Game 3 of the Finals showed just how valuable Kevin Durant is to the Golden State Warriors. With two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Star Klay Thompson struggling to make shots, it was up to the MVP by way of Oklahoma City to save the day.
Durant saved the Warriors Wednesday night from horrendous shooting by the Splash Brothers who couldn’t make a bucket from anywhere for three and a half quarters. Curry shot 3-of-16 from the field, including 1-of-10 from beyond the arc. Thompson, on the other hand, was 4-of-11 from the floor overall and 2-of-5 from 3-point range.
But the cold streak from Curry and Thompson didn’t faze the Warriors, as their 2016 summer recruit swooped in and rescued them from losing their first game of this Finals series. By the time the game was over, the 7-foot forward had 43 points in one of the best games of his career.
As for the Cleveland Cavaliers, they hit rock bottom by going down 0-3 to the Warriors. They held a 12-point lead early in the game only to see it wither away from Durant’s hot shooting. After the final buzzer sounded, the Cavs had lost by only eight points, 110-102, the smallest margin of victory in the series so far.
But what if Durant didn’t go to Golden State? What if he had stayed in OKC with his buddy Russell Westbrook and chased a championship together instead? Could these Cavs win against this Warriors squad minus the Slim Reaper?
Durant Changed the Rules
Durant was the difference-maker in this game without a doubt and games such as these are why Golden State went after him hard in the 2016 offseason when he was a free agent. The Dubs had lost to the Cavs in the Finals back then in a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit, winning it in Game 7 in front of a stunned Oracle Arena crowd.
Despite winning a record-setting 73 games in the 2015-16 season, the Warriors nearly lost in the Western Conference Finals when they went down 3-1 against, ironically, Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder team. They came back from that series deficit only to fall prey to the Cavs.
But their summer of discontent became the summer of overabundance when the former MVP from OKC joined the Warriors’ All-Star stacked lineup.
Though the Warriors haven’t had the same success in the regular season in terms of number of wins with Durant on board, the playoff results have been devastatingly in their favor. The Warriors’ playoff record last year was 16-1, making them virtually unstoppable when number 35 joined them.
In this year’s playoffs, it’s been a bit rocky. They have a 15-5 record so far heading into Game 4 of the 2018 Finals, which means they aren’t as invincible as they used to be. In fact, the Warriors were down 3-2 against the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. Had it not been for a hamstring injury to Chris Paul in Game 5, it’s quite possible that the Warriors would not be in the championship round right now.
The Ultimate Luxury
But leave it to Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr to explain what makes Durant so valuable to their team.
“Obviously Kevin is the ultimate luxury, because a play can break down and you just throw him the ball, and he can get you a bucket as well as anybody on earth,” Coach Steve Kerr told reporters after Game 1 of this year’s Western Conference Finals. “Kevin, this is why anybody would want him on their team, but you think about a couple years ago when we were in the finals and we couldn’t quite get over the hump. Kevin’s the guy who puts you over the hump. I don’t know what you do to guard him. He can get any shot he wants.”
The Warriors won that game 119-106 thanks to Durant’s 37 points.
Kerr is right. Durant is the ultimate luxury, one that the Warriors have and the rest of the league does not. The battle for the championship became unfair when a team of three All-Stars, including a two-time MVP, received a bonus in the form of a slender but deadly scorer two years ago.
It’s all fair game, regardless, since the salary cap ballooned to the point that the Warriors could afford to add Durant to their team and get away with the highway robbery. It’s legal no matter how you look at it and no matter how many angry fans would protest the matter.
Former players said it was against everything they fought tooth-and-nail for back in the day. Durant lost the competitive spirit of the game by joining a team that already had the best record in NBA history. He cheated, they said.
Even so, the Warriors got Durant fair and square.
However, this year’s playoffs didn’t seem like the Warriors had the luxury of having Durant. There were times when he was a shell of his MVP self especially in the latter games of that Houston series. But when he’s on his game like he was in Game 3, there are few, if any, who can stop him.
The Warriors are Vulnerable
But let’s go back to the Cavs.
Can this year’s edition beat the Warriors even though they had a difficult time in 2016 with a better set of players headed by Kyrie Irving who has since been traded?
If there’s anything that this year’s playoffs have shown, it’s that the Warriors are vulnerable. The fact that they nearly lost Game 1 to these Cavs shows that the gap between these two teams isn’t as wide as you think. Had it not been for a few bogus calls by the officials, a George Hill missed free throw, and a J.R. Smith blunder, the Warriors would be in a bind right now.
The Warriors would not have won Game 3, too, despite the number of open shots at the basket that they made against the Cavs. Curry and Thompson’s off-night assured us of that.
If there was any definitive win by Golden State in these three games, it’s only Game 2 and that required a historic night from Curry for them to win it as well.
A Different LeBron James
But how can these Cavs win against the Warriors, you might ask, when all they have is LeBron James?
While it’s true that the Cavs have James on their roster, he needed Irving to hit the game-deciding 3-pointer to win Game 7 in 2016, you might say.
But here is what makes the big difference in this series and this makes all the difference in the Finals—this is not the same LeBron James that we know from 2016. Without Irving, James has become a better player.
This version of the four-time MVP has played at a superhuman level beyond previous versions of the player in question.
He’s has had one epic performance in the playoffs after another, including two game-winning shots at the buzzer and eight games in which he scored 40 or more points, tying Jerry West for the most 40-point games in a single playoff run.
LeBron James is literally doing things no one has ever done before.
LeBron James notches his 8th 40-point game of this postseason, tying Jerry West (1965) for the most in a single postseason in NBA history.
LeBron has 7 games of 40+ points in the NBA Finals, trailing only Jerry West's 10 for the most in Finals history. pic.twitter.com/BQlBPDCzao
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 1, 2018
Additionally, James also surpassed Jordan with the most 30-point games in playoffs history with 110 games.
He recorded the achievement in Game 3 of the Finals. In this same game, he also had the 10th triple-double of his Finals career, the most ever by any player in league annals. Magic Johnson is second with eight triple-doubles in the championship round.
LeBron now has 10 triple-doubles in the Finals, the most in NBA history. 👑 pic.twitter.com/U4AxtCdyRR
— ESPN (@espn) June 7, 2018
The James Gang
Some might say that the Cavs supporting cast is so bad this year that there’s no way that they can win against this Warriors team even if they didn’t have Durant in their lineup. But James has done a masterful job carrying the Cavs this far in spite of his teammates’ inconsistency.
Kevin Love may not be the player he once was, but as we can see from his Finals performance so far (21.0 points, 12.0 rebounds per game), he is a cut above the rest of the other Cavs role players. This is his best Finals performance since coming to Cleveland.
No Durant, No Problem—for the Cavs
Without Durant’s 26 points in Game 1, James’ 51 would have obliterated the Warriors who were playing in front of their home crowd. Not only is Durant responsible for scoring the basketball, he’s also relied upon to rebound and play tough defense on James and anyone else he guards, for that matter. Without Iguodala for the first two games, there’s no doubt that this series would be in the Cavs’ favor after three games.
As good as the Warriors were last season, they aren’t as good, or as healthy, now. Though Durant struggled in some games in the postseason, including the first game of the Finals where he was quite passive, he’s still a luxury for the Warriors.
Any championship-contending team, when you add a player of Durant’s caliber, will be favored to win the Larry O’Brien trophy in the end.
Remove Durant from these Finals games and the Cavs would beat the Warriors. Whether that’s in four games or more, the Warriors are vulnerable enough to lose to the Cavs and we would be talking about James and how his legacy would be very different with another championship trophy in his hands.
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