Cavs need to play like champs for four quarters

LeBron James in the second quarter on April 20 passed Kobe Bryant for third place in the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list.

But what James is to the Cavaliers goes far beyond numbers.

The Cavaliers in Game 3 played one of the worst first halves they have ever played in Name the postseason, and then they played one of their best halves to turn a 74-49 deficit into an unbelievable 119-114 victory. Or it would have been unbelievable for a team that doesn’t have James on its roster.

No team until the Cavs did it ever recovered from a 25-point halftime deficit to win in the playoffs until the Cavs did it — just as no team ever came back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals until the Cavs did it last year.

James finished with 41 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists, and even the triple-double doesn’t tell the whole story.

Every Cavalier on the floor fed off James’ determination and defense in the second half. The 74 points was the most the Cavs ever allowed in one half of a playoff game. And then they held the Pacers to 40 points in the second half.

The series isn’t over yet, but it might as well be. The Cavaliers lead the first-round series, 3-0, with Game 4 set for Indiana at 1 p.m. April 23. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the NBA playoffs, and the Indiana Pacers sure don’t look like they’re going to be the first to do it.

The Pacers believe they should have won Game 1, and think they would have won Game 2 had they kept their composure in the third quarter. So it was no surprise they came out in Game 3 with tremendous energy in front of their home fans. But now — now they have to be filled with so much self-doubt it would be no surprise if Game 4 is a blowout.

The Cavaliers looked bored in the first half, like students with senioritis a month before graduation. They played the same way with a lead in the fourth quarter in the first two games of the series at Quicken Loans Arena, but both times they were able to hang on to win.

It is like Scrooge disparaging Christmas to find fault with the way the Cavaliers played at some point before meeting the Western Conference champion in the Finals. But it would be comforting to see them play hard for four quarters because they will have to do that when they play for the big trophy. They haven’t done that yet this series.

General Manager David Griffin says the Cavs play best with their backs to the wall. They showed that in the second half.

The Cavs came out of the locker room for the third quarter a better team, outscoring the Pacers, 35-17, in the third quarter to trim their deficit to 91-84.

It was as though the teams traded uniforms at halftime. The Cavaliers played with urgency and the confidence that comes with being champions. The Pacers were 10 of 17 on three-point shots at halftime. The hoop must have looked the size of a dime in the second half when they lined up a shot from behind the arc. They made just 6 of 24 threepoint attempts in the second half.

Is it too much to ask the Cavaliers to play the same way for 48 minutes? No, it isn’t.

The way they played in the second half of Game 3 is the way defending champions should play.

Jeff Schudel