If the Cavaliers are going to win the NBA title this season, they’re going to have to do something that has never been done before in the NBA Finals. They’re going to have to climb out of a huge 0-3 hole after falling to the Warriors in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
The Cavaliers looked like they were going to get the job done in Game 3 and pull out a win on their home floor. They led by two points with less than 50 seconds on the clock. But that was before Kevin Durant pulled up for a clutch three-pointer to give the Warriors a lead they would never relinquish:
It pretty much ended Cleveland’s hopes of winning back-to-back titles. Or did it?
A short time after the game ended, J.R. Smith appeared to take to Twitter to make a bold—er, a really bold—prediction. Even though no NBA team has ever rebounded from an 0-3 Finals deficit, Smith seemed to predict that his Cavaliers are going to be the first team to do it:
But just as quickly as Smith made his "Cavs in 7" prediction, the tweet got deleted. And it led many people to wonder why Smith had taken it down. Did LeBron James tell him to do it? Did he realize that he shouldn’t give the Warriors any more ammo than they already have? Did someone inform him that 0-3 holes are impossible to climb out of?
None of the above. As it turns out, Smith claims he was hacked. But in a surprising twist, he did mention that he didn’t necessarily disagree with the way the hacker was thinking:
Smith also spoke with Cleveland.com about the tweet and denied sending it. "I got out of the shower and my phone was buzzing. I did not tweet that," he said. "I’m smarter than that."
Smith went on to say, "I do believe," when he was asked if the Cavaliers can come back in the series. But he added: "I didn’t tweet that. I would be much smarter than that, than to tweet that at literally 12:04, right after the game."
Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals will take place on Friday night.
