Matthew Dellavedova might be forced to watch from the bench as the Cleveland Cavaliers battle the Golden State Warriors for the NBA title.
The Cavaliers will be attempting to win the team's first championship in its 46-year history in a winner-take-all NBA Finals game seven at the Warriors' Oracle Arena on Sunday (Monday 10am AEST).
Dellavedova, a hero in the Cavaliers' failed title quest last year, appears to have lost his back-up point guard role to teammates Mo Williams and Dahntay Jones.
Cavaliers' coach Tyronn Lue went with Williams and Jones early and left Dellavedova on the bench in the team's 115-101 victory on Thursday that squared the series 3-3 and set up the decider.
Lue has been full of praise for both veterans.
"Mo came in and gave us a great, great two minutes in that first half," Lue told reporters on Saturday,
"... With Dahntay, just a veteran guy we brought in who has played in over 60 playoff games before he got here."
Dellavedova has had a poor playoffs, but until game six remained the main back-up to starting point guard Kyrie Irving.
Lue said he liked the pace that Williams played with.
"He plays up tempo to get the ball up the floor," Lue, who has previously spoken about how Dellavedova has struggled with the Warriors' taller guards, said.
Dellavedova, the hard-nosed guard from Maryborough, Victoria, has only shot 35.1 per cent of his field goals and 25.8 per cent of his three-pointers in the playoffs.
That is compared to his excellent 41 per cent field goal and three-pointer percentages in the regular season.
The Warriors led the finals 3-1, but dropped the last two games and, after a record-breaking 73-win regular season, face the prospect of losing the title to the surging Cavaliers.
The Warriors will be without Australian centre Andrew Bogut, who injured his left knee in Monday's game five.
Warriors' NBA MVP Steph Curry said he would consider the season a failure if they did not beat the Cavaliers.
"Yeah, pretty much because that was our goal at the beginning," Curry said.
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