The Cleveland Cavaliers looked like an entirely different team Wednesday night when they blasted Golden State in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. That performance may have been in part down to a tirade directed at them by an assistant coach after Game 2.
According to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, normally mild-mannered assistant Phil Handy let the team have it in the locker room after their Game 2 blowout loss on Sunday, essentially calling them out for not fighting back in what Haynes describes as “a profanity-laced tirade.”
“He’s an Oakland boy, and we went out to Oakland and got our ass whipped twice,” said forward Richard Jefferson. “He was pissed off. He has to show up there every day. It means a lot to him, it means a lot to us, and for us to go out there and play the way we did was embarrassing. Look, we personally feel that no team should handle us the way they did the last two games, and it was disrespectful.
“It definitely wasn’t normal [for Handy to speak up], but sometimes people step out of their norm and say what they feel needs to be said, and it was definitely something that needed to be said.”
Cavaliers players said that Handy’s outburst impacted how they played in Game 3, in which they showed more fight and desperation in a 30-point victory.
Golden State seemed unprepared for Cleveland’s physicality and desire. In fact, Steve Kerr openly called his team “soft” after the defeat. If you ask the Cleveland players, Handy’s wakeup call was a big catalyst in that.
