The Delly Effect: Cavs two wins away from NBA title against Warriors

Matthew Dellavedova, Cleveland Cavaliers lead the Golden State Warriors 2-1 in the NBA Finals. The point guard has quickly become a fan favorite.

Michael Rosenberg | Jun 10, 2015

The Delly Effect: Cavs two wins away from NBA title against Warriors /

CLEVELAND—Kyrie Irving needed crutches to walk into Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday, because Matthew Dellavedova has not healed him yet. You can understand why. Dellavedova has been busy carrying the undermanned Cavaliers to a 2-1 series lead over the Warriors.

Dellavedova spent Tuesday night being treated for cramps at the Cleveland Clinic, but he is expected to recover heroically in time for Game 4, where he will show up heroically and walk onto the floor heroically. Delly scored 20 points in Game 3, and his defense on Stephen Curry has been so impressive that Curry is even missing shots when Dellavedova is nowhere near him. That’s the Delly Difference.

I, for one, hope LeBron James makes a few plays in the next two games to help Dellavedova finally win his long-awaited first NBA title. James was asked Wednesday if Dellavedova should be knighted in Australia, a good question since James knows nothing about the topic whatsoever, and James said if that’s good for Dellavedova, “I'm all for it.”

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James is not the only member of Dellavedova’s supporting cast helping him out. Tristan Thompson has shown a little of that Delly grit himself, grabbing rebounds and defending relentlessly, and arguably providing a much greater impact than Delly, but anyway back to Delly.

Critics will point out that Dellavedova only played nine minutes in Game 1, scored just nine points in Game 2, and is shooting 10 for 27 in the Finals. My response to that is: “Delly! Delly! Delly!” As Golden State’s Draymond Green said, his team is losing because of intensity. The Cavaliers have more.

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“If you tally up the 50-50 balls in this series, they’ve probably gotten 85% of them,” said Green, which means the Cavs have grabbed 70% of their 50-50 balls, unless my math is off, which it probably is. “It’s impossible to win that way. So in order for that to come out of this team, it has to come out of me. That’s what I’ve been for this team the entire year. That falls on my shoulders.”

And who is doing this dirty work for Cleveland? Need you ask? As Green said: “Who dove on the floor? Dellevadova. Who dove on the floor for that loose ball? Dellavedova. (Who is the most handsome man in the world? Dellavedova.)”

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Green said if the Warriors play harder, “That cuts out over 50% of the problems we’ve had.” But what if Delly plays harder? As Cleveland coach David Blatt said Tuesday, “Delly’s the most Cleveland-like Australian I’ve ever met in my life. If you’re from Cleveland, you know what I’m talking about.”

I’m not from Cleveland, but I think Blatt is referring to the fact that every single person in the crowd at Game 3 grew up in a working-class home, because nobody in Cleveland ever came from money, unlike people in, say, Los Angeles, who were all paid $2 million just to be born, and have never worked hard in their lives. They just surf all day.

matthew-dellavedova-cavaliers-warriors-nba-finals-game-3.jpg — John W. McDonough for Sports Illustrated

Cleveland was named after Moses Cleaveland, who was born and raised in Connecticut and made it all the way to Ohio, where he founded Cleveland, though he was too tired to spell it properly. That was in 1796, and I think we can agree: ol’ Mo had a nice run. Two more wins, and this is Dellavedova, Ohio. Spell it however you want, America. Everybody here will be too drunk to care anyway.

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Delly-mania is hitting Cleveland right in the heart. Specifically: the arteries. One arena concession stand is selling the Delly Burger, which features salami, capicolla, provolone, roasted peppers, gritty arugula and extremely tough red wine vinaigrette. The sign for the Delly Burger even suggests a hashtag, #DellyBurger, for those who want to tweet about an in-arena concession item, as so many of us do.

We should not be surprised by what Dellavedova is doing. He has been training for this moment for years, ever since he posed for a few weeks one winter as a gentleman from Harvard named “Jeremy Lin." Cleveland teammate J.R. Smith said before he arrived in Cleveland, he would see Dellavedova on the upcoming schedule and know he was in for a tough matchup.

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“I hated playing against him,” Smith said, which may explain why he did it so rarely. Dellavedova only played more than 10 minutes in a game against Smith’s team twice. Is it possible Smith’s memory is fuzzy, or he is overstating his fear? Delly! Delly! Delly!

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Delly has a few odd nicknames, like Margin for Error; as teammate James Jones said, “We have a very small Margin for Error.” He is also sometimes known by his Russian name, Pistov, which explains why Green kept talking about being “a little Pistov,” which would certainly help the Warriors.

Golden State better figure something out. Thompson said this series is “a boxing match,” which leaves me hopeful that when Dellavedova is done, he can do something about Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In the meantime, the Cavs are two games away from history. They just need to keep the right mental approach.

“LeBron tells us, ‘Take a deep breath,’” Thompson said.

LeBron? Which one was he, again?

GALLERY: Sports Illustrated's best photos from Game 3 of NBA Finals

SI's Best Photos From Game 3 of the NBA Finals

John W. McDonough for Sports Illustrated

SI's Best Photos from Game 3: Matthew Dellavedova rose to the occasion again for the Cavaliers in Game 3, scoring 20 points and making several hustle plays to help Cleveland win 96-91 to grab a two games to one lead in the NBA Finals.

LeBron James converted this alley-oop pass from Matthew Dellavedova (far right) for a pivotal basket in the fourth quarter.

Despite Steph Curry's attempt to hold Matthew Dellavedova back, the Cavs guard kept driving toward the basket on this play and hit a circus shot off the glass and drew a foul.

Steph Curry found his shooting touch in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 points as the Warriors, who trailed by 20 in the third quarter, refused to go away. (Text credit: AP)

Matthew Dellavedova dove to the floor for a loose ball ahead of the Warriors.

LeBron James finished with 40 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in 46 minutes.

Tristan Thompson scored 10 points and had 13 rebounds for Golden State.

LeBron James has scored 123 points in the series, the most ever scored by a player through the first three games of the Finals.

LeBron James threw down a monster dunk in the first half.

LeBron James's 40-point effort followed 44-point and 39-point efforts in Games 1 and 2, respectively.

Timofey Mozgov blocks a shot by Festus Ezeli.

The Warriors' Klay Thompson attempts to grab a loose ball.

LeBron James attempted 34 shots in his 46 minutes on the floor.

Tristan Thompson makes an emphatic finish on an easy basket.

Steph Curry scored only three points in the first quarter on 1-of-6 shooting and had only 10 at halftime.

Cleveland held the NBA's highest scoring team to a measley 37 points in the first half.

Published Jun 10, 2015

MICHAEL ROSENBERG

Michael Rosenberg is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, covering any and all sports. He writes columns, profiles and investigative stories and has covered almost every major sporting event. He joined SI in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, eight of them as a columnist. Rosenberg is the author of "War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest." Several of his stories also have been published in collections of the year's best sportswriting. He is married with three children.