1. Paging the Supporting Cast
Tonight, LeBron James became only the second player in league history, along with Magic Johnson, to record eight triple doubles in the NBA Finals. But even his 29 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds needed some more support.
The only other bright spot performance tonight for Cleveland was Kevin Love, who finished the night with 27 points and seven rebounds.
Kyrie Irving may have had 19 points, but it was a sloppy performance at best.
At the end of the third, Irving only had 12 points. In order for the Cavs to win four out of the next five games, they are going to need better than an 8-of-23 shooting performance from Irving.
The biggest gaping holes so far in this series for Cleveland have been Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith. Tonight, they each had plus/minus ratings of negative-18.
Thompson finished the night with eight points, but only four rebounds. Smith ended the night with zero points on 0-for-2 shooting.
Lue needs to find a way to free Thompson up on the boards, and Smith needs to actually take more shots in order to make any kind of impact down the stretch, especially considering the fact that he is a streaky shooter.
The bottom line is, without their role players, the Cavs are dead in the water.
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