(James has quite a history with Boston in the postseason both good and bad.) James started that series with the worst shooting performance, 2-of-18, and the most turnovers, 10, of his postseason career.
Advertisement
The Celtics shocked the basketball world by erasing a 21-point deficit midway through the third quarter and ultimately beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-108 on a last-second shot by Avery Bradley in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“I had a tough game, period”. He’s probably going to go off in Games 4 and 5 and the Cavs are probably still going to end up rolling to the NBA Finals, so there’s just no need for him to get so snippy over one tough question – which actually wasn’t even that tough in the first place. “I didn’t have it”. “That’s what I always think, when people of his stature or people like him, you’ve got to play confident the whole night and play aggressive”. On the flip side, teams like the Warriors, who thoroughly outclassed the Blazers, would wrap up the series in three games, subjecting us to fewer meaningless playoff games that feel like formalities. He reportedly exchanged words with a fan on his way to the locker room after the game.
They’re easy to recall because they’re so rare.
He had scored at least 30 points in eight consecutive playoff games, the first player to do that since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1970, and there didn’t seem to be anything the Celtics could do to stop him. He’s never been hotter. That only makes Sunday’s postgame reaction worse.
After a 44-point loss to the the Cavs in game 2, no one on the face of the planet expected the Celtics to come out on top in Game 3. They’re not on ‘Space Jam.’ Like, they lace up their shoes just like us.
After a timeout, the Celtics perfectly executed a play drawn up by Stevens and worked the ball to Bradley, who was open and then calmly knocked down a shot that goes straight into Celtics lore. With Marcus Smart staring down LeBron James on the strong side, the Celtics knew they could get a weak-side shot off without worrying about LeBron intervening. Smart outplayed James (substantially!) while knocking down five 3-pointers after halftime compared to two for the entire Cavaliers roster.
To be sure, the Celtics were fantastic down the stretch. He scored just three points in the second half with none coming in the final 16:31 of the contest.
Irving stayed on the floor for several seconds before sitting up and re-tying his sneaker. They had previously won ten games in a row, this season.
“Thank God it’s bouncing on the rim because that’s taking time”.
“I think that one of the good things about this team is we’re able to believe in whatever Brad draws up”, Bradley said.
“They moved the ball, and they kept us at bay”, he said.
Kevin Love added 17 points and 17 rebounds for Cleveland, which now leads the series 3-1. Irving eventually finished with 42 points. On this night, James’ supporting cast could not be blamed.
The above tweet is a high-level joke but also it gets to the point that the 82-game regular season is rendered moot when a team like the Cavs can simply prioritize rest over fighting for the No. 1 seed when they know they’re capable of showing up in Boston and destroying the Celtics in Game 1 to take home-court advantage. The Celtics racked up a wild 76.1 net rating during Jerebko’s 13 well-played, prickly minutes. Within minutes, he tussled with Love, Kyle Korver and Deron Williams.
Which makes Sunday’s 11-point, 6-turnover game in which he shot 4-of-13 such a stunner.
Advertisement
May 21, 2017; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue during the first half in game three of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. We knew that if we came out and played hard, we would give ourselves a chance.
