CLEVELAND -- Five minutes into Game 3 of the 2018 NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers couldn't have had asked for a better start. Highlighted by a LeBron James throw-it-off-the-backboard dunk, the Cavs jumped out to a 16-4 lead over the Golden State Warriors, with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green each soon finding themselves in foul trouble.
By halftime, Cleveland's advantage had been cut in half, with a 34-foot Kevin Durant 3-pointer beating the buzzer. Shortly thereafter, Golden State took their first lead of the game, although it wasn't until a pair of Kevin Love free throws gave the Cavs a 97-96 advantage with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter that it felt like the Warriors truly came alive.
Curry layup. Andre Iguodala dunk. Durant 3-pointer. Draymond Green dunk. A pair of Curry free throws.
Altogether, Golden State closed the contest on a 14-5 run en route to a 110-102 victory to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"That margin for error is so thin and so little against them that in some cases you almost have to be perfect," said Love, who scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
The Cavs weren't perfect, but on Wednesday, they hardly played poorly either. As opposed to the first two games of the series in Golden State, Cleveland's role players -- namely J.R. Smith and Rodney Hood -- played better, as James turned in a triple-double with 33 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
Perhaps more importantly, the Cavs kept Curry contained -- at least until the final three minutes -- limiting him and fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson to 7-of-27 shooting. None of that, however, was enough to overcome Durant's 43-point, 13-rebound, 7-assist performance, which included a dagger 3-pointer reminiscent of the go-ahead shot he hit against the Cavs in Game 3 of last year's Finals.
"It's almost like playing the [New England] Patriots, you can't have mistakes," explained James. "They're not going to beat themselves. You know, so when you're able to either force a miscue on them, you have to be able to capitalize and you have to be so in tuned and razor sharp and focused every single possession. You can't have miscommunication, you can't have flaws, you can't have 'my faults' or 'my bads' or things like that, because they're going to make you pay."
Truth be told, the same could have been said of the Warriors in 2015, when they beat the Cavs in six games in the first of what has now been four straight Finals matchups between the two teams. And before blowing a 3-1 lead, Golden State looked awfully unbeatable in 2016 too, as evidenced by its record-setting 73-win regular season.
All of that, of course, was before the Warriors signed Durant, a former MVP and scoring champion who James referred to on Wednesday night as "one of the best players that I've ever played against that this league has ever seen."
If Golden State had any weaknesses after losing to the Cavs in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, it shored them up a few weeks later. And it just so happened to do so by adding arguably the second-best player in the NBA.
"That's the challenge right there. That's the challenge," said James. "You know, that's why they've retooled this team, went out and got K.D. to where there's really not much pressure on -- you know, I won't say any of them to score, but if one of them has a bad game, they have three or four guys that can actually pick up the load.
"And as you've seen with K.D. picking it up today and Steph picking it up in Game 2, they all have the ability to -- we can't ever forget about Klay. He's a guy that scored 40 in a quarter before. So that's the luxury of having guys like that that you can always -- any given moment, they can kind of go off for a game."
Factor in the loss of Kyrie Irving, who could only help James push the Warriors to five games in last year's Finals, and perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise the Cavs are in the position they're currently in.
The margin for error against this Golden State team is just too small -- if it even exists at all.