Lots of nice, round numbers in the final box score for the Cavaliers:
- LeBron: 40 points
- Dellavedova: 20 points
- Tristan Thompson: 10 points
- J.R. Smith: 10 points
LeBron used the “grit” word on Dellavedova in his postgame comments. “Scrappy,” “heart,” and “hustle” also would have been accepted.
That’s it for the liveblog. Thanks for reading.
Final score: Cavaliers 96, Warriors 91.
Curry scored 24 points in the 2nd half after his team only scored 37 in the whole first half. That has to at least give him confidence heading to Game 4.
What should give Curry continued concern, though: LeBron James will also be playing Game 4 and he seems unstoppable.
LeBron hits two free throws to put Cleveland up 96-91 with 16.8 left. He also now has 40 points. Good try, Warriors!
The refs are looking at a call in which they gave the ball to the Warriors on a turnover. But it was a bad call and they’re changing their call on video review.
In the old days, refs just ruined games without the video to save them.
Updated
94-91. 18.8 seconds left.
Cavaliers ball after Curry drains another 3 after dribbling by 3 screens. Even though the Internet gave up on Curry, the Warriors have not.
Steph Curry: better shooter or rapper?
(See 0:58 and 1:50.)
Updated
Curry hits a corner three to make is 92-88 with 27.9 seconds left.
I guess they went away from my David Lee idea and instead set up a shot for the NBA MVP. Agree to disagree, I guess.
92-85. Just 29.9 seconds left. The Warriors have to go to the hot hand here. Which is ... uh ... David Lee?
Yikes. The Warriors aren’t going to win, huh?
Cavaliers 92, Warriors 83. 51 seconds left in the 4th.
LeBron hits two free throws to get to 35 points on the game. Can’t wait to hear the Warriors talk again about how they controlled him on offense.
LeBron, guarded by Curry, pulled up along the left baseline and shot a jumper off of the side of the backboard. Curry took off on a break, but LeBron chased him down and got the ball back. LEBRON IS SCRAPPY. He’s LeBronevadova!
So here’s that Dellavedova shot. MAX SCRAPPINESS.
Bebnspapslmxnfnnsnazkxnxnnsnndnsnsjjsjsdbfnfkappwirjfjjff WTF IS GOING ON!!!?!?!?? https://t.co/LCvuTIgdPc
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) June 10, 2015
After a Curry turnover, LeBron hits a 3 to give Cleveland an 87-80 lead with 1:44 left.
One of these men is the NBA MVP. One is not.
84-80. Cavs up with 2:27 left.
After Curry drains a beautiful 3, Dellavedova hits an ugly, stumbling 2, draws the foul and hits the free throw.
That sequence was everything about Steph Curry and Matthew Dellavedova.
David Lee has 9 points in 10 minutes off the bench for Golden State. There was some talk this week that the Cavaliers might try to acquire Lee in the offseason. They probably wish they had done that before.
3:51 left in the game. LeBron is getting a massage on the bench. Looks like he might be battling cramps.
Jeff Van Gundy says: “If I was David Blatt, I’d be rubbing his leg, too.” Van Gundy knows about legs. He once hung onto Alonzo Mourning’s.
Updated
Dellavedova just threw an alley-oop to James on the break to give Cleveland a 5-point lead.
All of Cleveland just climaxed.
The guy from the Minions commercial -- the taller one (Steph Curry) -- scores again. Cleveland’s lead is just 79-76 with 5:39 left.
So only 5 minutes and 39 seconds until overtime.
This is weird ...
There was a MLB no-hitter tonight.
The last time the Cavs hosted Game 3 of an NBA Finals in 2007, there was also an MLB no-hitter. (By Justin Verlander.)
Why is Steph Curry in an ad with Dellavedova? pic.twitter.com/1Sdx64QCJ9
— SportsPickle (@sportspickle) June 10, 2015
Stephen Curry hits a 3 to make it 77-73. Welcome back, former NBA legend Stephen Curry!
Warriors are winning the 4th quarter, 15-5. Cavaliers still winning the entire game, 77-70.
Cavaliers 74, Warriors 68.
Ahhhhhhhh. AHHHHHHHHHHH.
Last Golden State bucket came on a Barbosa lay-up on an assist from David Lee. No way you can defend that.
Cavaliers timeout. Warriors cut it to 9, 72-63. 9:52 left.
Iguodala 3 take a nice chunk out of the lead and quiets the crowd.
I say that basketball is a game of runs.
Has that been said before? Dammit. Thought I invented a new cliche for a second.
Updated
This is unfair. There’s no possible way to stop this:
LeBron James: Absolutely Unstoppable. https://t.co/eDTqN0JEej
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) June 10, 2015
The Cavaliers open the 4th quarter without LeBron James. Let’s see if the Warriors can make a run against an NBA D-League team.
I’m sure Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are rooting for the Cavaliers to win.
But ... it just has to be weird for them to experience this, right? The Cavs look significantly better without them. They wouldn’t want Cleveland to lose without them, but maybe feeling missed in some small way would be nice. This can’t be good for their egos.
End of the 3rd quarter: Cavaliers 72, Warriors 55
For the second time in three games, this series is OVER.
Bill Walton could be talking about Dellavedova.
The wombat is like the best player in the game!!
— Bill Walton (@BillWalton) June 10, 2015
Or Bill Walton could be smoking something and watching wombats play a sport.
No way to know. It’s Bill Walton.
Steph Curry starting to heat up with the Warriors down 17. “Better late than never” is a saying. It just doesn’t really apply here. The Warriors kind of needed him to appear earlier.
Cavaliers 68, Warriors 51. 2:25 left in 3rd.
Curry just hit a three, briefly ending about ... oh ... 4 consecutive minutes of complete humiliation of Golden State.
This kid is destroying Riley Curry in the Kid NBA Finals:
Cavaliers 59, Warriors 48. 5:29 left.
LeBron hit a three on a pass from Dellavedova after yet another Golden State turnover. The Warriors look like they’re in complete disarray. Their shooting percentage is low, but their disarray percentage? Quite high.
STEPH CURRY MADE A SHOT!
That’s it. That’s the Key Event.
Cavaliers 53, Warriors 43. 8:10 left in the 3rd.
Curry still has one made shot. He is starting to fill up the stat line in the pouting category, though, so that’s nice.
In Matthew Dellavedova’s final season at St. Mary’s, he was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Memphis. The Gaels lost 54-52 and Dellavedova only scored 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting.
Wow. Just imagine what Memphis would do to Steph Curry.
Updated
Cavaliers 51, Warriors 41. 10:00 left in the 3rd.
Dellavedova scores 5 consecutive points. Bogut has Golden State’s 4 points of the half. Hey, share the ball, Australia.
Updated
The 2nd half is underway!
Bogut scores on Golden State’s first possession. Back to a 5-point game. Maybe it’s not over!
Conventional wisdom right now: Steph Curry is terrible.
Conventional wisdom after Game 1: Warriors will win in a sweep.
So don’t be surprised if Curry scores 95 points in the second half.
If 6 shots in a half is Steph Curry being a high-volume shooter, he must listen to music at barely audible levels. Like, iPod-earbuds-to-play-music-throughout-the-house quiet.
Second half adjustment for Golden State: Keep Steph Curry in the tunnel.
Steph Curry is MONEY from the tunnel. https://t.co/1f0BIC3GFW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 7, 2015
The Warriors, the highest-scoring team in the NBA, had 37 points in the entire first half. 37 POINTS.
Earlier this year against the Lakers, they scored 136 points, with 40 in the 2nd quarter and 41 in the 3rd. Soooooo ... this is worse than that.
Updated
At the half: Cavaliers 44, Warriors 37.
James Jones hit a 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left to extend Cleveland’s lead.
Speaking of three points, that’s what NBA MVP Steph Curry had in the entire first half.
Updated
Harrison Barnes is 0-for-6 with three turnovers. Don’t worry, though. He’s fitting in with the rest of Golden State’s offense because the whole team only has 37 points with 15 seconds left in the half.
Updated
Well played.
The Warriors put David Lee back into the lineup after a long absence. Van Halen tried that when they ran out of ideas too. @DJGalloEtc
— Hunter Felt (@HunterFelt) June 10, 2015
Ohio royalty.
WOW, MASSIVE ovation for Jim Thome here at the Q. And then they top it for Mark Price. And then even louder for Urban Meyer.
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) June 10, 2015
SHOW DREW CAREY!
Cavaliers 40, Warriors 34. 2:44 left in the half.
Cavs had a LeBron bucket waved off when Tristan Thompson accidentally hit it up and out of the cylinder. (THE REFS ARE AGAINST LEBRON!) Then, the very next possession, LeBron scored on what looked like a blatant travel. (THE REFS CALL EVERYTHING FOR LEBRON!)
Shumpert comes in and hits a 3 to put Cleveland up 7. What is happening? Cleveland ... Cleveland ... is experiencing good fortune in sports.
Draymond Green just hit his next 3 to cut Cleveland’s lead in half.
Clearly he is reading the liveblog and got motivated by my last update. Hi, Draymond! Good luck the rest of the game!
Cavaliers 34, Warriors 28. 6:10 left in the 1st.
Draymond Green missed another wide open 3. That’s 13 missed 3s in a row for him and approximately $100,000 lost in his free agent contract per miss.
Updated
I'm sorry but I broken leg can't even take me off the court/field of a championship game or series, like all jokes aside
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) June 10, 2015
[breaks leg]
“Okay, nevermind. I was wrong. This is really painful. I can’t play.”
Doris Burke just reported that Iman Shumpert is available to return. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we probably won’t be seeing Shawn Marion.
J.R. Smith is 3-for-3 from the field for 7 points. Surely this will continue and he won’t do anything stupid later in the game.
Tie game. 26-26 with 10:10 left.
Curry only has 3 points. Shumpert is out injured. Golden State can’t feel bad about where they are.
(On the scoreboard, not the fact that they’re in Cleveland.)
The Australian Assassin is back!
Delly going for Draymond's knees. https://t.co/jXeu3RuAUo
— SportsNation (@SportsNation) June 10, 2015
End of the 1st quarter: Cavaliers 24, Warriors 20.
Tristan Thompson is on pace for 24 and 28. Festus Ezeli is on pace for 16 and 12. Behold your new NBA superstars!
The Cavaliers just had an awesome inbounds play alley-oop called off due to an offensive foul. WAY TO RUIN OUR FUN, REFS, WITH YOUR RULES!!!
Cavaliers 22, Warriors 18. 1:11 left in the 1st.
Curry is now 1-for-5 from the field. Someone better take Riley out for ice cream so she doesn’t have to see this.
Cleveland shoulders are not having a good postseason:
GIF: Iman Shumpert's arm got caught between Draymond Green and Steph Curry pic.twitter.com/b07oDW4T0G
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) June 10, 2015
Stats of note so far, with 3:13 left in the 1st:
- Steph Curry is 1-for-3 from the field
- Tristan Thompson has 6 rebounds
- Kendrick Perkins: 0 points.
Cavs 16, Warriors 12. 5:01 left in the 1st.
There’s a timeout because Iman Shumpert is hurt. It seems to be his shoulder, not his hair, so no one should panic.
Andrew Bogut got out of the way:
LeBron's first dunk of the NBA Finals https://t.co/MmpIBWuFvS
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) June 10, 2015
Andrew Bogut is not an idiot.
LeBron James has a cut on his hand that was treated during the timeout. He’s still in the game and his hand was not severed completely off. I’m starting to question if he’s really a Cleveland athlete.
Cavaliers 10, Warriors 5. 7:29 left in the 1st.
Steve Kerr calls timeout. LeBron has 4 points. Dellavedova has 4 points.
Which player do you think is better? No way to say right now.
Curry hits his first shot, a three-pointer. Cavs up 4-3 with 10:10 to go in the 1st. Curry didn’t take a shot until 7 minutes into Game 1. So this is much better.
Updated
James quickly scores off the dibble on a layup and the Warriors respond with a turnover. I predict another James shot coming soon.
We're underway! Mozgov wins the tip.
The game will probably get even more exciting from here.
Also happening in Cleveland tonight ...
@Indians Small crowd tonight... Wonder what else is going on in the C L E!! pic.twitter.com/pwlMDCaAba
— Brian Rice (@brianrice12) June 10, 2015
In fairness, that’s not a big difference from most Indians games.
Rascal Flatts just sang the national anthem, which was probably greatly enjoyed by people who like Rascal Flatts.*
*almost no one who watches basketball
I can confirm that Steph Curry has taken many shots in the pregame shoot-around. FORESHADOWING???
We may never see a player with form this bad again:
They're playing a special video honoring Shawn Marion, who is retiring at the end of the series.
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) June 10, 2015
Well, in the NBA, at least. I see people with form as bad as Marion’s everyday at the court in my neighborhood.
You will be missed, Shawn.
Updated
I know it! I know it! It’s LeBron James!
Everything was weird when you were 16. Can you guess which #NBAFinals star this is? pic.twitter.com/kG3IhfDxJW
— HuffPost Sports (@HuffPostSports) June 10, 2015
Maybe this guy can burn his LeBron jersey (like he probably did with his old one five years ago).
/guy in the crowd wearing LeBron jersey that cost like $120 /is shamed on the video board for not wearing the free shirt they give out
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 10, 2015
The Comic Sans guy is a comic now:
Hey guys, if you really want a @KingJames @cavs jersey I can arrange 20% off in our @CavsTeamShop :) Photo cred: PD pic.twitter.com/hn0igovgxK
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) June 9, 2015
Let’s all fight for a cure ...
Dwyane Wade is wearing this huge gold pin to support Extremely Rich Person Awareness Month. pic.twitter.com/J37qBlCxyf
— SportsPickle (@sportspickle) June 10, 2015
I like that ABC added Dwyane Wade to the broadcast. So if Golden State wins the title, Mark Jackson can feel terrible and spurned. And if Cleveland wins, Wade can feel terrible and spurned. Fair and balanced.
Tonight is a very big game. It’s also a game, as Steve Kerr realizes:
There’s a machine that’s been built in this country around sports, and the machine is why we make so much damn money. We make a living in basketball. This is unbelievable. This is a joke. How did this happen? It’s good to think about that. It’s important for our players to think about it. You have to separate the seriousness of your craft, working to achieve something special, while recognizing the absurdity of it all.
The head coach of one of the teams in the NBA Finals thinks the whole thing is absurd and a joke. So maybe think twice about screaming at someone or punching someone over a sporting event.
LeBron will continue to have to be a volume shooter in this series if Cleveland has a chance to win.
The Warriors want to get more shots for Steph Curry, who didn’t put one up in Game 2 until 7 minutes in.
Why not make Game 3 a 1-on-1 between LeBron and Curry? No? Then 2-on-2: LeBron and Dellavedova vs. Curry and Klay Thompson ... or is that not fair to Golden State?
If you want to kill some time before the tip, here’s Cleveland guard Iman Shumpert rapping over the intro song to ESPN’s “First Take.”
The existence of this means one of LeBron’s teammates watches a show in which one of the co-hosts craps all over LeBron every episode.
Athletes: don’t watch this show. (Also, everyone: Don’t watch this show.)
Shumpert’s dad knows better. He just sat there in silence.
We’re nearing the start of Game 3!
Forty-eight hours ago, this was just going to be another anticlimactic step on the way to a Golden State sweep. Now Cleveland is supposedly in control and Matthew Dellavedova is an NBA star.
Who else is ready to be entertained (and completely wrong about everything) again tonight?!?!
DJ will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s something on whether the finals can change the city of Cleveland:
When Cleveland Cavaliers’ guard Kyrie Irving hobbled off the court late in game one of the NBA finals – and then was shown thrown spiking his jersey angrily to the floor in the bowels of Oracle Arena in Oakland – you could almost hear a collective “Oh no, why us?” from the sports fans on the shores of Lake Erie.
And when the Cavs then lost that game to the Golden State Warriors in overtime, it was almost a “Here, we go again” refrain. For in Cleveland, which hasn’t won a title in a major sport since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship in 1964, losing big games and in melodramatic ways is just par for the course. Most dedicated sports fans here (and, quite frankly, almost everyone is emotionally attached to their teams) fans figured this series was over almost before it began, and the “waiting for next year” mantra started.
But sports is a fickle business for good and for ill, so Sunday night’s overtime game two win has brought the Cleveland fans off the ledge and back into celebratory mode. The win over the Warriors on Sunday night was the first NBA finals game win in Cavs history, and gunshots were heard in some Cleveland neighborhoods after the game two victory as if the Cavs had actually won the series. Such is life when most fans haven’t experienced a championship in their lifetime.
