Kevin Love scored 27 points, LeBron James knocked down a huge shot with 39.2 seconds to go, and Kyrie Irving turned in another dazzling performance to lead Cleveland past the Atlanta Hawks 100-99 on Sunday.
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Thunder tie series vs Spurs as Durant scores 41 pts.
Any extra, unnecessary games against inferior teams against these Eastern Conference opponents would have created another opportunity for someone to get injured and for James to accrue more miles on his body. Schroder scored on a drive with 34.4 seconds left and James missed the potential clinching 3. They became the first team to sweep the first two rounds of the playoffs since the Spurs did it in 2012.
The Cavs beat the Hawks, 100-99.
Schroder tried to take it to the basket and was tied up by James for a jump ball with 2.8 seconds to play.
James – who hit 30.9 percent from long range during the regular season, his lowest mark since his rookie season – is 12 for 38 in the postseason. Once I tipped the ball, J.R. was able to get over there, tip it back in and I don’t even think the shot got off before the buzzer sounded anyways.
Schroder put the Hawks ahead 97-96 on a drive with 1:31 remaining. Channing Frye (Channing Frye!) poured in 27 off the bench in Game 3.
Schroder finished with 21 points, and Paul Millsap added 19 for Atlanta. Atlanta had fourth-quarter leads in three of the four games but weren’t strong enough to finish. The Cavaliers swing the ball around until they find a wide-open Jefferson, who makes the shot.
This was going to be the test – how would the Cavs respond if the long-range magic deserted them? The Hawks had truly given themselves a chance to win the game.
Rookie coach Tyronn Lue, who took over at midseason after the firing of David Blatt, has pushed all the right buttons in the playoffs. “There are so many weapons that we have on the perimeter, and tonight it just happened to be me”. “It sucks we got swept, but we left it all out there”. He propelled the team’s great second and third quarters and for that reason is definitely the player of the game.
James won the ensuing jump ball as Cleveland held on for the win. It is the second successive season Atlanta has been swept out of the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cavs.
“In the playoffs, every possession counts, every possession is hard”, Lue said. “His defensive intensity in the first half really gave us a spark and got us back in the game”.
Cavaliers at Hawks, Cleveland leads series 3-0.
The Raptors lead that series 2-1. I’ll have more on it in the coming days, but what’s important to understand is they made 77 3-pointers in this series – the most any team has ever made in a four-game series. He went cold down the stretch but still finished 8 of 15 from beyond the arc.
The Cavaliers could use the break.
Love carried Cleveland in the early going, hitting one 3-pointer after another as the Hawks continually left him open in the corner. He did not shoot well near the basket. Schroder, the Gambian-German, scored 21 points and had 6 assists.
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A team that looks very much like a potential National Basketball Association champion, even though the 73-win Golden State Warriors could be lurking at the end.
