Down by five points heading into the fourth quarter of Game 3, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr decided not to deviate from the rotations he’s used all season, and elected to start the deciding stanza with both Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry on the bench.
Conversely, in a must-win situation for the Cavs, Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue felt he had to do just that, opening the quarter with both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on the floor, putting each on pace to finish the game having played 46 and 44 minutes respectively.
Though it seemed hard to imagine as Irving and James continued to relentlessly attack the basket, Kerr remained confident that his more conservative approach would pay off in the long run, and told his team as much during a timeout in the fourth quarter.
“They’re going to get tired,” Kerr recalled saying, speaking of James and Irving. “Stay in front of them. Force them into outside shots, if you can. Fatigue will play a role. We just felt like the way they play, Kyrie and LeBron had it going the whole game, but that’s pretty taxing to go one-on-one the whole game. Both those guys were amazing, 38 and 39. But that takes a lot out of you.
“And I think when you get guys playing 45, 44 minutes, basically attacking one-on-one the whole game, it’s — you hope eventually it’s going to take its toll,” Kerr added. “I wasn’t sure after a while; they just were going nuts. But I think that we just stayed with it, and our defense finally kicked in.”
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Kerr proved to be right. Despite scoring a combined 77 points, Irving and James were held scoreless in the final four minutes of the game, while Curry and Durant (who entered at the 8:30 and 9:30 mark respectively) combined for 11 points during that time, including Durant’s transition three dagger in James’ eye, that put the Warriors up 114 – 113 with 45 seconds remaining. In all, Golden State outscored the Cavs 11-3 in the game’s final four minutes.
James and Irving were informed of Kerr’s post-game comments, but neither would admit that fatigue played a factor in the team’s late scoring drought.
“No, only missed shots,” James said. “We missed shots. I gave everything that I had, so at times throughout the game I was tired, but that’s just because I was just playing as hard as I could. But I was able to get second and third and fourth winds. I don’t contribute as losing this game because we got tired. We missed some shots, and they made some.”
“It’s the Finals,” Irving said. “We had our horses in. Myself and Bron, eclipsed the 43-minute mark, playing pretty well, then they made some big-time plays down the stretch. They’re a juggernaut of a team, do a great job of spacing out the floor, keeping a high tempo and just made some big-time plays down the stretch. You got to give credit when credit is due.”
Lue explained that down 0-2, he felt he had no choice but to give his stars a rest early in the game, and ride with them down the stretch. Lue’s thinking makes sense, especially considering that the Cavs went -12 in the two minutes that James was off the floor.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game for us,” Lue said. “And for us to win, I knew I had to give LeBron at least a two-minute blow in that first quarter, because in the second half, he might not get a blow. So Kyrie was playing well, the game was on the line, so I decided to stick with those guys, being at home, down 0-2.
“I don’t know. Great players, they always dig deep and have their will to win. And they gave us everything they had. Durant made eight straight points that was very critical, three big shots, and that’s why they brought him here, for those situations. I thought our team scrapped and competed. I can’t be disappointed with the effort and how we played, but they made the plays down the stretch that we didn’t execute defensively or offensively, and they took advantage of it.”
Durant, interestingly, didn’t seem to necessarily agree with Kerr’s assessment that James and Irving were tired at any point during the game.
“It didn’t look like it to me,” Durant said. “I mean, they both shot over 50 percent from the field, over, yeah, 50 percent. My math’s not really good, but they shot over 50 percent, they both had almost 40 points, and they did it for 40-plus minutes. They played extremely well, but I just think we stayed in front of them late in the game and got to contest some shots and rebound the basketball. But they had it going all night, you got to give them credit.”