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Sports

NBA Finals Game 3 Got Dunky Last Night, and the Cavs Like Dunky

This series just got a tad more dunky—and a tad more interesting.

NBA analysts have been heralding the rise of three-ball like the second coming of Christ as of late. But fear not. The dunk is alive and well, as the Cavs' 120-90 drubbing of the Warriors in last night's Finals Game 3 proved.

While the dunk can't lay claim to the reason why the Cavs (might've) swung the series back from the grave—after all, there was some masterful three-point shooting from J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving for 8-17 from behind the stripe—the dunk made a healthy appearance last night. Mostly thanks to a certain LeBron James.

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Take, for example, the vindictive slam from James above. Last year, LeBron carried the Cavs on his shoulders, with a monster 35.8 points per game. And while he's down to 24.7 this year, he's at least carried the hell out of this play. The strip of Curry, keeping his dribble on all fours, the dish, the height, and the throw-down. Lordy me.

And earlier in the night, LeBron went ahead and did this:

LeBron gets a lot of credit for work on the ball, but his ability to backdoor is jaw-dropping. Just take a look at the Warriors defense after James threw down:

How on earth do you let a 6'8", 250 pound man disappear between the cracks like that? Draymond Green had an answer, earlier in the second quarter that went mostly unnoticed. At first, it just seemed like James miscued, and slapped the back of the rim, but the slow-mo replay shows that Draymond got a healthy piece of the ball to make it look like he's drinking his milk something proper. Look at that wrist flex.

But perhaps the creme-de-la-creme, at least storyline-wise, came from LeBron's block on Curry in a dead ball play:

Can you find a more perfect metaphor for how last night's game went? Curry believes he can fly, and gets nasty-sacked by a resurgent James. This series just got a tad more dunky—and a tad more interesting.