Durant's dagger 3 lifts Warriors over Cavs for 3-0 lead

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Cleveland Cavaliers win series: 7.36%.

Everything they wanted. Pace, physical nature, venue, support.

Even with all that, they still didn't get a win.

Durant drained the shot of his professional life - a 3-pointer over LeBron James with 45.3 seconds left - and scored 31 points as the Warriors, pushed harder than they have been throughout their pristine postseason, moved within one win of a title and payback by rallying to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-113 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals. "I can't be disappointed with the effort and how we played, but they made the plays down the stretch that we didn't execute defensively or offensively, and they took advantage of it".

"I don't like the position, but in the same sense I do", he said.

Barring a miraculous scenario in which the Cavs come all the way back to defeat the Warriors in seven games, Cleveland is going to have to figure some things out. G Deron Williams has missed each of his 11 shots in the series. "He's been an fantastic player in this league for a long time, and I think he senses this is his time, his moment".

The top-seeded and undefeated Warriors, who can close out a ideal postseason run on Saturday morning (HK time), boast a slew of weapons, most notably two-time reigning league MVP Stephen Curry and four-time scoring champion Kevin Durant. Kyrie Irving, is shooting 40 per cent, J.R. Smith has scored three points in two games and Deron Williams has missed all nine of his shots. "I saw he (James) was playing his heels behind the 3-point line". It's unlikely Cavs coach Tyronn Lue will change the matchup at the start of Game 3, but he did use guard Iman Shumpert on Durant for portions of Game 2.

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Guentzel picked up the secondary assist on the goal, tying him for the most all-time (20) by a rookie in the playoffs. He picked Pekka Rinne apart for five goals in the first six periods and then three minutes into the seventh.

In addition to all he does on offense, James has also been assigned to cover Durant.

"It was a great stop", Durant said. And our promise to you is that we will always strive to provide indispensable journalism to our community.

"We played against good teams, and we came to the Finals undefeated, and here we are up 2-0, so we're playing incredible basketball right now". And I seen him backing up, and I just wanted to take that shot. "But glad I was able to knock that down". James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are doing their part, but Cleveland's Big 3 isn't getting enough support. We managed our minutes throughout the year a lot better, and I've been smarter about just taking care of my body. Me personally I gave everything I have.

They very easily could be playing for a third straight championship.

The biggest, of course, was Durant's 3. "It was maybe our toughest in terms of our ability to just hang in there". And still, on that kind of night, Cleveland came up short.

And despite Irving. And despite James. The Cavs went the final 3:09 without scoring, and now the reigning champs are facing elimination. But if Iguodala and Livingston get massive offers in free agency, the Warriors may have to say farewell.

But Golden State refuse to get ahead of themselves after having lost the third game in each of the last two NBA Finals, both in Cleveland, and know they will have to snap that streak to even give them a shot at going 16-0 in the post-season.

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