Celtics rally to beat Cavs, James fizzles
We fought and came out with the victory, winning team member Smart says
Avery Bradley rattled in a game-winning three pointer at the buzzer as the Boston Celtics clawed their way back into the Eastern Conference final with a 111-108 win over Cleveland on Sunday.
Boston cut the Cavaliers series lead to 2-1 as their improbable victory came despite the absence of star guard Isaiah Thomas, who is out for the remainder of the NBA season with a hip injury.
“Everybody had to step up their game, especially with one of our brothers down,” Thomas’ replacement Marcus Smart said.
“We haven’t really had a great shooting performance this series, but tonight was one of those nights. We fought and came out with the victory.”
Game four of the Eastern Conference finals is today.
Cleveland not only surrendered a 21-point lead in game three but blew chances to set a playoff record for consecutive wins (14) dating to game five of last year’s finals, and to become the fourth team in history to start the playoffs 11-0.
“I didn’t have it tonight,” Boston 111 Cleveland (Cleveland lead series 2-1) 108 James said. “We have been playing so well, but when another team is playing that well then you know that the team that gets the last shot is going to win.”
Smart scored a career-high 27 points and Bradley added 20. “The key for us was to chip away,” said Bradley of the Celtics, who made 18 three-pointers for the game. “We needed to get stops and make plays on the offensive end.”
Al Horford added 16 points and Kelly Olynyk contributed 15 off the bench for the Celtics, who were beaten by an average of 28.5 points in the first two games.