Dellavedova Continues To Capture The World's Attention

College basketball coaches can already be accused of staying tethered to their cell phone more than most normal human beings, but the last few weeks have been just a little bit different for Saint Mary's men's basketball coach Randy Bennett.

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."

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."

Delly hitting buzzer beater at BYU...

Delly hitting buzzer beater at BYU...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-p-Tb29zAzQ

LeBron communicating during NBA playoff game....

LeBron communicating with his team during NBA playoff game...

1min 30sec

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMC0aRFWiM&feature=youtu.be

Cavs' $100,000 bet on Dellavedova wins

It was after midnight on draft night in 2013 and then-Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant was working hard to finish a deal.

Within a minute of the Memphis Grizzlies taking Janis Timma with the 60th and final pick, assistant general manager Trent Redden was on the phone going after a guy the Cavs were calling their "Mr. 61," as in 61st pick. He was an undersized Australian from St. Mary's who had slipped through the back end of the draft.

To say Matthew Dellavedova was unwanted isn't true. Undrafted, yes, but he had several contract offers rolling in that night. One was from the New York Knicks. A little bidding war unfolded and the Cavs kept upping their offer. Finally, Grant reached the number agent Bill Duffy was looking for: $100,000 guaranteed on a two-year contract that was otherwise non-guaranteed.

This is now looking like one of the greatest moves in team history after the gritty little Aussie had yet another incredible Finals game, this one including 20 points and a vital flailing banker in the fourth quarter that was as improbable as this career path.

Grant is no longer with the team, fired last year after a disappointing start to the season. Neither is Mike Brown, who was fired as the coach. But there are plenty of relics they left that are making a mark in this series the Cavs now lead 2-1 over the Golden State Warriors after a 96-91 Game 3 win.

But none of their decisions is looming larger at the moment than Mr. Dellavedova. Brown watched Dellavedova extensively when he was at St. Mary's because Brown's son, Elijah, was considering accepting a scholarship to play there. There was no missing Delly when watching the Gaels; there were a list of achievements, but all you really need to know is they retired his jersey less than a year after he graduated.

Grant knew St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett well, and the coach raved about Dellavedova. The Cavs found themselves intrigued.

Then summer league started. The stories have grown in the two years since, but generally all agree Dellavedova was horrible from the first practice onward and only marginally improved over the two weeks in Las Vegas. The Cavs will never admit it, but they must have wondered if they'd flushed $100,000 down the drain for a player who didn't look like he'd be able to cut it at the next level.

It didn't get much better in the preseason, with it appearing at times that Dellavedova might be headed for the waiver wire. That included one dreadful night in Cincinnati against John Wall when Dellavedova had six turnovers in one quarter.

There were those in the organization that did want Dellavedova cut despite the moderate investment in him. But Grant believed in Dellavedova and his potential. He liked his temperament and thought his constant aggression, at the very least, would push young star Kyrie Irving in practices.

When they had to make the last cut, Grant made the call and decided to keep him.

Grant drafted Irving and Tristan Thompson, who were hits, but also Dion Waiters and Anthony Bennett, who were not. He also made a series of moves to acquire picks that enabled the Cavs to make trades that landed them Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert.

Finding the Dellavedova diamond, though, might end up being a legacy move.

"The fact that Chris believed in Delly to the level that he did is paying off for the organization in spades," said Cavs general manager David Griffin, who was the team's assistant GM before ascending last year. "Everyone benefits from everyone that comes before them."

The only way the Warriors can halt the Cavs' momentum and climb back into this series is to get comfortable playing a way they're not accustomed to.

One-man brutal ball is besting vibrant ball in the NBA Finals, and if the Warriors are to come back and win the series, they need the old Stephen Curry to return.

Grant ended up being like the starting pitcher who labored through seven innings with no stuff, dragging the Cavs through four generally miserable rebuilding years. Griffin has acted as the closer, coming in and firing fastballs to finish deals as LeBron James' grand slam return changed the game after Grant had been sent to the showers.

Within weeks in the 2013-14 season, Dellavedova was earning playing time from Brown, who loved his relentless play even if execution at the NBA level sometimes proved a challenge. After Brown left, Cavs coach David Blatt quickly fell for his dedication to the system and his defensive energy and, like Brown, found himself finding minutes for him even as the Cavs brought in other point guards to try out.

Now in the Finals, Dellavedova has morphed into the Cavs' second-most important player to this point, which defies all kinds of realities. He's been just as likely to make a clutch shot or free throw as he is to achieve a vital defensive stop or go crashing to the floor.

Dellavedova played so hard in Game 3 that he turned into one giant cramp after the game and had to go to the Cleveland Clinic to get treatment for dehydration. The former Mr. 61 is earning the lowest salary of any player in the Finals -- $816,000 for the season. His teammates drive Lamborghinis, Ferraris and, in James' case, a $60,000 Kia he gets paid millions to be seen in. Dellavedova drives a Mazda.

"The guys love Delly because he plays with all his heart," Blatt said late Tuesday night. "What's not to love about the guy?"