2015 NBA Finals Game 3: results, full recap and video highlights

Check out on this page the results and full recap of NBA Finals Game 3: Cavs vs. Warriors.

NBA Finals Game 3: Cavs vs. Warriors


MANILA, Philippines – The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t waste the opportunity in taking advantage of their home court and crowd and especially their winning momentum from game 2 as Lebron James and Matthew Dellavedova scored another win over Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, 96-91 for a 2-1 series lead on Wednesday, June 10 (Manila Time) at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Ohio, USA.

In a very rare occasion, two legends of different sports met face to face. King James bowed to NFL legend Jim Brown as a sign of respect and appreciation for his sports contribution before he headed to the center court for the opening tipoff. Jim Brown, world’s greatest footballer played for the Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965 as a full back.

Lebron James for the third time, scored massively and made a near triple-double with 40pts, 12reb and 8ast along with his new side-kick, Aussie back-up point guard Matthew Dellavedova who chipped-in 20 pts, 5reb, 4ast and another crucial baskets.

Matt Dellavedova Cavs
Matt Dellavedova improves his game 2 performance with 20 points plus crucial baskets
The Cavaliers started strong and dominated the first 3 quarters of the game and grabbed a lead of as much as 20 points before heading to the final period. Matt Dellavedova who became a great factor on guarding reigning MVP Stephen Curry during game number 2, did it again. Dellavedova limited Curry with just 2 points after 24 minutes of exciting ball game. The young point guard was all over curry since the opening tipoff.

The Warriors in contrast to the Cavaliers were shooting poorly in the perimeter and even in the 3-point area. The splash brothers were tightly guarded that left Andre Iguodala as Warriors’ 1st half go-to-guy.

Come 4th quarter, the whole Quicken Loans Arena got nervous as the Warriors caught-up and closed the scoring gap to just 1 from as high as 20 points. Stephen Curry all of a sudden exploded and made 7 three pointers, 27 markers in total along with games 1 and 2 sleeper Center David Lee.

The hot shooting hands of the Cavaliers drastically vanished and almost handed game 3 to the Warriors. With 5 more minutes remaining in the game clock, Lebron James and Matt Dellavedova took charge and got the lead back. Delli hit a crucial and lucky shot in the middle and got clipped by Curry for an and 1. Golden State had the chance to tie the game but James intercepted their inbound attempt on the sideline. James put icing on the cake by splitting his charities after he was fouled during the Warriors inbound fiasco.

With his almost triple-double performance, Lebron James has cemented another record for being the player who scored the most in the first 3 games of finals series with a total of 123 points. Another interesting fact: James and his gang are 4-0 in the playoffs without superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love who are both out due to serious injuries.

Head Coaches of both team should be concerned after their respective teams’ performance.

Coach Steve Kerr should be concerned more with James unstoppable performance. Coach Kerr has already tried putting different bodies on James but all of his boys failed to guard the 4-time MVP. James’ most recent victim is Shaun Livingston. James found a huge mismatch against the smaller Livingston. Lebron pounded Shaun every time he touched the ball in the shaded area for baby hooks and short elbow jumpers. Livingston was absolutely demolished and humiliated. There’s no stopping the truck-like James when he’s in the shaded territory.

Another concern for Coach Kerr is James’ side-kick, Matt Dellavedova. Delli surpassed his game 2 performance with 20 big points. Altough his lock-tight defense diminished in the 4th possibly due to fatigue. The back-up point guard was reportedly rushed to the hospital after the game due to extreme cramps in different areas of his body. Coach Kerr should respect Dellavedova’s scoring assets not just his defense.
Coach David Blatt on the other hand should be worried of the Warriors capabilities to comeback. The Warriors made a 36-point run to close the gap into just a half shot. Collapsing in the final quarter is now becoming Cavaliers’ bad habit. Fatigue is the main factor due to lack of competent substitute players. Cavs are playing without 3 of their best players. Coach Blatt has been limited to an 8-player rotation who is used into starting strong but faints in the end.

Golden State should be thankful for this year’s 2-2-1-1 format instead of 2-3-2. If it were a 2-3-2 format, they would probably be done on game number 5 based on Cleveland’s relentless performance.

Game number 4 will still be played at The Q, Cleveland’s home turf on Friday, June 12 at 9am (Manila Time) and will be aired live on BTV and on a slightly delayed telecast via ABS-CBN channel 2.

WATCH: NBA Finals Game 3 full video highlights


-D' Waterboy, TheSummitExpress



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