The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Celtics dig deep to stall Cavs
Give credit to Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens.
His team was embarrassed inn the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals with the Cavaliers, and on a night when his team could have easily packed it in and gone through the motions, the Celtics decided to play 48 minutes, which was 24 minutes longer than the Cavs played.
The challenge for the Cavaliers on May 21 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals with the Celtics was staying focused after crushing them, 130-86, in Game 2 in Boston on May 19.
Coach Tyronn Lue found the motivational tool by reminding his team the Chicago Bulls had a 2-0 lead over Boston in the first round of the playoffs.
“(The Celtics) are going to play hard. They’re going to compete,” Lue said before the game. “They’ve been in this position before. They were down, 0-2 to Chicago and came back to win the series. We’re definitely not going into the game taking them lightly. We have to be mentally strong. We have a mindset defensively to set the tone early.”
The Cavaliers had that focus in the first half but lost it in the second and because of that lost the game, 111-108.
They lead the series, 2-1, but were made to look human, much to the disappointment of the crowd at Quicken Loans Arena.
Lue predicted Game 3 would be the most physical of the series so far, and he was right.
The Boston Celtics played like the Boston Bruins. The Cavaliers answered crosscheck for crosscheck, but that wasn’t enough.
Lue was right about one other thing: The Celtics are without their star Isaiah Thomas, out with a hip injury. Lue said Boston would be better defensively, and it was.
LeBron James, so dominant in the playoffs, scored only 11 points on 4 of 13 from the field. His teammates kept waiting for him to take over. He didn’t and no one else did in the second half.
Golden State can close out the Spurs on May 22 in San Antonio.
The Cavaliers can’t shoo away the Celtics until May 25 in Boston at the earliest.
The Celtics were the No. 1 seed in the East when the playoffs began. The Cavaliers are the better team and have proven that by getting better with each series — until a buzzer beater by the Celtics Avery Bradley broke a 108-108 tie.
There is no reason to panic. But now the Cavaliers know they have work to do to repeat as champions. Losing is a reminder there are tougher days ahead when the Finals begin June 1.
The Cavaliers can beat teams in the paint, they can beat teams from behind the arc and they can beat teams with defense. They had all three of those in Game 3, but not enough of any in the final minutes of Game 3.
Led by Kevin Love, the Cavs were 14 of 22 on 3s at halftime and 10 of 13 from the line to account for 52 of their 66 halftime points.
The Cavs went cold from long range in the second half and as a result scored only 42 points in the final two quarters.