The Cavaliers were heavy favorites over the Celtics entering the Eastern Conference finals. LeBron James has dominated the East for years, and Cleveland appeared to hit its stride in a sweep of the Raptors last round. Boston was shorthanded and inexperienced.
Were the Celtics’ two wins to open the series, as impressive as they were, really enough to override everything else we knew about these teams?
The Cavs walloped Boston in Game 3, 116-86, Saturday. Cleveland now has four of the NBA’s last five 30-point playoff wins – two against the Celtics last year, one over Toronto last round and tonight. (The Cavaliers lost the league’s only other 30-point game between, to the Pacers in the first round.)
Boston still leads the series 2-1, and teams up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series have won it 80% of the time.
But the team up 2-1 is usually the one seen as better entering the series. That isn’t the case here, not with LeBron on the other side. And the leading team usually isn’t so woeful on the road, which will remain a major storyline entering Game 4 Monday in Cleveland.
The Celtics bought themselves margin for error, but they blew a lot of it tonight.
It’d be an oversimplification to say the Cavs just played harder, but they did, and it went along way. They chased loose balls, tightened their defense and moved more off the ball offensively. Cleveland jumped to a 20-4 lead, led by double digits the rest of the way and spent most of the game up by at least 20.
LeBron (27 points, 12 assists, two blocks and two steals) dazzled as a passer and locked in as a defender. He received help from several players:
- Kyle Korver (14 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 4-of-4 on 3-pointers)
- Kevin Love (13 points and 14 rebounds)
- George Hill (13 points)
- J.R. Smith (11 points)
- Tristan Thompson (10 points)
In a low-resistance effort, Boston didn’t goon up the game at all.
The Cavaliers still have plenty of work ahead to reach their fourth straight NBA Finals, but tonight, they showed a path to advancing. Climbing out of their early series deficit now looks far less intimidating.