Cleveland – LeBron James may be a great player, but even he knows the Cleveland Cavaliers have the odds stacked against them.
The San Antonio Spurs moved within one victory of claiming their fourth NBA title since 1999 with a 75-72 victory over the Cavaliers on Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena. San Antonio leads 3-0 in the best-of-seven series and would end it with a win Thursday night. No NBA team has overcome a 3-0 deficit in the Finals.
“We can’t live on history, but at the same time we have dug ourselves a big hole,” said James, who had game highs of 25 points and seven assists as well as eight rebounds.
With time ticking down and Cleveland trailing 72-70, the spotlight was on James to make a big play. Instead, he gave up the ball, and it surprisingly ended up in the hands of teammate Anderson Varejao. A reserve not known for his offense, Varejao was in the game because Cavs starting power forward Drew Gooden (13 points, 12 rebounds) had fouled out. Looking to be the hero, Varejao spun away from San Antonio’s Tim Duncan for a layup. But Varejao’s shot bounced wildly off the backboard as the sell-out crowd of 20,562 groaned.
After being fouled, San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili, who was held to three points on 0-of-7 shooting, made 1-of-2 free throws with 10.4 seconds left to give his team a 73-70 lead. James responded with a layup with 6.3 seconds remaining to bring the Cavs within one. Two free throws by Ginobili gave San Antonio the final 75-72 lead with 5.5 seconds left.
Hoping for late heroics, Cleveland’s Damon Jones passed the ball to James in 3-point distance. While James dribbled before shooting a potential game-tying 3-pointer, San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen appeared to grab James’ back. No foul was called. James’ 3-point attempt bounced off the rim. Cleveland wasn’t able to get another shot off before the buzzer, and James was left arguing with referee Bob Delaney to no avail.
After the game, James said it was “incidental contact. It didn’t affect my shot. I had a good look at it and missed.”
This Finals contest wasn’t one for offensive lovers. Cleveland shot 36.7 percent from the field and missed 16 of its 19 3-point attempts. San Antonio shot 41.2 percent from the field, missed seven of its 16 free throws and had no player score 20 points, but did hit 10 3-pointers. The Spurs led 40-38 at halftime.
“We set the Western world of offensive basketball back 10 years,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
How daunting is the challenge for the Cavaliers against the Spurs?
Not only has no NBA team come all the way back in the Finals series being down 3-0, it has only happened three times in major pro sports history, most recently with the Boston Red Sox in 2004. The other two were in the NHL: the Toronto Maple Leafs (1942) and the New York Islanders (1975). Only seven teams have been swept in NBA Finals history. The most recent was New Jersey in 2002, by the Los Angeles Lakers.
“That would be nice (to sweep),” said Spurs guard Tony Parker, who scored a team-high 17 points. “But it’s going to be hard. It’s going to take a lot of effort and energy. I know Cleveland. They have a lot of pride and energy, and they’re going to play with a lot more energy in Game 4.”
The Spurs appeared to be in control after a 3-pointer by Michael Finley with 6:37 left gave them a 67-57 lead.
But the Cavaliers cut the lead to 67-65 with 1:54 left after two free throws by James.
Spurs forward Duncan answered with two free throws with 1:32 remaining to push the Cavaliers back down by four points. James responded with a driving layup with 1:22 remaining to make it 69-67.
San Antonio’s Parker and Cleveland’s Sasha Pavlovic exchanged 3-pointers to give the road team a 72-70 lead with 48.9 seconds left. Next, the Cavs received a major break when Varejao blocked Parker’s layup attempt with 25.9 seconds left.
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-954-1098 or mspears@denverpost.com.
