Crawling on the floor after a loose ball, LeBron James gathered himself and quickly got to his feet.
He stood tall, and so did the Cavaliers.
James had 32 points and 11 rebounds, while Kyrie Irving added 30 points as Cleveland, pushed for 48 minutes by a delirious, championship-starved crowd, beat the Golden State Warriors 120-90 in Game 3 on Wednesday night to pull to 2-1 in the NBA Finals.
Photo: EPA
On their home floor, where they have been dominant all post-season, the Cavs yanked their season back from the brink after back-to-back blowout losses in the Bay Area.
They Cavs did it without starting forward Kevin Love, with little help from their bench and by keeping Stephen Curry penned in.
The league’s MVP was mostly MIA, scoring 19 points — two in the first half — on six-of-13 shooting. Harrison Barnes scored 18 and Klay Thompson 10 for the Warriors, who had won seven straight over Cleveland — the first two finals games by a combined 48 points — and came back to the birthplace of rock and roll looking to party like they did after winning the title in Quicken Loans Arena last year.
The Cavs, though, have made this a competitive series after it appeared the Warriors were on the fast track to another crown.
“We’ve got to give the same effort on Friday,” James said. “It started defensively and it trickled down to the offensive side.”
The Warriors did not look anything like the team that won a record 73 games during the regular season or the one that overcame a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference finals.
“We were soft,” coach Steve Kerr said. “When you’re soft, you get beat on the glass and turn the ball over.”
Curry did not offer any excuses.
“I’ve got to play 100 times better than this,” he said, dismissing any notion he’s slowed by injuries. “I’m fine. Not the way we wanted the night to go.”
Irving bounced back from two rough games out West, J.R. Smith made five three-pointers and Tristan Thompson did the dirty work inside, getting 13 rebounds for the Cavs, who improved to 8-0 at home and can level the series with a win in Game 4 tonight.
The Cavs hardly missed Love, still suffering from a concussion sustained in Game 2. He wanted to play, but is still in the NBA’s concussion protocol and has not yet been cleared to return.
Coach Tyronn Lue started veteran Richard Jefferson and moved James into Love’s power forward spot, giving the Cavs a smaller lineup better equipped to run with the Warriors.
The 35-year-old Jefferson gave the Cavs a huge boost in 33 minutes, scoring nine points with eight rebounds.
Leading by eight at halftime, Cleveland took control in the third quarter when James and Irving combined on a play that symbolized the Cavs’ resurrection.
Scrambling on his hands and knees after a loose ball near midcourt, James got to his feet and whipped a pass to Irving on the left side. Irving returned a lob to James, who leaped high and flushed it with his right hand, a basket that seemed to erase all that went wrong for the Cavs in California.
TIP-INS
Warriors:
‧ Shot just nine of 33 on three-pointers.
‧ Kerr became emotional before the game when paying his respects to Sean Rooks, his former Arizona teammate who died on Tuesday at the age of 46.
‧ Green has become Public Enemy No. 1 in Cleveland — and elsewhere. He smiled while being booed during pre-game warm-ups.
Cavaliers:
‧ James has 82 career 30-point games in the playoffs, third most all-time. Only Michael Jordan (109) and Kobe Bryant (88) have more.
‧ Smith nailed a shot from halfcourt at the end of the second quarter, but the shot came after the horn and was waved off.
‧ Lue said he does not pay any attention to the all the outside second-guessing about his lineups.
“I don’t care,” he said. “They [critics] should be coaches.”
‧ Legendary Browns running back Jim Brown sat courtside and gave the crowd a thumbs-up when he was shown on the giant scoreboard.
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