The Cleveland Cavaliers need to do everything possible to avoid a 3-0 series hole against the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the Finals Wednesday evening.
Losing by a combined 41 points in the first two games has placed Cleveland behind the proverbial eight-ball. Not only is this team in a major hole, it really has not been competitive as of yet. It’s also led to speculation that Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue would bench the struggling J.R. Smith in favor of Iman Shumpert.
We can now throw that entire idea out the window.
Lue said JR Smith will start Game 3
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) June 6, 2017
A major liability on defense, Smith is coming off a Game 2 performance that saw him go scoreless in nearly 14 minutes. Cleveland was also minus-18 when he was on the court. Thus far in the series, Smith is averaging 1.5 points while shooting a combined 1-of-6 from the field.
Lue also went on to indicate that the Cavaliers don’t plan on changing up their game plan heading into Game 3.
Tyronn Lue adamant he's not changing a thing. He's confident that if Cavs execute the game plan, they'll put themselves in a good position.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 6, 2017
Considering Cleveland has made it a point to go up-tempo against the Warriors, this likely isn’t what fans of the defending champs want to hear. The Warriors themselves were undefeated during the regular season playing at the pace Game 2 brought. Simply put, some figure the Cavs need to slow this down. Short of that happening, one has to wonder just how short this series will be.
Then again, Cleveland lost the first two games of last year’s Finals by a combined 48 points. If any team can rebound, it is LeBron James and Co.