Game 3 Review: Looking Down The Bristles of a Broom…

by Noor Hammad

Spurs 75 - Cavaliers 72

The 2007 NBA finals made its way to Cleveland last night for the first time in the Club's 37-year history. Cleveland, Ohio has seen its fair share of sporting failures over the last 4 decades making the city hungry for a taste of success. Just over 20 thousand Cavs fans packed into the Quicken Loans arena in the hope of seeing their team replicate their performance against the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals and salvage a win after going down in the first two games in San Antonio.

A lot of pressure was on Lebron James as a vast improvement on his performance in those games was required if the Cavaliers were to have a hope of victory. The rest of the Cleveland roster needed to step up also and provide some much needed support for Lebron.

The Cavaliers defense was also under scrutiny after two fantastic performances from Tony Parker as well as Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the opening games of the series.

The Cavaliers had obviously reviewed the tapes from game 1 and 2 as they came out firing in the opening minutes of last nights game. A strong start from Sasha Pavlovic and Zydrunas Ilgauskas set the tone for Cleveland and allowed Lebron James to ease into the game. Lebron James supported the tactic and appeared to take a 'pass first' approach to the opening minutes.

For the San Antonio Spurs Tim Duncan opened the scoring looking strong inside. Bruce Bowen began a great game for the Spurs by doing a good job defensively on Lebron James and nailing two 3-point shots.

Lebron James began what was to become his tactic for the rest of the game in the first quarter, going to the low post against Bowen and exploiting his size and strength advantage. Tony Parker sat down after the Spurs called their second time-out of the quarter.

The quarter ended 18-16 to the Cavaliers, their first lead at any break during the whole series.

Lebron James continued his attack from the low post in the second term either scoring himself or making great passes out of the double team to Ilgauskas for the easy dunk.

Lebron James and then Tim Duncan both picked up their third personal fouls and were forced to head to the bench.

Duncan remained on the bench as the Spurs stayed with the Cavs through Michael Finley and Tony Parker's contributions on the offensive end and Bruce Bowen made his third three pointer with 5 and a half minutes to go before the half.

The Cavaliers lead by 8 points with 2:42 to go before the Spurs went on a 10 to 0 run through Tony Parker, Robert Horry and Brent Barry as the Spurs took a 40 to 38 lead into the main break.

The first half was a low scoring affair with no player in the game reaching double figures. The two superstars of the game, Duncan and James had both picked up three personal fouls and were forced to spend precious minutes on the bench. Gooden, Pavlovic and Ilgauskas were the big 3 for the Cavs.

Duncan, Bowen and later in the quarter Parker were the 3 best for the Spurs.

The third quarter was a case of horrible shooting for the Cavaliers. Lebron James consistently drew the defense to the post but no one was able to convert the subsequent kick out pass for Cleveland, the Cavs stat sheet reading 1 for 8 from beyond the arc. Ilgauskas however was strong inside and did a great job on the boards.

Bowen was outstanding at both ends of the floor, holding it together for the Spurs making his fourth 3-point shot of the game in the process.

At three quarter time the score line read 55-50 to San Antonio after a 15 to 12 quarter, the lowest scoring quarter in NBA Finals history.

The fourth quarter was going to be a test of Cleveland's ability to adjust to conditions and find scoring opportunities. For the Spurs, not having the lead they had at the same stage last game, with Tim Duncan on 3 fouls and Tony Parker relatively cold, they couldn't afford the lapse they had late in game 2 which allowed the Cavs to outscore them and stage a comeback.

The stats sheet will be a little unfair to Lebron James regarding his turnover count. James began the fourth quarter by maintaining his attack from the post but when he did so the rest of his team stopped moving, limiting his passing opportunities and leading to turnovers. This is something the Cleveland coaching staff needs to look at before game 4.

Drew Gooden continued his strong performance for Cleveland with a field goal taking him to a double-double of 11 points and 10 boards.

The Spurs however extended their lead to 10 points on the back of a 3-pointer from Michael Finely with 6:36 remaining in the game.

The Cavaliers manage to claw it back to a 4 point deficit on the back of baskets from Sasha Pavlovic and Lebron James with 2:30 remaining.

Spurs call a timeout.

With just under 2 minutes remaining and trailing by 4 points Lebron James was fouled on a drive to the basket and went to the line. James, whose free throw shooting has been anything but impressive in the post season, including an airball last game, drained both clutch shots drawing his team to within two points of the Spurs.

1:30 remaining.

On the other end Tim Duncan was fouled and steps up to the line. Duncan re-established the 4 point lead by making both free throws.

1:22 remaining.

James answered with a drive to the rim and a field goal at the other end.

Tony Parker responded with a huge 3-pointer taking the Spurs lead to 5.

Sasha Pavlovic made with a trey of his own for the Cavaliers reducing the lead to 2.

With 25 seconds remaining in the game Anderson Varejao blocked a Tony Parker drive to the basket and the Cavaliers took possession with a 2 point deficit.

At this point you would expect to see a time out but surprisingly none was called as James advanced the ball to the frontcourt. James hit Varejao inside who missed a rushed shot Manu Ginobili was fouled on the rebound with 10 seconds remaining.

The Cavs called a time out (too late!).

Ginobili made both his free throws and James answered with a drive and a 2 pointer at the other end. Ginobili, fouled again and made both free throws giving the Spurs a 3 point lead with 5 seconds left.

The Cavaliers called a time out to get the ball into their offensive end and Lebron James missed an off balance 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Cavs achieved a disappointing end to their most determined performance all series.

Lebron James finished with 25 points, Gooden and Pavlovic 13 and Ilgauskas 12 and 18 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

Tony Parker finished with 17, Duncan with 14 and 9 rebounds and Bowen with 13 points for the Spurs.

Game four of the 2007 NBA Finals tips off at 9pm ET on Thursday night.

Noor Hammad shares his thoughts on the sports world at bigdaveonsports.com, your one stop for sports on the web.

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