Game 3 review: Dubs incomparable, KD unflappable, Iguodala impregnable

As Golden State has rolled through the NBA playoffs we have heard the comparisons and the conjecture.

The Warriors, according to Las Vegas, would be favored over Michael Jordan’s 72-victory juggernaut.

Scottie Pippen, who played for those Bulls and last year said that club would sweep the Dubs, is hedging his bets this year, saying that it would depend upon which rules were used — those of his era, which enabled clutching and grabbing, or those employed now, which allow for the free-flowing style of teams like the Warriors. (Another Bull from that era, B.J. Armstrong, said the same thing.)

Magic Johnson was more definitive, saying his Lakers would sweep these Warriors.

And so on.

We’ll hear more and more of this in the weeks to come, with Golden State on the precipice of its second championship in three years following Wednesday’s 118-113 victory over Cleveland in Game Three.

Can’t we just enjoy this club for its own sweet sake? For the fact that it is the best team of its generation?

No?

OK, so here is my point of reference for these Dubs:

Like the Terminator, you just can’t kill these guys. And goodness knows, Cleveland tried. LeBron put up 39. Kyrie slithered his way to 38. Even J.R. Smith made a special guest appearance, nailing five 3s and scoring 16.

None of which mattered, because of things like this:

Kevin Durant’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 45.3 seconds left was part of a game-ending 11-0 rush by the Warriors. Durant provided seven of those points, and 12 in the final 6:07, after managing three in the first 18 minutes of the second half.

That led one ill-informed troll to fire away on Twitter:

(Goodness, where do these clowns come from? Probably tweeted from the couch in his parents’ basement.)

Really, though, KD’s lull was just another oddity, on a night full of them. Kyle Korver dunked, and he never dunks. Kevin Love couldn’t make a shot (1-for-9), but he had 13 rebounds and six steals. Steph Curry supplemented his usual long-distance barrage (five 3s, 26 points) with a career-high 13 boards.

Weird, wild, wacky stuff.

Durant finished with 31. Klay Thompson had 30. And with Cleveland needing a 3 to tie in the closing seconds, an old warhorse named Andre Iguodala did this:

That made me happier than I care to admit, because I remember the flak Iguodala took when he was with our Sixers — how so many fans believed he wasn’t earning his money because he wasn’t a superstar at the offensive end. Fair enough, but he could certainly be regarded as such on D. The guy jousted with terrific perimeter players every blessed night, and more than held his own.

With Golden State, his strengths have only been accentuated; witness his MVP in the ’15 Finals. On Wednesday he and Thompson were the only Warriors to play all 12 minutes in the fourth quarter. Iguodala did not score, but he was a plus-10.

Now he and his teammates are poised to finish off the greatest postseason run in NBA history, a fo’-fo’-fo’-fo’.

That, at least, is incomparable.