If the Warriors win Game 3 in Cleveland on Wednesday night (9 p.m. ET, ABC), this series is cooked. No one has ever come from down 3-0 in the NBA Finals to win a series, and while Cavaliers made history by coming down from 3-1 a year ago, it’s just not happening. Not against these Warriors.
Is this it for the NBA Finals?
Good morning. We have that and more in Wednesday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Don’t think I’m too pragmatic: I’m the guy who wrote about why the Cavaliers could still win the Finals once they went down 2-0 last year! The overall scoring margin is not terribly different this year, and we have the advantage of knowing that this Cleveland core is championship-capable. But it seems so much less likely these days.
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One big reason: Draymond Green, who Paul Flannery wrote about in a great piece focused on the lessons learned from 2016. Green is locked in and causing massive problems for Cleveland when he’s on the floor. Kevin Durant has been incredible. Stephen Curry isn’t succumbing to the Cavs’ physical defense and Klay Thompson is defending as well as we’ve ever seen him defend. Everything is going right. There’s no obvious weakness other than the propensity for turnovers. They turned the ball over 20 times in Game 2 and still scored 134!
Chances are that if the Warriors win Game 3, they’ll finish the job in four or five. If Cleveland pulls out a win on Wednesday, we might have ourselves a series. Maybe. I’m not convinced the Cavs have a chance at beating the Warriors in Oakland, because frankly I’m not convinced the Cavs can beat the Warriors in Cleveland.
We’ll find out soon enough.
A common critique of the Warriors is that the way they built their team is unfair and a championship would demand an asterisk. That’s malarkey. In fact, the Cavaliers might have been even luckier in landing their stars.
A fascinating thought experiment: Which NBA superstar could the Cavaliers add to catch up to the Warriors? My vote goes to Dion Waiters.
Is Steph Curry’s excellence next to Kevin Durant an indictment of Russell Westbrook?
Great Howard Beck piece on how we may now have a superteam space race thanks to LeBron and Durant.
The Suns inherited this interesting running drill from the Celtics: baseline to baseline sprints over the course of three minutes. Malik Monk racked up a very respectable 25. I think I’m good for like 12.
Kevin O’Connor with a deep dive on the future of the Gatorade League and the age minimum.
Dwight Howard wants to add the three-pointer to his, uh, arsenal. Shouldn’t you have to be a 70 percent free throw shooter before you start trying to add a three?
I guess I’m just going to be a curmudgeon this morning. Magic Johnson is ridiculous for saying that the Showtime Lakers would sweep these Warriors. You know why I’m so confident in assessing this as ridiculous? During Peak Showtime (1985-88), the Lakers played 12 best-of-7 playoff series and had ... one sweep, against the ’87 Sonics. I think these Warriors are a little better than the ’85 Blazers (who took a game off the Lakers) or ’88 Mavericks (who took L.A. to seven). Come on, man.
Shout out to Luke Walton for wearing a Popovich-Kerr 2020 t-shirt.
Marc Tracy on how the NBA more so than other leagues markets stars.
Ricky O’Donnell writes that Josh Jackson is the one NBA draft pick who could be surviving in these Finals right now.
Shout out to Justin Bieber (four words I never thought I’d say) for explaining the upside of bandwagonism, a concept I support more and more every day.
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