The Shot, The Stop, and The Block: How the Warriors exacted revenge in Game 3
If one thing gets lost to history about the 2016 NBA Finals, it's how unlikely it was that the Cleveland Cavaliers won Game 7.
Yes, they had momentum on their side; yes, they had the best player on the planet (and one of his best sidekicks); and, yes, they were going against a hindered Steph Curry, an absent Andrew Bogut, and an ice-cold Harrison Barnes. But this was still the Golden State Warriors. The 73-9 Warriors. The convincingly-up-2-0-and-3-1 Warriors. The GOAT-contending Warriors.
Until the last two minutes of the game, it still seemed like they might pull it off.
What happened in those last two minutes? A bunch of things, but the basketball-watching public will forever remember three of them: The Block, The Shot, and The Stop - the three biggest plays in Cavaliers history.
The Shot, courtesy of Kyrie Irving, was a pullup three in Curry's mug with just under a minute to go to give the Cavs a three-point advantage they'd never relinquish. It was almost momentous enough to wipe memories of a vanquished Craig Ehlo from Cleveland lore forever.
The Stop was the moment of redemption for Kevin Love, as he picked up Curry on a switch and managed to keep history's greatest distance shooter from getting a clean look at a game-tying triple, forcing an awkward chuck that clanked off the back rim.
And, of course, likely the most famous of all, The Block, came a minute earlier, as Cleveland mayor LeBron James emerged from beyond the horizon to delete what should have been a go-ahead Andre Iguodala layup.
Those three plays have haunted Bay Area basketball for the last 12 months. And on Wednesday night, Golden State avenged all three of 'em.
The Shot
By virtue of coming 40 seconds before the buzzer in a Game 3, it's likely Kevin Durant's go-ahead-for-good bucket in Cleveland will be left out of the discussion of the biggest shots in NBA history.
Understandable, but unfair. The shot saved the game, the streak, and, given how fast and dramatically NBA momentum tends to turn when you're playing LeBron James, maybe even the series for the Warriors.
It wasn't an easy one, either. The only guy besides Durant who would've had the confidence to grab a rebound, trot up past the timeline, sense an extra quarter-second's openness being picked up in the half-court, and fire away without hesitation - while down two with less than a minute to go - was No. 30 in blue, a couple feet away.
And let's not overlook that he did this right in LeBron James' face. His principal rival, the guy who deprived him of his first taste of Finals glory a half-decade earlier, and very possibly the greatest, smartest player in NBA history. James either didn't think Durant had the gumption to take it, or didn't think he had the cold-bloodedness to make it, but KD did, and he did.
For those spending this series marking up their LeBron vs. MJ scorecard, this would be a big fat tally on the Jordan side. His Airness never found himself on the wrong end of a historic playoff highlight like this, and certainly not against the closest thing he had to a generational challenger.
The Stop
"Yeah, but his defense" has been a common argument for Klay Thompson in the midst of his erratic shooting run this postseason, and understandably so - he's helped neuter the point of attack for Cleveland all series, and was one of the biggest reasons Irving took until Game 3 to really get unshackled.
On Wednesday, the script flipped, and Thompson was unstoppable again (30 points on 11-18 shooting) while Irving finally also got loose on O (38 on 16-29). At least until Irving's final possession, in which he spent the majority of the shot clock unleashing nearly every shake-and-bake maneuver in his arsenal, but simply couldn't lose Thompson, eventually stepping back for a tough 3-point hurl that caromed off the front rim.
The most remarkable part of Thompson's stop wasn't just that he refused to let Irving get an advantage on him, it was that he baited Irving into trying to find one for long enough that Cleveland let their two-for-one opportunity expire.
By the time the ball landed in Curry's arms, the differential between shot clock and game clock (less than two seconds) wasn't enough for Cleveland to hope for a stop and a score, forcing them to foul and extend Golden State's lead.
It's not as unlikely as Love being the dude to put Curry in irons, but given how diminished Curry seemed in that series, and how otherwise irrepressible Irving was Wednesday night, it's about as impressive.
The Block
Well, it's probably not gonna get its own oral history like the one last year did, but damned if Andre Iguodala isn't going to be in a smiling mood when he rewinds the tape on this one.
A year after his potential game-swinging layup was erased from the earth as if it was one of the departed on "The Leftovers," he returned the favor to James by stifling a desperation corner-three attempt of The King's with about 10 seconds left, stripping him on the way up and forcing a turnover that essentially sealed Game 3 for Golden State.
(Only in basketball. It's not like you'll ever get to see Russell Wilson win a Super Bowl with a game-ending interception of a Malcolm Butler pass.)
But you know what? I'm not even sure this was the biggest block of the game. I don't think that sprawling James triple would've gone down anyway, but you know what really should've landed? James' gorgeous drop-off bounce pass for Love under the basket, with the Cavs up six and two-and-a-half minutes to go.
If Draymond Green doesn't react quickly enough to touch the leather under the basket, Love puts it down, the Cavs are up eight, and they can probably just lean on Golden State from there.
But because Green got some of the ball, Love fumbled the release on the layup attempt, and because Love spent an extra couple beats protesting the ref's no-call on the play, Curry was able to slice through Cleveland's lackluster transition defense and quickly cut the lead to four.
Years from now, Game 7 from 2016 will occupy a far greater percentage of NBA lore than this Game 3. It's a Game 7, after all, and there'll always be something more cinematic about a team's unlikely come-from-behind story than a team's always-likely, stay-ahead story.
But it still took some historic plays for Golden State to do it - and now, if there are any ghosts remaining from 2016, they should only last until the 2017 Warriors' next and final W.