NBA Playoffs

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors Game 3 Player Grades

The Cavaliers find themselves one loss away from starting their offseason.

By Akash Anavarathan@akashanav Jun 7, 2018, 1:18am CDT

NBA: Finals-Golden State Warriors at Cleveland Cavaliers

Here are the player grades for Game 3.

Rodney Hood: A-

After not playing meaningful minutes in the NBA Finals, Rodney Hood stepped into Game 3 and was a huge boost off the bench. Hood got reserve minutes instead of Clarkson and turned it into 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Although it didn’t lead the Cavaliers to victory, it was greater than what was expected of Hood going into the game.

LeBron James: B

LeBron continued to make weird decisions in Game 3, leading to an off-shooting night from the field at 13-of-28. While he finished with a triple-double, the game didn’t have the usual James’ impact. Unless he puts up a herculean performance in Game 4, the Cavaliers will stat their offseason on Friday night.

Kevin Love: B

After Hood and James, the next-best Cavalier in Game 3 was Kevin Love. Again, it didn’t seem like Love was having his usual impact, he finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds on 6-of-13 shooting.

J.R. Smith: B-

After a poor shooting performance in the first two games, J.R. Smith came out firing on all cylinders in Game 3, but only finished with 13 points on 14 shooting attempts.

Tristan Thompson: C

There’s no excuse for Tristan Thompson to only have seven rebounds after playing 34 minutes. The Cavaliers’ big man needs to be more active on the glass, but eight points isn’t bad from the field.

George Hill: C-

When George Hill isn’t aggressive, the Cavaliers seem to be less successful. The Cavaliers’ starting point guard only attempted six shots, which of course meant that Cleveland wasn’t going to have a great offensive showing — and they didn’t.

Jeff Green: C-

Green finished the night minus-7. The Cavaliers can’t afford to have all their bench players playing poorly and still win the game.

Larry Nance Jr.: C-

After a strong Game 1, Nance Jr. hasn’t been able to get on track and it’s caused the Cavs to drop the last two games.

Kyle Korver: D+

Not hitting a basket is inexcusable for the sharp shooter. After being the second-most consistent Cavalier for nearly three weeks in the the postseason, Korver finds him at the bottom of this list.