The Cavaliers completed a sweep of the best-of-seven series and advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they await the victor of the series between the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics that is tied at two games apiece. The Celtics won 111-103 but the Hawks lead the seven-game series 2-1.
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Pistons: Reggie Bullock (left leg) missed the game.
Although Detroit beat Cleveland in three of the four regular season meetings and have taken early leads in all three games of this post season matchup so far, they have been unable to figure out the Cavaliers late game pushes that will them to victory.
The Cleveland Cavaliers took the show on the road and continued their quest for the franchise’s first-ever NBA Championship with a Game 3 win over the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at The Palace of Auburn Hills Friday night. Irving is averaging 26.3 points on 46.8 percent shooting in the three games, including a 12-for-23 performance on 3s.
With the momentum on the Pistons side, Irving killed the happy thoughts with a shot a half-step over half-court at the end of the third quarter buzzer that was all net, giving his team an 81-78 lead. He scored on two driving layups and his three-pointer at the 2:50 mark gave the Pistons a 20-17 lead.
Despite the many close attempts, no team in National Basketball Association history has ever trailed 3-0 in a playoff series and come back with four straight wins.
Small forward Tobias Harris, who was a mid-season acquisition in a trade from the Orlando Magic, led the way for the Pistons with a 10-point first quarter, and got help in the way of 10 combined points from Morris and Drummond. Matt Barnes added 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Vince Carter had 11 and JaMychal Green was 5 of 5 for 10 points.
LeBron James had 22 points, but it was Irving who made the biggest shots all night. “Rebounding’s been one of our strengths all year, we’ve been bad in this series”.
Irving went insane in the third, scoring 10 straight points to put the Pistons in a 67-56 hole.
Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson was victimized for most of those numbers. Harris has the ability to shoot from the outside, put the ball on the floor and finish at the rim, but we haven’t seen much of that in this series.
“Delly had two reads on that play and he made a great read and Kyrie made a great shot”.
“We may have some mishaps, but we come in and we look each other in the eye and we communicate the next play”. Its most recent postseason appearance before this one was in 2009, and the Pistons were swept by Cleveland in the first round that year, too.
Beset by injuries, including those to center Marc Gasol and point guard Mike Conley, the Grizzlies used an NBA-record 28 players. Hopefully what they learned from it (and) what I said to them after the game, is the value of every possession in the game. A taste of what it’s like to close a game in the playoffs, whet the appetite and take the hunger into next season when they’ll undoubtedly battle for a better seed and more winnable games.
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“I knew that the preparation was for the postseason”, Irving said. “These two guys over here (James and Irving) have been constant on me about that”.
