Cleveland's Kyrie-shaped hole

David Robinson believes the Cavaliers need a player like Kyrie Irving.

Despite the superhuman efforts of LeBron James, Cleveland is staring down the barrel of a second straight NBA Finals defeat, trailing the Golden State Warriors 3-0 after losing 110-102 on Wednesday night.

And Hall of Famer Robinson, who won two NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs, reckons the Cavs have failed to replace Irving, who they traded last year to the Boston Celtics in a deal that saw Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Ante Zizic move in the opposite direction.

"Cleveland is an interesting team. I think they are kind of learning and figuring out how to play together," said Robinson at a promotional event at an NBA-themed FamilyMart in Shanghai on Thursday.

"I think that was a tough move losing a guy like Kyrie Irving, who can make big shots at the end of the games. If you watch some of these games, you know they are very close. You need guys who gonna make shots.

"So, Cleveland, they need somebody else (apart from James) who is willing to step up and to make those kind of shots, somebody to replace Kyrie."

Irving, a five-time All-Star who helped the Cavaliers to their last NBA championship in 2016, requested the trade to the Celtics following the 2017 Finals loss to the Warriors.

James has admitted that he urged management to keep Irving, fearing his supporting cast was not good enough to take the Cavs to a fourth Finals in as many years.

"Even if you start back to the summertime where I felt like it was just bad for our franchise just to be able to trade away our superstar point guard," James told ESPN recently.

"A guy that I had been in so many battles with over the last three years and obviously I wasn't a part of the communications and know exactly what went on between the two sides. But I just felt like it was bad timing for our team.

"So I felt like the odds were against us from the summer.

"And then, you know, we come into the season and our All-Star point guard that we got from Boston (Thomas) wasn't able to play until January. We just had so many things going with our team.

"We shuffled in different lineups, we shuffled in different players, we made a trade at the deadline, and I can't sit here right now and say that the Finals were a part of my thinking."

The Cavs may have exceeded James' expectations by reaching the Finals, but their deficiencies have been ruthlessly exposed by the Warriors over the last three games.

Even with the likes of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson running cold in Game 3, the reigning champions had Kevin Durant to fall back on.

Durant had a playoff career-high 43 points (including one sumptuous 3-pointer from 33 feet at the death), hauled down 13 rebounds and collected seven assists to deliver Cleveland a potentially fatal blow.

"Holding Steph to 11 points and Klay to 10, you would think we would win that game," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said afterward.

"So the guys did a good job on those two guys. And I thought Durant hurt us with his one-on-one, getting to the free-throw line a little bit. But his one-on-one ability really saved them again tonight."

Robinson fears Durant's masterclass was the penultimate nail in the Cavs' coffin ahead of Friday's Game 4 in Cleveland.

"When it's three to nothing, it looks pretty simple right now," said the 52-year-old 10-time All-Srar.

"Golden State is a very, very good team. Now they are easily the most dominant team in the NBA. Right now they are the best.

"Motivationally, it's very hard to get up for Game 4. No one has even done it (overturned a 3-0 deficit in the Finals), but the Cavaliers still have a chance. They are at home and LeBron James is very, very good, so they have a chance."