The Cleveland Cavaliers have to make some changes when they head into Game 3 of the NBA Finals. After losing the first game in overtime due to a mistake by J.R. Smith at the end of regulation and then getting blown out in Game 2, the Cavs return to Cleveland for the next two games and hope to even up the series. In order to do that, it is clear that the team has to make some changes and in the press conference leading into the game, Cavaliers' head coach Tyronn Lue has announced that he will be making some lineup changes to help the Cavs try to compete against the Golden State Warriors.
The Cavaliers will bring back a young talent in Game 3
One of the reasons that the Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 1 was because shooting guard J.R. Smith caught a rebound on a missed free throw with the game time expiring and instead of trying to make the winning shot or throwing the ball to LeBron James, he dribbled it back, made a bad pass, and time ran out.
When the Cavs made their NBA trade deadline moves, they brought in a guard in Rodney Hood. A lot of fans wanted Hood to come in and become the starter over J.R. Smith then, but Cleveland held off. In the playoffs, Hood refused to enter the game in one contest because he was mad about sitting out until the end, and that brought the wrath of fans and anger from some teammates.
With Rodney Hood not playing at all in a number of Cleveland Cavaliers playoff games, now, he is almost a forgotten player. However, head coach Tyronn Lue said he is not forgotten and also said that Hodd's confidence is hurting right now. Despite that, with the Cavs needing a desperate Game 3 win, Lue said that he will play Hood in the contest.
Rodney Hood on his confidence
In an interview with The Undefeated after Game 2, Rodney Hood said that there is one game he will look back at when his confidence starts to drop. That was a December game when Hood played for the Utah Jazz and scored 27 points against the Golden State Warriors. Highlights from that game are on YouTube.
Rodney Hood said that he will lose his confidence but then watch that game with the Utah Jazz and remind himself that he did that this season.
With the Golden State Warriors as the team that the Cleveland Cavaliers have to get by, Hood wants to prove that he can still be that same player.
Rodney Hood averaged 16.8 points for the Utah Jazz this season. He scored 25 points in eight games and 30 points on Feb. 5. He even scored 15 points in his first game with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the NBA postseason, Hood is only averaging 4.4 points a game and has not played in five of the games -- four in the Boston series -- while only playing four minutes in the first two Golden State games combined.