Entering their second consecutive trip to the NBA Finals, it was widely understood the Cleveland Cavaliers had quite the challenge ahead of them. Any team they faced from the West, whether it was the Warriors or Thunder, would surely turn them from anointed heavy favorites in the Eastern Conference against the Pistons, Hawks and Raptors into underdogs. After losing the first two games of the NBA Finals by 15 points and then 33 points, the challenge ahead of the Cavaliers in trying to win their first championship may now be insurmountable.

The Cavaliers will need to win four-of-five games against a Warriors team that won an NBA record 73 games and only lost two consecutive games one time this season. They may have to win at least one of these games without Kevin Love, who left Game 2 with a concussion. The pressure that comes with a 0-2 deficit is enough to cause a bit of panic. Knowing the Warriors are winning even without Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson playing their best in either of the first two games can cause an implosion.

To their credit the mood around Cavaliers, from all accounts, seems to be calm. The understanding they have two games at home, two days to decompress, two days to make adjustments helps the Cavaliers’ cause. But they had better figure something out quickly or the series is over and it will be another lost opportunity for LeBron James to win his third title and first without the Heat.

“We’ve just got to do a better job,” said James after the Cavs’ Game 2 loss. “We’ve got to be better at all facets of the game both offensively and defensively. Both physically and mentally.”

With the Cavaliers’ season two games away from another disappointing finish, the expectation entering Game 3 will be for James to come out aggressively in an attempt to take over the series, similar to the way he did in last year’s Finals. Nobody could blame James if he decided to take the series into his own hands, but as great as James has proven he can be, beating the Warriors isn’t something he can do by himself.

James also can’t wait for J.R. Smith, who has managed to score only eight points on 3-for-9 shooting through the first two games, or Channing Frye, who has only played 11 minutes through the first two games after giving the team a lift off the bench in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The addition of a healthy Love and Kyrie Irving this year hasn’t made the type of difference many expected. James and the Cavaliers left California with a 1-1 split last year playing a grind it out style with below replacement level players. Perhaps it’s too early to count out James’ supporting cast, after all the Warriors did just finish winning a series in which they trailed 3-1, why couldn’t the Cavaliers find a rhythm with their three-point shooting that allows them to make it a series?

“We’ve got to get back to the film and we have to figure out ways we can help the team be successful,” James said. “It’s hard for me to kind of pinpoint what’s not working and what could work right now. Obviously not much is working, especially offensively. Defensively we’ve been good at times and then at times we looked like, okay, we’re a step slow.

“We can’t have as many mental lapses. More on the physical, it’s a lot of mental positions where you have to figure it out, and they make you pay for it when you don’t.”

The Cavaliers have a few things working in their favor entering Game 3. The Cavaliers are returning home where they haven’t yet lost during the postseason and role players typically perform better in home games. And they have James feeling a sense of urgency in this series. His healthy team (now mostly healthy) was supposed to give him a needed lift; that hasn’t yet happened. The Warriors may very well just be the better team, it certainly looks that way at this point, but a heavy dose of James may be enough to lead them back into the series. It has to be better than what the Cavaliers have produced in the first two games.