By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard

My, how things have changed.

After the Warriors were preemptively crowned NBA champions by winning Game 1, LeBron James had another spectacular game, scoring 40 points, Matthew Dellavedova added 20, and the Cleveland Cavaliers took a 96-91 victory and a 2-1 series lead.

Cleveland hasn’t missed a beat without stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, winning their second straight gritty defensive battle against Golden State.

The NBA referee’s favorite James took as many free throws as the Warriors did, making 10 of 12 to Golden State’s 7 of 12. He was just two assists shy of his second straight triple double, grabbing twelve boards in addition to his near 40-point night. A replay review overturned a call that would have given Klay Thompson and the Warriors the ball down 94-91 with 17.8 seconds left, handing James two free throws that sealed the win.

Dellavedova’s big two pointer “and one” swung the momentum of the game with 2:27 left, extending Cleveland’s lead to 84-80 and sapping all of the momentum out of Golden State after Stephen Curry’s big three pointer to cut Cleveland’s lead to 81-80. He did a great job getting in Curry’s face in the first half, holding him to just 3 points on a paltry 1 of 6 effort from the floor. Curry turned it around in the second half, hitting 9 of his 14 shots, but his 24 points just weren’t enough against James’ Cavaliers.

It really hadn’t been close until the fourth, with Cleveland dominating the scoreboard and the feel of the game. They outscored Golden State in every quarter except the final one, finding themselves up 17 at the end of the third.

Golden State finds itself in essentially must-win situation heading into Game 4 on Thursday in Cleveland, even with two more games left at Oracle.

Hold on tight, Warriors fans. It’s going to be a wild ride.