Live Thread: Warriors @ Cavs, NBA Finals Game 3

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.” This famous line from The Shawshank Redemption may best encapsulate the feelings of the Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans. Down 2-0 in a best-of-seven series to the Golden State Warriors, a team that set the record for most wins in the regular season with 73, hope may be all that the Cavaliers have left.

But hope really is a wonderful thing. Without hope, what would be the point of watching basketball unless you were a Warriors fan? Even in this age of analytics, anything can happen, and that’s why we watch the games. We hope that the Cavaliers will play better defense. We hope they do a better job of moving the ball on offense. We hope that Kyrie Irving realizes he has made 8-of-9 baskets in the series when shooting after a pass, and just 4-of-27 when trying to score in isolation. We hope that the Cavaliers can win the rebounding and turnover battles in the same game for the first time this series, despite being without Kevin Love. We hope that Tyronn Lue‘s probable decision to start small by playing Richard Jefferson in Love’s place doesn’t play right into the Warriors’ hands. We hope that LeBron James finds his jumpshot. We hope that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson continue to play like mere mortals. We hope that Leandro Barbosa realizes he is a mere mortal. We hope to not be confronted with the reality of Anderson Varejao active on the floor in the Finals for the other team. We hope to make this series more competitive than it has been. We hope to shut the mouths of members of the national media who fawn over the Warriors and rip Greater Cleveland and the people who choose to live there as if that is what they are paid to do. We hope—as impossible as it sounds—to make one of the most miraculous comebacks in sports history and end a 52-year championship drought.

We hope.