Warriors assistant Ron Adams details what went down in Game 3 of NBA Finals

CLEVELAND - Do I worry about what happened Wednesday night? Of course I do. You're a coach, you worry. You have to be worried. You worry about everything.

I wasn't surprised by what happened. I have to be honest. We've had similar aberrations, times we didn't perform at our level. Wednesday night was one of them. I can't explain it. I don't think anyone can.

Cleveland had been beaten up by the press in two days as much as any team I have witnessed. We always took them seriously. We talked about them. “They're going to come out punching and we've got to survive that. We've got to survive their first punch.” You would think, having acknowledged that as a group, we could anticipate better than we did, have an answer for it better than we did.

Quite frankly, we were pretty soft from the opening possession. Which was baffling. But it happens. Our approach to ball pressure had changed. Their defense the first several times we had the ball and our defense the first several times they had the ball were the exact opposite. They went for the ball. They were aggressive. We didn't and we weren't. That's how the game started. Tough start for us.

But then we solidified. Showed fight. I was proud of that. Second quarter, we actually looked like ourselves, got their shooting percentage down to 43, trailed by only eight at halftime. Decent feeling going into the locker room we saw us coming back into the game. I thought we were in good shape.

And then we started the third quarter same way we started the game. Difficult to explain even now. Mystifying. You try to put the right combinations on the floor. You try to adjust things in a timeout. You try to motivate people individually. But changing that course more than once in a game is never easy. Fall behind. Come back. Fall behind. Very hard to come back again.

Tonight, we have to take the fight to them right away. Have to. We have a history of coming back. We had two down games in Oklahoma City and came back. Great comeback. So we've done it and we're confident we can change the result in Cleveland.

We have to do better with Kyrie Irving. That's for sure. He is a marvelous one-on-one player. We all know that. The interesting thing is he had a great first quarter and, in several possessions, we were playing him just like he was another Joe. He's not. And yet there was not, in my mind, a recognition of what was happening on the floor with Kyrie. He's a top-of-the-line offensive player. He gets going, it's hard to stop him. He and Tristan Thompson carried them at first.

LeBron James had a big night but in an interesting way. He played a thoughtful game. He's a thoughtful player. He had trouble getting to the rim at first. Then he came out in the third quarter and made a concerted effort to shoot jumpers. He made them and gained confidence.

It was interesting watching him change from one half to the next. He was assertive and aggressive, a guiding force. But they had a lot of substantial actors in that play on Wednesday. J.R. Smith was one of them.

Funny, I just called Game 3 a play. There's truth to that. Games are like plays. From our point of view, it was a tragedy just like Game 2 was a tragedy for Cleveland.

During Game 2, we were sitting on the bench at home in a game just like Wednesday's. We're all happy and relaxed because we're up 30 points. It came to me during the course of Game 3 it was rather ironic how roles had reversed. Sadly ironic. Tragic also. But that's the sport.

And then I remembered this is not a one-act play or even a three-act play. It can be a very long play. It will go seven acts, if necessary. And we get to play the last act in our home theater. Comforting thought.

Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams is writing columns exclusively for The Press Democrat throughout the NBA playoffs.