CLEVELAND — This is over, the ending all but inevitable and creeping forward unimpeded. Numbers supported the dire level of the situation. The emotional view was daunting too. After being handled with ease twice in a row, there was little reason to think change was an option.
That cloud of uh-oh was hanging over the Golden State Warriors just two weeks ago. The Oklahoma City Thunder walloped them in consecutive games for a 3-1 series lead. A record-setting regular season? Those distant and eyebrow-raising jump shots? They were cute. But, reality came in the form of a bruising Oklahoma City approach that was on the verge of whacking the Warriors back to one-offs in the annals of NBA history.
When the jumpers began to fall again, and the joy returned, the Warriors had rallied from the abyss. The Cleveland Cavaliers were watching the Warriors’ comeback. It’s what they take solace in now, positioned in a troubling 0-2 hole as the series moves to ever-hopeful Cleveland.
“I think they lost games 3 and 4 in Oklahoma City by 50-something points combined,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said. “So, they came back and it’s just winning one game. When you win one game, it changes the whole series.”
If Lue sounds hopeful after losing the first two games because of never-ending Golden State offensive avalanches, Richard Jefferson is borderline giddy about it.
“We’re fine,” Jefferson said. “We’ve got them right where we want them.”
He was kidding, of course. Jefferson used the same phrase, “We’re fine,” when the Eastern Conference Finals, against the Toronto Raptors, turned into an unexpected tussle. Jefferson was right then. A lot will have to change for him to be right now.
“We are all a very positive group,” Jefferson said. “We focus in on what we need to do. We’re down 0-2. But, are we down 0-2, or did they protect home court and now we have to protect home court? It depends on how you look at things. We understand Game 3 is important. They understand how important Game 3 is, too, because no team has come back from a 3-0 deficit.
“So, one of those situations. Hey, that team over there was down 3-1 and everybody was counting them out and everybody was thinking that this was going to be a bust of year and blah, blah, blah. Everyone’s questioning them. Steph [Curry] hurt his knee and they were banged up in the second round, so they’ve had questions throughout. You just have to handle adversity and keep moving forward.”
The Cavaliers are optionless in that regard. But, on the floor, they could make drastic changes and hope it turns the series. Since Lue was promoted after the surprise firing of David Blatt in late January, the Cavaliers have shifted into the NBA’s preferred small-ball mode. Athletic 7-foot-1 center Timofey Mozgov watched his minutes decline during the regular season, then became a non-factor in the playoffs. He has played 14 total minutes in the Finals, and 12 of those were because Golden State was pulling apart Cleveland with such efficiency in Game 2 that Lue decided to sit down the starters in an act of capitulation.
What worked for Oklahoma City against the Warriors was an exploitation of length and power. Cleveland has the parts to shift to that route if it were to play Mozgov along with Tristan Thompson or Kevin Love, if he’s healthy, and LeBron James. Suddenly, that would give the Cavaliers a tall and powerful frontline. Lue was coy on any prospective moves.
“We’ve thought about it, we’ve talked about it, but I can’t let you know what we’re planning on doing,” Lue said.
If Warriors center Andrew Bogut is correct, then a move to force by the Cavaliers would matter little. In fact, it could make things worse for a team that has lost the first two games of the Finals by 48 total points.
“If they do, they haven’t played big for three months, so we think it would be a good thing for us,” Bogut said. “If they go big, we feel it starts playing into our favor. They start playing a guy in Mozgov who hasn’t played. If they want to do that, we have no problem with it.”
Per usual, the focus remains on James. He returned to Cleveland for the third version of his Ohio life, morphing from hero to villain to OK, we’ll take him back. He wants to “win one for The Land,” promising to bring a title to a white-knuckled city that just can’t seem to find a route to a championship. His seven turnovers in Game 2 amplified the focus — were that possible — on his play. He took the blame afterward, then again on Tuesday, and will not pass responsibility. He’s also sure of one thing.
“It’s a do-or-die game for us,” James said. “We can’t afford to go down 3-0 to any team, especially a team that’s 73-9 in the regular season and playing the type of basketball that they’re playing.”
The Warriors do remain wary. They have lost the third game of the last four playoff series they have participated in. They were also the ones who discovered a way to come back against the Thunder, sustaining a path to the best season in NBA history. Those opposite results let them know how tenuous a series lead is. One night can change everything.
“So, if there’s anything we know, [it’s] that it’s possible,” Curry said.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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