Cavaliers vs. Celtics: Game 3 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 NBA Playoffs
The Cleveland Cavaliers have LeBron James. The Boston Celtics don't.
While the underdog Celtics never went away during Game 3 of their first-round playoff series, they had no answer for King James in Cleveland's 103-95 victory Thursday in Boston. James finished with 31 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks and gave the Cavaliers an overwhelming 3-0 lead in the series.
James took over the game early in the fourth quarter, but he received some help from Kevin Love, who drilled two critical threes down the stretch and finished with 23 points, six made three-pointers, nine rebounds and three assists.
Evan Turner spearheaded the Boston attack with 19 points, eight assists and eight rebounds, but the Celtics simply couldn't counter James with the game on the line.
ESPN Stats & Info passed along a couple of noteworthy stats highlighting James' greatness after the game:
The Celtics established some early momentum and took the lead in the second quarter behind a number of hustle plays from Jae Crowder. Senior Turner and Bleacher Report NBA writer Ethan J. Skolnick took notice:
Part of playing hard is committing physical fouls, and that led to the following scuffle:
Turner added to the overall theme of the first half with a flagrant foul on James in transition:
The physicality likely didn't surprise James because he discussed Boston's schemes specifically designed to rough him up before the game, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com:
"I try not to get too involved in the extracurriculars of the game. My only concern is how I can make a play to help us win. I've seen it all before. I've seen everything a defender or a team can put at me, either to try to take me out of a game or say, "We're going to just try to make him shoot jump shots," or "We're going to try to make him pass," or "We're going to try to make him score." I've seen it all, so I'm able to try to break that throughout the game and see ways how I can be effective.
"
Perhaps motivated by the physicality, the Cavaliers responded with a 12-0 run at the end of the second quarter to grab a 56-48 halftime lead. It was the type of stretch that the underdog Celtics could ill-afford, especially heading into the locker room with momentum on the line. NBA analyst Nate Duncan suggested as much:
Despite the hole, Boston came out with urgency in the third quarter and trimmed the lead to one within the first six minutes. Jay King of MassLive.com pointed out that the Celtics were virtually playing for their postseason lives with a 2-0 deficit, while Mike Prada of SB Nation acknowledged one issue for Cleveland:
The problem for the Celtics is they had to answer to this man every time they made a run:
It wasn't just James' offense that helped the Cavaliers build their lead back to double digits in the third quarter. He terrorized the Celtics on the defensive side of the ball for a number of possessions in a row and earned praise from Anthony Lima of 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland in the process:
Cleveland maintained a double-digit lead during the early minutes of the fourth quarter largely because James simply beat his man in isolation on virtually every possession. His teammates stood around and watched, but it was still working, as Duncan pointed out:
Boston cut the lead to single digits with less than six minutes remaining, but ESPN Stats & Info put James' dominance into statistical terms:
Even though James went on a personal run in the fourth quarter, the Celtics didn't back down and answered with a spurt of their own to trim the lead to six with less than four minutes remaining. Zack Cox of NESN noted that Crowder's defense was a major reason why:
Turner hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to three, but Love responded with arguably the biggest shot of his entire season when he drilled a three-pointer in the corner to push the lead back to six with two minutes left.
Turner then challenged James inside on the other end, and it went about as well as expected, per Bleacher Report:
It was a metaphorical swat of Boston's chances at winning Game 3, and Love iced it with another three with 26 seconds left. It pushed the lead to 101-93, and Cleveland eventually won 103-95.
What's Next?
Next up in this series is Game 4 in Boston on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
The Cavaliers will have a sweep in mind, although Boston will stay close if it follows the script of the first three contests.
At this point, it is a question of how many games it will take Cleveland to win the series rather than who will win it.
It would benefit the Cavaliers to finish the sweep and earn some much-needed rest before a potential second-round matchup with the Chicago Bulls (assuming the Bulls eventually knock off the Milwaukee Bucks), as that Chicago series figures to be another physical battle.
