Former Saint Mary's star Dellavedova boosts Cavaliers

Dellavedova made quite a mark as a gritty gamer at nearby Saint Mary's College over four years. But he made an even more striking impression Sunday night at Oracle Arena, stepping in for injured All-Star Kyrie Irving on basketball's biggest stage.

Dellavedova scored just nine points, but he made pivotal plays late in overtime to preserve Cleveland's 95-93 victory over the Warriors' in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

After James Jones missed a 3-point jumper with 11.1 seconds left and the Cavaliers trailing by a point, Dellavedova crashed the boards, snatched an offensive rebound, drew a foul and confidently sank two free throws with 10.1 seconds to go that gave Cleveland the lead back.

Then, at the other end of the floor, he harassed the league MVP, Stephen Curry, into a bad miss with seven seconds to go, pumping his fist after making the stop, and the Warriors never got a better chance to win it.

Dellavedova didn't have that great of a stat line: 3-for-10 shooting (1 for 6 from 3-point range), and he committed six turnovers. But he played Curry tough -- the MVP was 0 for 8 shooting with four turnovers when defended by Dellavedova in half-court offense -- and made the kind of heady, scrappy plays he was known for in Moraga from 2009-13. He also played 42 minutes after just nine in Game 1. He maintained he was not intimidated by the challenge.

"I just tried to make sure I was really hydrated," he said. "That was probably the main thing."

Not surprisingly, "Delly" was the toast of the Cavaliers locker room after another huge playoff performance in place of Irving, who is out for the rest of the Finals after having surgery to repair a fractured kneecap.

"He's unique in his own way," said LeBron James, who led the Cavaliers' Game 2 upset with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. "Obviously, he's a guy that's been counted out his whole life by people who've said he's too small, he's not fast enough, can't shoot enough, can't handle it good enough. He's beaten the odds so many times, and the confidence we have in him allows him to be confident in himself.

"He goes out and just plays his tail off, and a guy who does that gets great results."

Cleveland coach David Blatt was just as effusive as James about the second-year player from Australia.

"You know, he did what he has been doing every time that we've put him in that position," said Blatt. "He's a courageous kid that plays right. There was a lot of nonsense swirling around about his style of play. I think anyone that looks at him objectively recognizes someone that just plays hard, heartfelt, and tough basketball."

When the news came down about Irving on Friday, fewer people were giving the Cavs much of a chance in the series against the Warriors, who were already favored. And while Dellavedova had strong games in both the Chicago and Atlanta series victories, not many were giving him much of a chance to guard the elusive sharpshooter Curry.

Dellavedova said he wasn't listening to any of the talk.

"I don't really pay attention to anything outside of the locker room, because none of that stuff really matters," he said. "As for the motivation part, it's the NBA Finals, and if you need any extra motivation, you probably shouldn't be playing."

Dellavedova said that the offensive rebound "just came to me. ... I was lucky" and that the two clutch free throws didn't unnerve him.

"That's the classic thing you practice as a kid growing up, down one you need to make free throws," he said. "I feel like I've been in that situation many times before."

Dellavedova went into the challenge of guarding Curry knowing he wasn't going to win the battle every time.

"Even if you play good defense, he's going to hit some tough shots," he said. "So you just have to keep defending him and make it as hard as possible."

Warriors guard Klay Thompson said it was his fault Dellavedova got the crucial offensive rebound, but he praised the former Gaels star.

"He had a few good plays there at the end, some big shots as well," Thompson said. "I forgot to box him out on that last possession where he got the foul, and I'm going to think about that for a long time. It's tough, but you've got to give him credit. He made big plays."

Teammate J.R. Smith said, "He's probably one of the toughest competitors I've ever met."

Still the underdog, Cavaliers' 'Grit Squad' continues to strengthen through adversity

The Cavaliers proved that not only are they going to make Golden State work for each win, they're intent on getting to four wins first with grit rather than flash.

It's possible to overcome the loss of All-Stars when LeBron James is on your team.

James delivered another memorable performance with game-highs in points (39), rebounds (16) and assists (11) – his fifth Finals triple-double and the 13th of his playoff career – and led the Cavaliers to a 95-93 overtime victory over the Warriors.

"All that writing off and underdog title and little chances, that's a good thing," Cavs coach David Blatt said. "This team has nothing on their mind but trying to win the championship.

"And the fact that Kyrie went down, the fact that Kevin went down earlier has not changed our resolve in any way, has not caused us to look for some particular break or sympathy because it's not coming. It hasn't come to us all year. We've dealt with adversity from day one this year. These situations only make us stronger."

"It's the Grit Squad that we have," James said. "It's not cute at all. If you're looking for us to play sexy, cute basketball, then that's not us. That's not us right now. Everything is tough. We're going to come in with an aggressive mindset defensively and offensively.

"And for us to win a Finals game shooting 32% from the field, it's just a testament of how gritty we can be. It has to be that for the rest of the series, no matter how many games it takes."

The Cavaliers have changed identities multiple times this season for a variety of reasons: personnel, style, trades and injuries.

During a stretch in which they went 32-7 after they acquired J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov, the Cavaliers were an offensive force, scoring 111.5 points per 100 possessions, which was best in the league during that period, ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers, Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks.

But circumstances forced them to change, starting with the Love injury against the Boston Celtics in the first round. They learned to play without Love then learned to play with an injured Kyrie Irving during the conference semifinals against the Chicago Bulls and conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks.

Now they're learning to play without Love and Irving, and it's all grit and grind while playing some of their best defense of the season.

Cavaliers general manager David Griffin talked to a small group of reporters Saturday and said, "We've had several iterations of our team to this point. There was a point after the trade where we were an offensive juggernaut. Now what we are is a group that has to hit you in mouth and keep hitting. We're going to do that. We will."

Start with Matthew Dellavedova, who after James is the Game 2 star with ugly numbers. He was 3-for-10 from the field and had six turnovers. But he also defended Steph Curry and forced him into his worst shooting game of the season.

With all-hustle Dellavedova starting in place of Irving, as he did during two games against Atlanta that Irving missed, the second-year guard from Australia held Curry to zero points on 0-for-8 shooting, including five three-point attempts while defending him in the half court. Curry also had four turnovers with Dellavedova defending. The league's MVP finished with 19 points.

"It had everything to do with Delly," James said. "He just kept a body on Steph. He made Steph work. He was spectacular, man, defensively. We needed everything from him. When Steph shoots the ball, you just automatically think it's going in because he shoots the ball so well. ...

"He just did a great job. Just trying to make it tough on Steph. That's all you can do. You make it tough on him. You get a contest, and you live with the results, and Delly did that."

Dellavedova also saved two possessions – grabbing a rebound and passing it before he stepped out of bounds and getting on the floor to procure a loose ball.

Then, he made the biggest play of the game for Cleveland, getting an offensive rebound and drawing a foul on the putback. He made two free throws, giving the Cavaliers a 94-93 lead with 10.1 seconds left in overtime.

After James made one of two free throws with 4.4 seconds, Golden State still had a chance for game-tying or game-winning shot. But Iman Shumpert had the steal of the game. He got his hand in the passing lane as Curry tried to get the ball to Klay Thompson and Golden State never took a shot.

"I knew I had somebody chasing Steph down. I just tried to do my best to keep the gap closed for Steph to penetrate and stay close enough to where if he threw it to Klay, I could steal it," Shumpert said. "I turned my back so I could slide with Steph if he kept the ball. It's what I've been taught to do since I was young. You've got to play both sides. With LeBron taking the pressure off everybody offensively, it's our job to lock in defensively."

James said on Saturday he if he played much more than 40-42 minutes, he would be doing a disservice to his team. He logged 45 minutes in regulation and played all five minutes of overtime and through two games, has played 96 minutes, scored 83 points, grabbed 24 rebounds and distributed 17 assists.

Can James keep producing like that? Because the Cavs are going to that and all the grit.

"Well, am I built for it? Well, of course I'm built for it," James said while laughing. "I mean, it's a maximum of five games left in the NBA season. So I'm ready for whatever. …

"We're undermanned. I mean, we're without two All‑Stars, and I don't know any other team in this league that would be able to do that, to be able to be without two All‑Stars on their team and compete the way we compete and be a force. So the guys are taking that very personal."

The Cavaliers don't have it easy, and they're not making it easy on Golden State.

Dellavedova Continues To Capture The World's Attention

Journalists from around the world have come to Bennett for answers. They want him to explain how a 6-foot-4 guard from a foreign country and a mid-major school could possibly be taking over the NBA Finals. How, they ask, can an undrafted player in only his second year in the NBA be playing such a huge role on the world's biggest stage? Bennett doesn't need time to think of an answer, because it's always the same.

This is the Matthew Dellavedova that everyone at Saint Mary's has seen before.

NBA fans got the truest sense of what Saint Mary's all-time leading scorer is like on Tuesday night when the Cavaliers guard scored 20 points, played 38 minutes and spent the night doing perhaps the best job anyone has all season in shadowing Warriors star and NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry. Dellavedova was everywhere, diving for loose balls, making floaters in the lane and fighting through screens to make sure Curry had to work for everything he got.

"He's had some games like this," Cavaliers coach David Blatt said. "I don't know that it's even a matter of confidence with Matt. I just think he plays as hard as he can every day. He plays right, he's not afraid. He plays courageously. Everybody on this team has his back, so it's not an issue of confidence. He's going to give you whatever he has and you can't ask for any more than that."

And, after the game, the legend of Delly only grew larger when the Cavaliers announced that he'd been taken via ambulance to the Cleveland Clinic to treat severe cramping and dehydration. Dellavedova spent some time in the hospital but returned to the team on Wednesday and is expected to play in game 4, though Blatt told reporters he may do so with his minutes limited to manage fatigue.

Put another way, Dellavedova left literally everything he had on the Quicken Loans Arena court on Tuesday night.

"I was (at the hospital) for a little bit, mainly just to rest up and recover," Dellavedova said when he met the media on Wednesday. "We'll all take it pretty easy today just to get our treatment, watch tape and things like that. I'll be ready to go tomorrow."

Having already received and accepted a couple dozen interview requests before Dellavedova's heroics in game 2, Bennett continued to answer questions on Wednesday. He tried to put into context his former star's style, something he's been asked about several times since a stretch of the Eastern Conference finals in which

That style isn't being vilified anymore. Instead, it's being credited as one of the major reasons the Cavaliers hold a 2-1 series lead over the Warriors. He's been called a "perfect fit for Cleveland" with his blue-collar approach, but Bennett knows that little has changed since his four-year run at Saint Mary's.

“When you have him on your team, you feel it,” Bennett told the Canton Repository. “He’s special about that. He’s a special competitor. He’s a great teammate ... I thought that would transfer to the next level. He got an opportunity, got a role, he was smart enough to figure out his role and he’s unselfish. All he cares about is if his team wins. That’s what makes him special.”

Brett Brown not surprised by Matthew Dellavedova's tough D

Who knew that Matthew Dellavedova would play such a prominent role for Cleveland in the NBA playoffs? Maybe Brett Brown.

The Sixers head coach on Monday recounted his experience with the Australian-born point guard in the 2012 Olympic Games.

"In 2012 I selected him to for the Olympic team," said Brown, the head coach of the Australian Senior National team at the time. "He played so well that he pushed Patty Mills to the two-guard spot. We used Mills similar to the way the Sixers used A.I. at the two when he was here. Dellavedova was our point guard."

Dellavedova started all six games the Australian team played at the London Games. He averaged 7.3 points, 4.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds.

"You have to understand where this kid came from," Brown said. "He is from a rural part of Victoria. I know his hometown well because it is near where my wife was born. It has a population of 7,500."

The 2012 Olympic Games provided a big stage for a small-town kid, but he did not arrive there without hard work.

Before Dellavedova had Olympic success, or the success he is enjoying with the Cavaliers, he had disappointment. Brown remembers that point in the 24-year-old's career vividly.

"In 2010 we were getting ready to go to the World Championships in Istanbul Turkey," Brown said. "I had to release Matty. He didn't make the team. It was the most difficult person for me to cut from a team to this day.

"I could see the pain in his eyes of not being able to represent his country. It hurt him so much. I have cut many players — none compares to the difficulty of telling Dellavedova."

Dellavedova had to accept no that year, but he was back the following year. In 2011, he tried out again and this time made the Australian Senior National team.

Four years later, the undrafted Dellavedova is in a starting lineup alongside LeBron James in an NBA Finals series that is tied 1-1.

Dellavedova's defense on Stephen Curry has people talking. In Game 2, Curry missed 18 of 23 shots. The reigning MVP was 2 of 15 from three-point range.

"He has always been Australian. By Australian I mean it is never pretty. It is aggressive," Brown said. "He mirrors the attitude of the people in that country. Again, they are street fighters. Their mentality is one of tremendous pride. That camaraderie is the pulse of the nation.

"Everyone always said he did not have the skill package to make it in the NBA. But then look what he did with his Saint Mary's team. He took them to the NCAA tournament. He is a street fighter, a competitor, and he uses his size. He is a strong 6-foot-4, 205-pound guy."

In fours years at Saint Mary's, Dellavedova guided the Gaels to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including an upset of 2-seed Villanova in 2010. They have eight NCAA appearances in the history of the school.

He left Saint Mary's in 2013 as the school's career leader in points (1,933), assists (778), games (136), free-throw percentage (.860) and 3-pointers (288). The Gaels were 108-28 during his career.

Last year Dellavedova became the second player ever to have his jersey retired at Saint Mary's.

There is a long way to go in this series. The action shifts to Cleveland for the next two games beginning with Game 3 tonight. Whether Dellavedova continues to shine remains to be seen, but Brown knows the gritty Australian will take the court ready to play.

"He can keep up his end of the bargain," he said. "He studies extremely hard. I know he is looking at video of Steph Curry and figuring out ways to play him. He will use his smarts and size and listen."

Matthew Dellavedova an inconceivable NBA Finals star

There was a moment Sunday night that encapsulated the inconceivable prominence of Matthew Dellavedova in these inconceivable NBA Finals. You may have needed the replay to notice it. LeBron James barreled to the rim in the last seconds of regulation, a one-man force of nature dragging a motley supporting cast. Dellavedova drifted to the corner, a scruffy, scrappy Australian standing there, alone, clapping and waving his arms. He asked James – seriously, he did this – to pass him the ball so he could, not LeBron, could shoot the game-winning shot.

“The reason he’s there waving is, he’s ready,” said St. Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett, who coached Dellavedova in college. “If that’s the play that needs to happen for him to win, he’ll shoot it. He’s not afraid of that. But he doesn’t run around trying to be the hero, either. He’s just going to try to make the play that helps his team win.”

Dellavedova had to wait, but in the end he made the play that helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win Game 2 and even the series. His offensive rebound and ensuing two free throws in overtime pushed Cleveland ahead with 10 seconds left. And he had been making crucial plays all night – suffocating MVP Stephen Curry on defense, devouring loose balls, splashing an occasional floater.

His performance added to, in Bennett’s words, “an unbelievable sequence of events the last month.” Dellavedova entered the postseason as an unremarkable, undrafted rotation player who averaged 4.8 points. He has since replaced injured Kyrie Irving in the starting lineup, become the center of a debate about whether he plays dirty and scored the game-winning points in a franchise’s first Finals victory.

“Honestly, you’re a little worried as a coach,” Bennett said. “You want him to do well, but you also know he’s going against Derrick Rose. He’s in the Eastern Conference finals. He’s in the NBA Finals. And he’s doing it.”

The funny thing about Dellavedova replacing Irving is that if you watched them in isolation, you might not be able to detect they are playing the same position, or perhaps the same sport. Irving moves with a dancer’s elegance and shoots with an assassin’s cool. His effort is there, but it is unseen, not felt. He’s not good enough to try hard without you feeling every strain. The game comes to Irving. Dellavedova bangs on the game’s door, demanding to be let in, and when he’s not he throws a rock through a side window instead.

On one possession, Dellavedova looks like the kid who tagged along with his older brother. He will back down the man guarding him 40 feet from the basket to avoid getting the ball stolen; he will flip a hopeless lob pass in the general direction of an invisible cutter; he will walk into the arena with a backpack over his shoulders in a wrinkled flannel shirt and wooly beard, so unkempt and unassuming he could be mistaken for a lost college kid on his first day of classes. Or a pretty tall sportswriter.

On the next possession, though, he might make one of those uncanny plays that helps the Cavaliers win a game in the NBA Finals. He will wrest a rebound from the grasp of Draymond Green; he will pounce on a loose ball as if attracted to it by magnetic force; one of those is-that-a-lob -or-a-shot things will crash through the net.

“He’s a courageous kid that plays right,” Cavaliers Coach David Blatt said. “There was a lot of nonsense swirling around about his style of play. I think anyone that really looks at him objectively and fairly recognizes someone that just plays hard, heartfelt, and tough basketball.”

“He’s never been a dirty player,” Bennett said. “He’s always been a very tough player. He’ strong and he’s physical. He’s not afraid of contact. If the ball goes on the floor, he’s going to get it. But I’ve never seen him throw a dirty ‘bow. Never. He plays the game with great integrity.”

The first time Bennett watched Dellavedova play in Australia, nothing jumped out except how hard he played. He became, in Bennett’s estimation, the third-best player on a Sweet 16 team his freshman season. Bennett came to realize Dellavedova’s basketball intelligence, his mental and physical toughness, his leadership and the way he cared for teammates would make him a college star.

“He’s a freak in those areas,” Bennett said. “You may not get it if you’re on the other team.”

Bennett still did not expect Dellavedova to become an NBA player at first. His defense was one reason.  He lacked the lateral quickness to guard opposing point guards. He determined he would eradicate that weakness. He learned to how to defend without fouling, because the Gaels relied on him so much on offense – “we played him like the Cavs play LeBron,” Bennett said. During his career, he turned defense into a strength.

“I can’t tell you how many times I saw him in the slideboard in the weight room working on it,” Bennett said. “By the time he was a junior or senior, he was our best defender.”

Bennett still worried Sunday night as he watched Dellavedova square off with Curry, the MVP, because who can stop Steph Curry? Per ESPN Stats & Information, Curry scored zero of his 17 points while Dellavedova guarded him, missing all eight shots he took while committing four turnovers. The Warriors were stingy with praise for Dellavedova, repeating that Curry simply had an off night. But if you’re on the other team, you may not get it.

Curry faces MVP-sized expectations

“It had everything to do with Delly,” James said. “He just kept a body on Steph. He made Steph work. He was spectacular defensively.”

Afterward, James greeted Dellavedova with a business-like handshake on his way off the court, an image that went viral. But there was something touching about how James approached Dellavedova and how he smiled back. Bennett sensed it and understood it

“He grows on you,” Bennett said. “He’s so real. He cares about his people, his teammates, so much. It’s even hard for me to explain. I think it’s real. I think LeBron is real. Those guys are a pretty tight team, just from watching them. I think LeBron really appreciates that. And Matt is one of those guys that’s making that happen.”