The Cavaliers suffered a 118-113 defeat in game three of the NBA Finals - a five-point loss - and it's demonstrable that a lot of the damage came with James off the court.
Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) reacts in the closing moments against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of basketball's NBA Finals in Cleveland, Wednesday, June 7, 2017.
Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and the rest of the Warriors will be able to make that boast if they win Friday to complete the most impressive postseason run in major sports history.
After Golden State's win Wednesday night, an obvious question popped up: Can the Warriors sweep through the entire playoffs?
And Golden State is hungry - for revenge, in the case of those who suffered last year's ultimate embarrassment, for the chance to make history as the first team to go 16-0 in the playoffs, and for that first taste of championship glory for guys like Durant, David West, and JaVale McGee.
The Warriors trailed by six with three minutes left before Durant, criticized for leaving Oklahoma City last summer to chase a championship, brought them back, scoring 14 in the fourth.
Time for Thiem or will Nadal march on?
Breaking Murray three times in a row, Wawrinka used a seven-game run to take the second set, plus a 3-0 lead in the third. Now 32, and the oldest semi-finalist here since Jimmy Connors in 1985, Wawrinka is confident that will not be repeated.
"All I was looking at was the bottom of the net", said Durant who is playing his first season with Golden State.
On the night, the four-time MVP went 15-for-27 from the floor, including 4-of-9 from long-range, adding 11 boards, a game-high nine assists, a steal and a blocked shot in almost 46 minutes of work.
LeBron James scored 39 points and Kyrie Irving added 38 to lead the Cavaliers. "We settled down and got some stops at the end". "We missed shots", he said.
James, who played 45 minutes, refused to blame fatigue for the Warriors' comeback. "I gave everything that I had, so at times throughout the game I was exhausted, but that's just because I was just playing as hard as I could". I played against some great teams, but I don't think no team has had this type of firepower. "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". And while no National Basketball Association team has come back from such a deficit, it seemed that the Cleveland guard was making a bold forecast before quickly retracting the prediction.
Thompson and Curry sank back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second quarter to boost the Warriors lead, but Irving's inside bank shot pulled Cleveland within 67-61 at half-time. "We missed some shots, and they made some". They're a juggernaut of a team, do a great job of spacing out the floor, keeping a high tempo, and just made some big-time plays down the stretch. But the Warriors were that much better, going 16-for-33 from deep.
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