Down 26, Cavs rally to victory
INDIANAPOLIS — The Cleveland Cavaliers know the pain of blowing a 26-point lead, with their April 9 collapse and overtime loss in Atlanta still fresh in their minds.
On Thursday night, they inflicted the same devastating gut-punch to the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of their
first-round playoff series.
Trailing by 26 with 49 seconds left in the second quarter, the Cavs outscored the Pacers 35-17 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to seven entering the fourth. With 7:16 to play, the Cavs had trimmed the Pacers’ lead to two. With 6:59 remaining, a driving dunk by LeBron James — who had a tripledouble — tied it. On the next possession, a running dunk by James gave the Cavs a twopoint lead.
The energized Cavs, who played the fourth quarter with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the bench, had enough to finish the stunning turnaround. Scoring 28 points in the second half, James ran his streak of consecutive first-round playoff victories to 20 with a shocking 119-114 decision.
“We knew we had to take (some) punches, but it was a flurry, more than we expected,” James said of the Cavs giving up 74 points in the first half. “At halftime, I was just looking at the guys and telling them ‘Let’s get a couple stops.’ “
James finished with 41 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. Cleveland took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and can close it out with a win in Game 4 on Sunday in
Indianapolis.
Channing Frye made a three-pointer with 54.8 seconds remaining for a 114-107 advantage. A three-pointer by former Cav C.J. Miles with 14.4 seconds to go cut the lead to 117114, but Deron Williams made two free throws at the other end for the Cavs.
Cleveland did not have a turnover in the second half.
Frye added 13 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and JR Smith added 13 in a return from a Game 2 hamstring injury.
Paul George scored 36 points, with 15 rebounds and nine assists for Indiana, but he was held to 13 points in the second half. The Pacers made just 13 of 51 shots after halftime.
“We just never quit,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “We knew the importance of this game. To go up 3-0, makes things a lot more difficult for those guys.”