Two straight years of NBA Finals have already made one truth painfully clear: this Cavaliers team has no chance of recreating the miracle comeback of 2016 against the Golden State Warriors. You can hope to force the opponent into cold shooting nights, but if you keep giving them open layups through constant cuts and passes, things will never end well. After Game 3, even LeBron James admitted with frustration, “We don’t have any margin for error.” Although the series was not officially over, the overall direction of this year’s Finals was already easy to see. Many fans vented their disappointment across forums and Cricket Exchange, noting the gulf in talent was simply too wide.
The bigger question was whether this was the Finals experience that fans truly wanted. Judging from the crowd’s reactions, the answer leaned toward no. At the end of the game, complaints of boredom echoed around the arena. Even media attendance dropped compared with previous years. Once, the press section couldn’t fit all the journalists on a single list. But now, after four consecutive Finals featuring the exact same two teams—and with three of those series offering little suspense—the league faced a real challenge in keeping the storyline fresh. Regardless of hidden factors or backroom politics, it was difficult to argue this repetition was doing the NBA much good. As LeBron pointed out, the decisive factor was Kevin Durant’s arrival. “It makes things so much easier for them. Even if one or two guys are off, they still have three or four others to carry the load. That’s a luxury,” he explained. By contrast, after Kyrie Irving’s departure, LeBron was left to shoulder the Cavaliers almost single-handedly. None of his teammates could consistently deliver a 30-point game to rescue them when it mattered most.
The tension peaked in the first half when LeBron twisted his ankle on a drive. He limped for a few steps, and from a luxury box behind the media section, a desperate Cavaliers fan shouted, “Jesus Christ, God no!” The reaction captured the sense of helplessness. Fighting with bare fists against an opponent armed with multiple weapons, Cleveland’s odds seemed insurmountable. Offensively, the Cavaliers had already played at their limit, yet back on their home floor they squandered another opportunity. The Warriors stormed back in the second half to win 110–102, putting Cleveland down 0–3 in the series. At that point, the Cavaliers were staring at the brink of a sweep, a scenario no team in NBA history had ever recovered from. Fans tracking updates on Cricket Exchange remarked that the mountain looked too steep to climb.
The atmosphere inside Quicken Loans Arena told its own story. When the Warriors’ players were introduced on the big screen before the game, Cavaliers fans unleashed a chorus of boos. The hostility only grew louder when the referees were announced, drawing even sharper jeers that filled the arena. The expressions of discomfort on the officials’ faces, from awkward smiles to subtle grimaces, were magnified on the giant video board for all to see. Officiating controversies had become a constant subplot of these Finals, yet what truly doomed Cleveland was its own poor defense. Golden State rookie Jordan Bell played less than 12 minutes but still managed to score 10 points with ease.
As the series slipped further away, Cavaliers fans clung to hope but braced for the worst. For many observers and for those sharing opinions on Cricket Exchange, the outcome seemed inevitable: no matter how hard LeBron fought, the gap in firepower left the Cavaliers just one step from elimination and another Finals heartbreak.