LeBron facing final game with Cavs after Warriors’ Game 3 win?

CLEVELAND — Kevin Durant pushed the Golden State Warriors into dynasty’s doorstep.

LeBron James may be at the exit door.
Durant scored 43 points, draining a lengthy 3-pointer in the last minute to cap his glorious performance, and the Warriors beat James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-102, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night to move within a victory of a sweep, their second straight title and third championship in four years.
And Cleveland may be down to a final match with James, who recorded his 10th triple-double from the finals. The three-time champion can opt out of the $35.6 million contract and test free agency this summer, and it can be time for the 33-year-old to locate a team capable of beating the Warriors.
These Cavs can’t find it out.
CBSSports.com’s Kyle Boone writes,”There will be endless banter about where free-agent-to-be LeBron James decides to signal when he chooses to leave Cleveland. But one destination, the Los Angeles Lakers, has been the most talked landing spot for the celebrity for quite a while now.”
With the Cavs down 103-100, Durant stood defiantly and nearly motionless after falling his 33-footer – almost from the exact same area from where he hit one in Game 3 last season – and effectively ended the fourth consecutive finals matchup between two teams that have gotten to know each other well since 2015.
After Durant scored, Stephen Curry and Draymond surrounded Durant and cried at their teammate, who calmly walked toward the bench.
“I tried to only stay in the zone,” Durant said, acknowledging he was worried the Cavs could still come back.
Durant reported the similarity with last year’s shot – a second that helped establish his first championship – did not happen to him.
“No, not at all,” he said of the comparison. “I just took the photo.”
There was.
“It was like deja vu seeing him hit that shot ,” Cavs forward Kevin Love stated.
Golden State will now have four opportunities to wrap up its title starting with Game 4 on Friday night. The Warriors are attempting to combine a select list of groups to win three championships in four decades.
James scored 33 points and Kevin Love additional 20 for the Cavs, who have dropped into the hole where no team has ever emerged. Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the Warriors at the 2016 finals, but that was Durant was in Oklahoma City and James had a different supporting cast.
“We had our chances,” James said. “You can’t make errors. They are not going to beat themselves.”
The Warriors won even though a 3-of-16 shooting performance from Curry, who did come up big down the stretch as the Cavs were hoping to salvage their time.
Durant, who tilted this competition toward the West Coast when he signed with the Warriors as a free agent before last year, was brilliant from the start. He helped cancel a rough night for Curry, who left a finals-record nine 3-pointers in Game 2, but was only 1 of 10 from behind the arc and did not score his second field goal until there were under three minutes left.
Curry’s scoop shot put the Warriors up 98-97 and defensive pro Andre Iguodala, who didn’t play Games 1 or 2 because of a knee injury, came up with a sneak under the basket. Curry eventually murdered a 3 and after James matched him with a lengthy shot, Iguodala drove the lane for a thundering dunk.
Seconds later, Durant delivered his dagger to silence Cleveland’s audience.
“The shot clock was running down, I had been pretty far out, I only wanted to get a look,” Durant said. “I did not want to run and take a terrible shot, fall on the ground and they got numbers going the other way, and so I decided to pull up.”
James made a layup to pull on the Cavs within four, it had been too little too late since the Warriors shut out it and beat Cleveland for its fourth straight time in finals games.
Together with JaVale McGee acquiring three point-blank shots in the rim, the Warriors opened the third quarter with a 9-3 spurt and it was not long before they took their first lead on Curry’s two free throws.

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