Cleveland: While the Golden State Warriors fight to avoid complacency after two lopsided wins to start the NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers hope playing at home will help them find toughness they have so far lacked.
The defending champions Warriors would reach the brink of a repeat crown with a victory on Wednesday in the best-of-seven series.
“We’re feeling confident but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” Warriors star guard Stephen Curry said. “It’s a trap to think we’ve figured things out and that we have the perfect formula to beat Cleveland and they have no chance in the series.”
Only three teams have overcome 2-0 deficits to win the finals — the 1969 Boston Celtics, 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and 2006 Miami Heat — and no team trailing 3-0 has ever rallied to win an NBA play-off series.
“The guys are not discouraged. More [angry] than anything,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We’ve got to be tougher. That’s the main thing. Got to play more physical and live with the results.”
The Warriors beat Cleveland 110-77 in game two, the fewest points allowed by the Warriors in a play-off game since 1975. They have beaten the Cavaliers seven consecutive times — three in last year’s finals, two this season and twice more in the finals.
“I don’t think there’s a hurdle for them at all,” Golden State’s Draymond Green said. “We don’t go in thinking, ‘We’ve beat these guys seven times. We’ve got them.’ That’s not our mindset at all. Once that becomes you’re mindset you will lose. Our mindset is we took care of home court. Now let’s get one on the road.
“At this point, everything you get is really hard and it’s about to get even harder. They will probably play with a little more energy. They will be playing with a sense of desperation.”
Golden State won the first two games by a combined 48 points, the most lopsided start in 70 NBA Finals.
“We understand the situation we’re in. We know we’ve got to play a lot better in order to get this series turned around,” Cavaliers star LeBron James said.
“We’re still here. We have a chance to turn this series around. We have to figure out how we can be better. We’ve got to bear down.”
The Cavaliers have to avoid giving the ball away. In two games, they have committed a combined 35 turnovers leading to 51 Golden State points. James has 11 total turnovers.
“Can’t turn the ball over against a great team and expect to win,” James said. “I had a lot of uncharacteristic unforced turnovers. It resulted in them getting some easy baskets.
“We can’t have as many mental lapses. These guys put you in so many mental positions where you have to figure it out and they make you pay for it when you don’t.”
