The drama was ramped up in Game 3.
Body horror, unsettling extras abruptly cut to mid-scene, hints at an alternate timeline unfolding — ‘Game 3’ of The NBA Finals did away with any semblance of the story arc continuity and character development we’ve seen thus far in the series. A bold choice by showrunner Adam Silver, executed daringly by joint director Ime Udoka, was to entirely upend and change the setting of the action in this episode. The last two episodes took place on a relatively demure, almost bland wood piazza, encircled by a live audience that did not interfere with the action of each scene. That went out the window last night when the characters were thrust onto what appeared a gigantic approximation of a living room floor amidst a loud, crowded and overtly hostile audience. There were many, many middle aged men loosely holding to plastic cups of half finished beer barely six minutes into the episode, how glazed their eyes were not dulling at all the ferocity sparking in them. Indeed, this was the first episode where it was revealed that the live audience is in fact a feature of the show’s setting, as vital to the energy and outcome of each scene as each Finals character. It was some of the most high-definition camera work we’ve seen so far in the show, offering up exacting, at times distressing details of the crowd — green wigs, layers and layers of lacquered green beads roped around reddening necks, so much screaming — why would Silver spend such a huge chunk of the show’s production budget on this if it were not to further the visceral experience Finals is going for? Much like the growth of setting as a major storyline component in ‘Game 3,’ this episode brought with it continued beats on the theme of transition. We saw shifts from one end of the floor to the other, repeated so many times that the rhythm of each character running, fumbling, colliding, and running back to do it all again at the other end became hypnotic. Like previous productions of Silver’s, Finals has focused on power and control — who has it, who wants it, and all the ways it changes hands over the course of a series.
