Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics: Postgame Grades and Analysis
LeBron James had 31 points and 11 rebounds, Kevin Love scored 23 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers topped the pesky Boston Celtics, 103-95, at TD Garden Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
This game was tight most of the way.
The Cavaliers were able to gain a 12-point lead in the second half, but the Celtics kept fighting back and eventually trimmed the lead to three on a late three-pointer by Evan Turner. However, Love quickly answered with a triple with just over two minutes to go to squash Boston's momentum.
The C's were up 48-44 midway through the second quarter, but the Cavs used a 12-0 run late in the period to take a 56-48 lead into halftime.
Cleveland never trailed again.
Obviously, star power has been the difference in this series, even though Celtics head coach Brad Stevens may not want to admit that just yet. Per Ben Rohrbach of WEEI:
The Cavaliers shot 45 percent and went 12-of-29 from three-point range.
The Celtics made 44 percent of their shots but went just 5-of-19 from beyond the arc.
Game 4 is Sunday at TD Garden at 1 p.m. ET. Catch the action on ABC.
| LeBron James | A+ |
| Kyrie Irving | C- |
| Kevin Love | A |
| J.R. Smith | B+ |
| Timofey Mozgov | D+ |
| Rest of Team | B |
| Isaiah Thomas | F |
| Evan Turner | A- |
| Avery Bradley | C- |
| Jared Sullinger | B+ |
| Jae Crowder | A |
| Rest of Team | C |
Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron James: A+
Just another night at the office for James.
The two-time champion poured in 31 points off 13-of-26 shooting and did it in a variety of ways. Early on, he was aggressive in attacking the paint. Then, he nailed some long twos. Throw in some plays in transition, and you have a phenomenal all-around outing for LeBron.
James also hauled in 11 rebounds and dished out four assists, including one that led to a dagger three-pointer by Love in the fourth quarter.
LeBron added four steals to his stat sheet.
Kyrie Irving: C-
Kyrie Irving had a pretty poor evening.
Excluding a nasty crossover and layup finish in the fourth quarter, Irving was unable to get into any kind of rhythm. He missed all but three of his 11 shots and simply could not get his usual dribble penetration.
Credit the Celtics defense for keeping him out of the paint, but Irving can usually get into the lane at will regardless of the opposition.
Kyrie ended with 13 points and six assists in 40 minutes.
Kevin Love: A
This may have been Love's biggest game as a Cavalier.
The sharpshooting forward dropped 23 points off 8-of-16 shooting, going 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. He broke the Celtics' backs with big triples all night, including a couple late in the fourth quarter that essentially sealed the win for Cleveland.
Love did struggle to get shots off inside, but it didn't matter; his marksmanship proved to be the X-factor in the Cavs' Game 3 win.
Cavaliers head coach David Blatt loved the effort Love gave, per Rohrbach:
He contributed nine rebounds as well.
J.R. Smith: B+
J.R. Smith had an efficient night.
He went 6-of-12 from the field and made good on three of his eight three-point tries. A couple of his triples were rally killers, including a crazy one as the shot clock was about to expire.
Smith recorded 15 points and five rebounds.
Timofey Mozgov: D+
Timofey Mozgov had a rough night.
The big man was pushed around quite a bit by smaller players and got tied up several times on rebounds.
Mozgov had five points and six rebounds but also committed four turnovers in 19 minutes.
Rest of Team: B
Tristan Thompson had a great game off the bench, going for 12 points and seven boards. Five of those boards came on the offensive end, and several of those rebounds were pivotal. One led to a key Love three-pointer late.
Other than Thompson, support from the reserves was limited.
Iman Shumpert, who was the only other bench player to score, had four points.
Boston Celtics
Isaiah Thomas: F
After great performances in Games 1 and 2, Isaiah Thomas put forth a subpar outing in Game 3.
Thomas made only two of his nine shots and looked very uncomfortable offensively, struggling with his handle and being unable to knife through the defense for buckets at the rim.
Stevens said that Thomas was benched much of the fourth quarter due to his poor performance, per the Celtics' official Twitter feed:
He scored only five points and missed all three of his long-range attempts. Thomas was also a minus-15.
Evan Turner: A-
Overall, Turner had a heck of a game.
While he had a few moments that made you scratch your head (as he usually does), he filled up with the stat sheet with 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Turner was on the attack all night, hitting numerous big shots throughout the contest and setting up his teammates for buckets of their own.
Turner was efficient, going 8-of-15. He did have four turnovers, though.
Avery Bradley: C-
Avery Bradley had a pretty poor evening.
He shot just 7-of-18 from the floor, missing a large number of open mid-range jumpers and three-pointers. Bradley went 1-of-6 from downtown despite having several good looks, particularly in transition.
To make matters worse, there were a few contested jump shots that Bradley took early in the shot clock that killed momentum for the Celtics.
He did do a solid job on Irving defensively, but he really hurt Boston on the offensive end.
Bradley tallied 18 points and four rebounds.
Jared Sullinger: B+
Jared Sullinger was effective in limited action.
The burly forward posted 10 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes and was very active on both ends of the floor. He even stuffed LeBron on a layup attempt in the first half.
Sullinger went 4-of-6, taking good shots in the paint and only taking what the defense gave him.
Slowly but surely, he is working his way back from that foot injury.
Jae Crowder: A
Jae Crowder was the best player on the floor for the Celtics. Bar none.
The energy Crowder brought was infectious, as the rugged small forward nearly single-handedly kept Boston in the game at times.
He tied up Cavaliers bigs a few times on rebounds, played physical defense on James and was all over the floor. He deflected passes, went hard after loose balls and was also effective offensively.
Stevens gave glowing reviews on Crowder after the game, per the Celtics' official Twitter feed:
Crowder put in 16 points off a 5-of-6 clip, making a pair of three-pointers and going 4-of-5 from the free-throw line. He added seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.
Rest of Team: C
Marcus Smart got off to a good start, but he was strangely substituted early in the first quarter and was unable to rediscover his rhythm. He finished with eight points off 2-of-6 shooting and played some incredibly physical defense in 17 minutes.
Tyler Zeller had a brutal outing. While he posted nine points and six boards, he was beaten to several rebounds, especially late in the game. He also had trouble finishing around the rim, as evidenced by his 3-of-9 shooting clip.
Jonas Jerebko was quietly effective. While he only went 2-of-7 for four points, he was very active defensively, roughing up the Cavs wings and getting his hands in the passing lanes. He grabbed seven rebounds, too.
