.

With the series tied 1-1, the Finals returned to Cleveland for Game 3. The Warriors led for most of the game (thanks to Green’s hot shooting), but the Cavaliers hung around through three quarters because of LeBron’s second game of heroic efforts.

The game went into the fourth quarter with the Warriors clinging to a six-point lead. That’s when Smith got hot. Smith was not much of a factor in games one or two, nor was he through most of game three, but then he lit it up.

Whether it was from the top of the arc, the elbow, or the side, Smith couldn’t miss. His five three’s in the fourth quarter keyed the Cavaliers rally and a late missed three from Curry secured the Cavaliers 105-103 win.

Next: Building To The Finale Part 2

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