Wednesday’s NBA Finals game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors proved one thing, and one thing only: No matter how well the Cavs play—and they played really well—they cannot win this series, let alone a game.
The Cavs’ LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were otherworldly in Game 3. James scored 39 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Irving added 38 points, six rebounds and three assists, and in total, it wasn’t enough. In fact, according to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, the hope was that because both players were so hot, at some point they’d get tired of carrying their team.
“They’re going to get tired,” Kerr recalled after the game, ESPN reports. “Stay in front of them. Force them into outside shots, if you can. Fatigue will play a role.”
Kerr knew what James knew before this series began when he wanted to bring in more fire power: that Kyrie and Bron-Bron can’t do it all.
“We just felt like the way they play, Kyrie and LeBron had it going the whole game, but that’s pretty taxing to go one-on-one the whole game,” Kerr said. “Both those guys were amazing, 38 and 39. But that takes a lot out of you.
“And I think when you get guys playing 45, 44 minutes, basically attacking one-on-one the whole game, it’s—you hope eventually it’s going to take its toll,” Kerr added. “I wasn’t sure after a while; they just were going nuts. But I think that we just stayed with it, and our defense finally kicked in.”
Look, James is the best player in the world, and unless there is a 6-foot-8-inch alien that handles the ball like Allen Iverson, has a jump shot like Steph Curry and a post game like Hakeem Olajuwon, he’s the best player in the universe, but that being said, he can’t do it alone, and even with Irving doing his best Scottie Pippen, the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant are who we thought they were.
The Golden State Warriors are poised to make history Friday as the first team in NBA history to go undefeated in the playoffs, and they will because they just have too much fire power. They are too good and too deep for the Cavs to even make this series remotely competitive, and Wednesday night showed that. The Cavs played an almost perfect game and they still came up short, and that’s hard for Cavs fans to admit, but it’s true.
Unless, of course:
Seriously, while the Cavs have basically lost the NBA Finals, they are winning the social media meme war. Below are a few of my favorites:
And to add insult to injury, Reebok went out there and did this:
Read more at ESPN.