CLEVELAND — Kyle Korver took a sleeping pill in the wee hours Thursday morning. The pill didn’t take. He was still tossing and turning.
He warmed up a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. He read Showboat, a biography about Kobe Bryant. Anything to take his mind off a brutal Game 3 defeat.
A day later, Korver manned up at the podium on the court at Quicken Loans Arena, owned his shortcoming. One of the NBA’s greatest shooters missed a corner 3 with 52 seconds left. Kevin Durant corralled the rebound, hit his own pull-up 3 in LeBron’s grill, and, well, the rest is now history. Literally. The Warriors are 48 minutes away from a perfect 16-0 postseason record.
I asked Korver point blank if it’s fair to say that corner shot is the exact reason Cleveland acquired him.
“Fair,” Korver said without hesitation.
Korver is the crux of what’s wrong with the way Cleveland’s roster is structured. GM David Griffin decided to focus on acquiring shooters to outscore Golden State, when in actuality, he should’ve been acquiring defenders. Every move should’ve been about toppling the Warriors, not what’s best to run through the Eastern Conference.
The Warriors have four players who can play offense and defense at an elite level. Durant, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala — the latter sealed the game by stripping LeBron. The Cavs? Only No. 23 can play both ways at a high level. Korver is an offensive specialist, as is J.R. Smith, as is Channing Frye. Iman Shumpert is a defensive specialist. Tristan Thompson is normally a rebounding specialist but he’s averaging 3.7 boards per game in the NBA Finals.
That’s where Griffin — and James, depending on how much input he had — failed. It’s the interchangeability of Golden State’s defense that makes them the toughest matchup in the NBA. Not the outside shooting. Not the ball movement.
Korver admitted to reporters that all the 3-point shooting has hurt Cleveland’s transition defense. The Cavs shot 44 3-pointers in Game 3 and hit just 12 (27.3 percent). Korver himself is a mediocre 3-for-12 this series from downtown. Both teams are combining to average 68 3-point attempts per game which has led to 48.5 transition points per game — nearly double of last year’s total. Transition has been the fuel the Warriors have used to wear down LeBron and Kyrie Irving. It’s fair to say Griffin underestimated the negative impact hoisting 3s was going to have on his defense against Golden State.
“Transition D is a huge thing for us this series and we do often have guys starting from the corner,” Korver said. “On the rise of the shot, you’ve got to be getting back. We haven’t done that as well as we need to be. A lot of 3s they’ve had have been in transition… It is harder to get back on defense.”
Cleveland pulled off the trade for Korver in January. At the time, the move was heralded. The Cavs shipped seldom used Mike Dunleavy, Mo Williams and a future first-round pick. NBA commentators hailed the move as a “home run.”
“We are extremely pleased to be able to add a player and person the caliber of Kyle Korver to our Cavs family,” Griffin said in a statement. “Among the most prolific and dynamic 3-point shooters in NBA history, a selfless and team-first competitor, Kyle brings all of the elements of Cavs DNA that we covet on and off the floor.”
LeBron insisted in his Thursday interview that he wouldn’t change any details in the way Cleveland played. Not Korver pulling the trigger. Not Irving’s ill-fated step-back jumper on the next possession.
“If I could have the play over again, I would come off a three-screen situation,” James said. “Draymond would switch on me with five fouls. I would get him leaning. I would drive left. I would see K.D. step up. I would see Stephen Curry drop on Kevin. And I would see Kyle Korver in the corner, one of the greatest three-point shooters in this league’s history, and give him an opportunity in the short corner. I would do the same exact thing.”
Korver has had an outstanding career. The way he handled Thursday’s interview impressed all those gathered around him. He’s wearing this missed shot.
It’s true that the entire trajectory of this series would’ve changed had Korver banged home that corner 3. A la J.R. Smith, he would’ve become a folk hero in Cleveland. If the Cavs win Game 3 and 4, they would’ve shifted all the pressure back on Golden State — something they wilted under a year ago.
It’s also true that Korver missed the one shot the Cavaliers banked on him to sink. The 14-year veteran has hit 2,239 career 3s. It’s this Game 3 miss that’ll be tough to erase from his memory.