Kevin Durant’s late heroics lift Golden State Warriors over Cleveland Cavaliers for 3-0 NBA Finals lead
Durant scores 31 points, seven of them in the closing minutes, as Golden State beat Cleveland to seize command of the NBA Finals
Kevin Durant drained the shot of his professional life – a three-pointer with 45.3 seconds left – and scored 31 points as the Golden State Warriors moved within one win of postseason perfection and payback by rallying to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-113 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
“All I was looking at was the bottom of the net,” Durant said. “I’ve been working on that shot my whole life. To see that go in, that was liberating, man. We’ve got one more to go.”
The Warriors trailed by six with three minutes left before Durant, who signed with Golden State last summer to win a championship, brought them back, scoring 14 in the fourth.
With their 15th straight win, the Warriors have the longest postseason streak for any team in the four major professional sports.
And with a victory in game four on Saturday morning, Golden State can exorcise those haunting demons from last June when the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals to the Cavaliers. No team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit.
Klay Thompson added 30 points and Stephen Curry had 26 for the Warriors, who are one win from their second title in three years.