NBA Finals Game Three: Warriors at Cavaliers

Warriors at Cavs
8:00 pm CDT
ABC

After two straight overtime games in Oakland, the Finals shifts to Cleveland with the series even at one. The Cavs have successfully slowed the game down and forced the Warriors into difficult shooting games, especially from the perimeter where they are usually so good, while LeBron James has been doing everything offensively for the Cavaliers. Whether he can keep it up in the absence of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love remains to be seen, but he is certainly doing everything he can to keep the Cavs in this.

The other big factor in the Cavs favor has been offensive rebounding. They have been controlling their offensive glass very effectively behind Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov, which has helped extend possessions and keep the Warriors out of transition.

The Cavs will look to continue to make the games grinders, and hope that LeBron can bring them home at the end of the close ones, starting tonight before what promises to be quite a crowd in Cleveland, hoping to see the first ever home Finals win for the Cavs.

From the Golden State side, I'm sure they feel like it's only a matter of time before they get going from the perimeter again--Steph Curry had a tough time in game two and hasn't found the range in either game from beyond the arc, and as a team they've had one of their worst back to back shooting performances of the season.

At some point they will likely break out of it and get rolling, as they have shown themselves so capable of all year. It still feels to me that they are the better team, and perhaps like in their series with the Grizzlies, will find an adjustment and start playing better sooner rather than later.

We'll see tonight. Chat about it here.

Expected lineups

Warriors

Stephen Curry
Klay Thompson
Harrison Barnes
Draymond Green
Andrew Bogut

Cavs

Matthew Dellavedova
Iman Shumpert
LeBron James
Tristan Thompson
Timofey Mozgov