Video: FOX Sports compares LeBron James and Michael Jordan
April 23, 2015Cavs don’t disappoint, Browns for Mariota? and more … While We’re Waiting
April 24, 2015The young Boston Celtics and their coach Brad Stevens truly do deserve some credit for pushing the Cavaliers to the brink. If it weren’t for some late three point heroics from Kevin Love and the scrappy play of Tristan Thompson, the Celtics might have punched their ticket back to Cleveland on Thursday night. But the Cavaliers, despite a more subdued performance from Kyrie Irving and a lack of calls in a physical game, persevered. The wine and gold went into Boston and came out victorious 103-95 in Game 3 of the first round series. They now have their sights set on sweeping the Celtics out of the playoffs on Sunday afternoon.
Cleveland Cavaliers 103
Boston Celtics 95
Cavaliers lead series 3-0
2-for-9 – In both games in Cleveland, Isaiah Thomas was carrying the Celtics offense with a pair of 22 point peformances. He shot 12-for-28 from the field and a perfect 18-of-18 at the charity stripe. In Game 3, Thomas made just 2-of-9 shots, amassing just five points and two assists in 21 minutes. Credit Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova primarily for slowing Thomas by giving him more room on the perimeter and cutting off his angles as he got closer to the basket. The wine and gold also had more success by influencing the 5-9 point guard to his right.
12-for-29 – The Cavaliers were back to their dynamic three-point shooting ways. After a virtual wash in Game 2 where the team made just 7-of-29 treys, they outscored the Celtics by 21 points from behind the arc. Kevin Love led the charge with 6-of-10 from deep, while J.R. Smith got back in the swing of things and connected on 3-of-8. Boston was 5-of-19, with Jae Crowder the lone Celtic to connect on more than one with his pair of wide-open “go ahead and take it” shots.
48-28 – The Celtics dominated in the paint, however. In the fourth quarter, the Celtics used mid-range backdowns from Evan Turner and hard work inside from Jae Crowder to hang tight until the end. The Celtics don’t have dynamic scorers or perimeter sharpshooters, so they rely on a lot of mid-range and dump-downs to their big men. Turner was the top performer for the Celtics with 19 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and two steals, all while trying to keep tabs on LeBron James for long stretches. Crowder had an efficient evening while playing fake tough guy, making 5-of-6 shots and posting 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and two steals.
11-of-16 – 11 of Kevin Love’s 16 shots were uncontested (with a contested shot being defined as having a defender within 3.5 feet of the shooter), and he knocked down seven of those. Love hit two of the biggest baskets of the game. First, he used an offensive rebound reload kick from Kyrie Irving to bury a left corner three with 2:13 remaining when the Cavs were leading by just three. Then, he put the Celtics to bed for good with 26 seconds remaining as James drove underneath the basket to kick it to Love in the right corner as he extended the Cavalier lead to eight.
I’ve been very encouraged with Love’s play through three games as he has had success both inside and out, scoring 18.3 points per game. His 23 points in Game 3 were second to only James on the team. Of course, Love added nine rebounds and three assists while logging over 37 minutes. With the extra rest, that back looks much better and Love is looking to be much more aggressive. This is an absolute game-changer for Cleveland when Love looks for his shot with such confidence.
97-81-76 – That’s the number of touches for James, Irving, and Love respectively. There’s a beauty to that balance, and even though Kyrie Irving struggled to get his shot off tonight, it was with good reason. Irving shot just 3-for-11, including 1-for-8 inside the arc as he saw whistle after whistle swallowed as he hit the deck thanks to shoves and hip checks from the Celtics interior defense. James once again led the charge with his 31 points on 13-of-25 shooting. James added 11 rebounds and four steals, but most impressive could have been his 42 minutes played and 32.5 percent usage with just two turnovers. You can see it in every aspect from his offensive focus to his defensive engagement, LeBron James is dialed in and ready to shoulder the load for this team. James admitted after the game that his team has to play better, and that he was guilty of too much isolation ball.
14 – In three games, Tristan Thompson has 14 offensive rebounds and 24 total boards. But, even more importantly, just about every single one of those second chances has led to either a bucket or at least a great look for the Cavs. On the defensive end, you can add several more would-be defensive boards that Thompson missed out on due to over-the-back foul calls thanks to being in great rebounding position. Thompson is that pesky worker bee that the Celtics cannot spend adequate time swatting away due to their focus on stopping James, Irving, and Love. There’s no better example of what Thompson means to this team than that aforementioned offensive rebound that led to a crucial Love three. Thompson had absolute zero chance to get the offensive rebound for himself, but he scrapped to deflect the ball forward and right to Irving, who redirected it out to Love for the open shot.
22 – Suddenly, the Cavaliers are a shot-blocking force against these Celtics. For a team that averages just 4.1 blocks per game (25th in the league), the Cavs have blocked 22 shots in these three games, including seven tonight. The real story might be that only nine of these belong to the rim protector Timofey Mozgov. Tristan Thompson and LeBron James each had two blocks total and one gasp-worthy block in the final moments of the game.
-19.9 – This was Timofey Mozgov’s net rating tonight in just over 19 minutes. Mozgov struggled mightily in this one as he wasn’t able to contest shots at the rim quite as effectively. Offensively, he turned it over four times and scored just five points along with grabbing six rebounds. In this series, it’s become clear that both Thompson and Love need to be on the floor in crunch time, and that leaves Moz as the odd big out. After a really good Game 2 offensively, the Russian just wasn’t the same on this night. Luckily, the balance of this team absorbed that without issue.
81.9 and 80.0 – I like to think of the Cavaliers as a squad of seven starter-quality players rather than five starters and two heavy-play bench guys. These numbers represent the defensive rating for the Cavaliers for the 28 and 21 minutes that Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert were on the floor respectively. Shumpert played a role in Thomas’s ragged offensive evening, and Thompson made life miserable for the ensemble cast of Boston bigs.
The Cavaliers will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon in Boston. There’s no reason to believe that they shouldn’t be able to take care of business against a Boston squad that simply lacks dynamic scorers to compete in the arms race with the Big Three.
19 Comments
awesome game.
I said before that David Blatt was a smart, smart man. I think you can see it in yesterday’s game: The Cavs just switched to southpaw.
…btw – did anyone else forget just how good LeBron James is?
Great set of numbers! ” … and a lack of calls in a physical game.” Even by NBA playoff standards, wasn’t this a particularly hockey-like basketball game? Had the game been on a Friday, we could have called it (as my dear departed dad used to) the Friday Night fights. I think Austin Carr called the game worse than most he has seen in that regard. Also agree re Love. He’s gotten more confident with each game. What a difference that makes.
GOTTA WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, bah dum, bah dum, GOTTA WHOLE LOTTA LOVE . . .
And yeah, that was a pretty rough game. Kept expecting Mr. Cav to say, “And Kyrie brings he ball across the blue line and into the neutral zone . . .”
Man, when the Cavs are clickin’, it’s a thing of beauty. Ball movement is a pleasure to watch.
Great composure by LeBron and Cavs, with exception of Timo and J.R. at times. Understand that those two are emotion-fueled players but you’d think that at age 28-29 they’d strike a little better balance.
But those are nits. Cavs ended each quarter on a nice run and answered every minicrisis. J.R. found it again and Love did everything as confidently as he has all year, rendering Kyrie’s sort of quiet night irrelevant
LeBron looks totally focused and is showing his team how to do that. Again, much respect to the Celtics – did they miss a single FT before the 4th quarter? And man, Crowder is a keeper, type of guy every team needs. He’s guaranteeing himself a NBA job for a long time.
I watched Marv and C-Webb. Marv seemed to think the Celts were being brutal, but Webb just called it a tough playoff game.
I’m a guy who likes it rough-and-tumble but I thought the referees gave Boston a little too much leeway, even in the playoffs.
Was thinking the same thing on Crowder. Love the tenacity. Poor man’s Ron Artest? Maybe not so poor.
I love the NBA playoffs, just love’em. Look at what we’ve been treated to the last 48 hours, this great Cavs game, the night before’s SA/Clips clinic, the wild Bulls/Bucks finish, and a Dubs/NO game that I could watch 50 times and still not believe.
Its times like this that I can’t comprehend people who claim to prefer the college game. I feel like I need to cave my head by slamming it in the hood of an El Camino to grasp any argument for the superiority of the “purity of the amateur game.”
If someone came up to me and said “I love steak, its my favorite thing in the world.”
I would say, “At some point splurge, go downtown and go to Red its a steak paradise.”
If that person responded “Oh, I’ve been there but I prefer Ponderosa. I mean the steak is much poorer quality, its never seasoned or cooked properly, and I wouldn’t feed the side dishes to captured ISIS militants who I just watched behead my family dog. But I like the fact that the person cooking the steak is much more of an amateur than the chef at place like Red. I mean that chef at Red is an expert and the food is the highest quality and prepared perfectly, but to me it lacks something because it wasn’t prepared by someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Sure my steak comes to my table with the texture of a shingle from a Hooverville shack, but dammit that kid who made it is just doing it for the love.”
Yeah, I just don’t get it and never ever ever ever will. If you want to explain it to me bring you’re El Camino.
editing police, please ignore the you’re, I’m only one cup of coffee in.
Chop, you’re wonderfully entertaining analogy earns you a weekend pass from the Nerd Club.
Don’t know where or when he would have fit in to the flow of the game, but somewhat surprised we didn’t see a Perkins cameo. Aren’t games like this exactly why we got him?
It’s likely to be worse for the next game – the Celts really have nothing to lose at this point. And the calls / no-calls going your way are usually part of home-court advantage.
Let’s hope we get Lauren Holtkamp somewhere in this run: She clearly doesn’t put up with anything like that. (Don’t believe me? Ask Chris Paul)
I can’t even get upset at his 3-4 iso dribble till the shot clock runs out fade away 25 footers. At this point complaining about that is like scoring a date with 2003 Jennifer Connelly and being put off because she slurps her coffee.
Without getting into the silly GOAT arguments, he is a mind boggling combination of elite athlete and student of the game, we have just a few years left if we’re lucky. Drink it in, it goes down smooth every time.
Oh thank Kahless, or Kahleesi! Does anyone else notice that Game of Thrones Dothraki borrow heavily from Klingons? Is this discussed at all? It seems like it should be. Did I just zoom into the Nerd Club’s janitor closet reserved for total dorks?
Seriously. As long as the Celts are throwing sand and kicking nuts during this fencing match –my thoughts exactly. Time to bring in the goon to poke some eyes.
Agreed. He is our enforcer. Expect to see him set a “pick” on a Celt on Sunday after they take down Lebron or Kyrie with a hard foul.
Stevens sat Olynek, thank you. More Zeller and that other stiff? Nice.
Speaking of “janitors”….I just noticed Fedor called Tristan “The Janitor.” I freaking love that nickname. Has anyone else noticed him calling TT that before?
It really bothers me that officiating in the NBA visibly favors home teams. You may see the occasional home team friendly call in the NFL, but it’s rare, and nonexistant in the MLB. I don’t know why NBA refs feel so much more influenced by the venue.
Forgot my log in and its been a while since I posted, SDA here.
I love hard playoff basketball but “don’t” call it both ways. What bothered me the most was If the Cavs even looked like they were being aggressive they got a foul called. I give all the credit in the world to them for keeping their heads in the game. I didn’t lol. From my seat at home I almost when threw the TV to throw an elbow or drive the basket with my elbows out and kicking as I shot 🙂