We’ve all seen him do incredible things.
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Lue however shrugged off the off night on yesterday as he prepared his team for today’s Game 4 in Cleveland. “We were down, we needed his pop and his spunk and I didn’t think he would get a fourth called on him, but he did”. For now, let’s talk about the Cavaliers.
For a half, it seemed like anything was possible.
One of the main takeaways from this series has been the ability of Brad Stevens to stay competitive and even defeat the defending champs without his best player.
Kyrie nearly outscored the Celtics on his own in the third quarter (23-21), and his historic third quarter onslaught helped give the Cavs a seven point cushion entering the fourth quarter after having trailed the Celtics by ten at halftime.
Over the last 6 minutes, 46 seconds of the second quarter, Irving put in 12 points to help the Cavs play the Celtics even with James on the bench. Again he was tentative and sloppy.
The Cavs overcame deficits as large as 16 points in the second quarter and 10 points at halftime to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Taking Horford off the floor while James was sitting with four fouls was equivalent to Boston shooting itself in the foot.
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue had his scouting reports on the Boston Celtics done and ready midway through the season.
How do you go into attack mode after picking up four first-half fouls? It was no exaggeration to say the next 24 minutes could define the Eastern Conference finals and, by extension, the Cavaliers’ chances of repeating as National Basketball Association champions. Here are three takeaways from Game 4. He capped his blistering 19-point outburst with a 3 in the final second of the quarter and celebrated at mid-court by pretending to put two pistols back in his holster. He pounded the floor in pain, and writhed on the floor. Then, the next moment, he was tying his laces up super tight and tearing Boston apart. That had been the most points a James teammate had scored in the postseason.
More alarmingly, James was unable to conjure one of his trademark rallies in the fourth quarter as the Celtics began to sense a vital win. Thomas did not return in the second half due to a strained right hip. Before they knew it, the Celtics were only up 10 at the half. At one point, they were 21-26, and that came with missing their first two field goals of the half. He did much of the damage to Boston in the quarter while playing with an injured ankle.
But third, and maybe most important, they’ve got to get better.
Pluto says the credit goes to LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
“Some of the plays that we made, some of the plays that I made, I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ or ‘What could I have done better?'” James said.
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The tenor of the series changed when it shifted to Cleveland, with Boston scoring a shocking upset win in Game 3 without star player Isaiah Thomas.
