Game Preview: Cavaliers v Warriors

The Cleveland Cavaliers will host the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans
Arena in Game 3 of the NBA Finals this Wednesday. Golden State currently leads
the series 2-0. The Cavaliers clearly have their backs against the wall in this
series. Despite playing quite well for seven of eight quarters so far, they find
themselves down 0-2 due to a J.R. Smith mistake in Game 1, and a record-setting
performance from Steph Curry in Game 2. But things are set to change in Game 3
considering the Cavaliers will be at home, where they have been almost
unstoppable during the current playoffs. LeBron James is averaging 40.0 points
so far and is close to a triple-double, but he needs some help to get past
Golden State. And with that in mind, head coach Ty Lue is set to make some
changes to the rotation, already announcing that Rodney Hood will get an
increase in his minutes for Game 3. It remains to be seen if that is what the
team needs, but the Cavs know they need to get at least one win here. On the
other hand, the Warriors are coming into this game knowing their worst scenario
coming out of Cleveland would be to have the series tied at 2-2, so they have
some margin for error. But they are not going to take it easy after what
happened in Game 1, where they were quite close to a loss before settling things
in overtime. Kevin Durant and Curry shone in Game 2, and the Warriors will
likely rely on them once again in Game 3 since winning in Cleveland is far from
easy. However, head coach Steve Kerr got some positive news this past Monday
with Andre Iguodala being pain free, which means the veteran could reportedly
return to action as soon as this Wednesday. His potential return could allow
Kerr to use his Hamptons’ Five starting lineup featuring Curry, Iguodala,
Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Will that be enough to earn a third
straight win against the Eastern Conference champions? This is the fourth
straight Finals matchup between these two franchises. The Warriors have won two
titles, and the Cavaliers have won just once.