San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan (right) and Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James battle for the ball under the basket during Game Three in the NBA finals in Cleveland on Tuesday night. The Spurs won 75-72 to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. - Reuters

CLEVELAND (Reuters):

THE SAN Antonio Spurs moved to the brink of their third title in the last five years after grinding out a 75-72 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night for a 3-0 lead in the NBA finals.

San Antonio can seal the series with a victory tonight in what would be the first sweep in the best-of-seven finals since 2002 when the Los Angeles Lakers blanked the New Jersey Nets.

Manu Ginobili hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds left to give the Spurs a 75-72 lead and after a time out, LeBron James misfired on a three-pointer that would have forced overtime.

"We gave ourselves a chance to win tonight and that's all we can ask for," said James, who scored 25 points but hit just nine of 23 shots and missed all five of his three-point attempts. "Everybody has to still believe."

The Spurs shot only 41 per cent from the floor and hit just 9-of-16 free throws, but it was their long-range shooting that moved them closer to a fourth title in the past nine years.

Three-point shooting

San Antonio hit 10-of-19 shots from three-point range while the Cavaliers were successful on only 3-of-19 from beyond the arc.

"It's great to win like this because you know you can struggle with your shot and still win," said Ginobili, who had only three points after scoring 25 in Game Two.

"But I guess the same thing happened to them. They did not have a happy night. We both played a tight game, no open shots. Kind of ugly."

Spurs guard Tony Parker, who entered the game averaging 28.5 points in the series, scored 17 on seven-of-17 shooting. Three-time finals MVP Tim Duncan added 14 on just six-of-17 from the floor.

Cleveland shot only 36.7 per cent in their first home game in the NBA finals in the franchise's 37-year history. The raucous, towel-waving crowd of 20,562 left the arena quietly when James's final shot rimmed out.

"It's a really bad taste in our mouth," said Cleveland rookie guard Daniel Gibson, who hit only one-of-10 shots in his first start of the series.

"We let them get another leg up. But the series isn't over until somebody wins four."

James hit two foul shots with a little under two minutes to play, capping an 8-0 Cavaliers run that cut the deficit to 67-65.

But Cleveland was never able to narrow the gap any further and Ginobili hit three-of-four foul shots in the final 10.4 seconds to seal the victory.

"We're frustrated," said Cleveland forward Donyell Marshall. "We didn't work this hard to get here to be down 3-0."