"He was their closer tonight, for sure", Cavs guard Kyrie Irving conceded after a game the needed to win to give this series at least semblance of legit competition. "Most guys who don't want to take those shots don't want to deal with the repercussions of if you miss, because that is a bad feeling".
That's a bold statement considering James has played in the last seven NBA Finals and eight of the last 11, and is averaging 32 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists in the first three games of this series. "(Durant) looked fresh, Klay (Thompson) was all over Kyrie. "There's going to be some stuff and you just got to kind of persevere and get through it". "I saw he (James) was playing his heels behind the 3-point line". Irving wasn't far behind, taking just 3:37 off. According to ESPN's box score, forward LeBron James was +7 with 39 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. "For anyone who says they'd still do it, the facts and evidence is this".
Durant's pull-up three-pointer over LeBron James with 45 seconds remaining gave the Warriors their first lead since late in the third quarter and silenced what had been a raucous crowd. Cleveland is in an 0-3 hole, and they haven't been able to keep the Warriors from scoring like insane once in this series.
Durant's team mates were singing his praises after the game and said there was no doubt in their minds whose hands the ball should be in with the game's result hanging in the balance. The Cavs played an nearly flawless game and they still came up short, and that's hard for Cavs fans to admit, but it's true.
The Warriors led 67-61 at halftime oas both teams are shot over 50 percent from the field in another high-scoring affair.
A year ago in this same situation, the Cavs arrived home with the same 2-0 deficit, blew the doors off the Warriors early and then coasted to a 30-point win.
Mertesacker stands tall in Arsenal's FA Cup title victory
Removing the record seventh FA Cup winner's medal from his pocket, Arsene Wenger was gratified and yet apprehensive. Arsenal have won the FA Cup three times in the last four seasons and Ramsey has now bagged the victor twice.
The Warriors spent the better part of the past 72 hours re-living that to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
"We thought we were going to win", James said.
Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue resisted the urge to shuffle things up. Now, a fourth one seems almost as distant with the scary-good Warriors just getting started. But you've got to get back to the drawing board. It's going to be one of those "go back to the drawing board" offseasons, because the Cavs can't win a title against the Warriors the way they're now constructed.
Over the years, Cavs-Warriors has become the NBA's best rivalry, and this year's lopsided Finals most likely won't help that.
He did that countless times on Wednesday, but all for naught. At that point in the game, the Cavaliers trailed by five.
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