Celtics pip Cavs with National Basketball Association buzzer-beater

Using the 2017 postseason as the sample size, there’s more to suggest that James will come back strong in Game 4 than have another off night, but it does raise the concern as to whether the Cavaliers can win when James is subpar.

The general sentiment around the National Basketball Association is that the Celtics poked the bear Sunday night by beating Cleveland on its home court during Game 3 while limiting LeBron James to only 11 points while he committed six turnovers. “I mean, LeBron James understands how to play the game, and he understands what this team needs from him”. “Not just in the second half”. But me personally, I didn’t have it. But me personally, I didn’t have it. “That’s what I’ve got to say about my performance”.

The Celtics were four-point underdogs at home in Game 1 and five-point underdogs in Game 2.

The Cavs also looked exhausted for the first time this postseason. Coach Brad Stevens knows what he has in this Celtics team.

Kyrie Irving scored 29 points, and Kevin Love 28 for Cleveland. Hes a great player, but stand up.

Stevens said he’s never been around a player with Thomas’ heart. James put together one of his finest regular seasons, averaging 26.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per game on 54.8% shooting, yet the Cavs went 51-31.

Lue said James was “in good spirits” and that no one was pinning the loss on him. “He has so many different wrinkles, misdirection, thinking the ball is going this way, he has a misdirection going the other way”. Love made 7-of-10 three-pointers in the first half and led all scorers with 22 points at the break. Johnson scored two points in nine minutes.

Playing a lineup that could match up better with the defending National Basketball Association champion Cavaliers, the injured 5-foot-9 Thomas was exposed as the team’s weak link on defense while watching on TV. “We’ve got to be a lot better for sure”. We wanted to go at six seconds, and the hope was that they’d have less than a second if they did get the ball.

Cleveland is one of the best three-point shooting teams in the National Basketball Association – regular season and playoffs.

Still, the Cavs were in control leading 77-56 in the third quarter after making 14 3-pointers in the first half. “He just made it over and over”. Of the Cavs’ 70 field goal attempts, 39 were three-pointers. He was testy after Sunday’s game and then avoided reporters on Monday to leave his teammates and coach Tyronn Lue to explain his awful performance “No blame”, Lue told reporters. They got behind by 21 points, but they kept on grinding. He also had five turnovers.

Boston, of course, deserves all the credit for balling out in the second half and not giving up.

“We’re going to go play with our backs against the wall, come out swinging”. “I think they did not respect the Celtics“. “Marcus Smart started to hit a lot of three’s”.

Cleveland entered Sunday’s game as 16.5-point favorites.

While there is a valid argument that the Celtics are too heavy at the guard positions, games like Game 3 in this series make Ainge’s decision to potentially trade Avery Bradley or Smart even harder.

“I thought he was really purposeful all night”, Stevens said. “And we’re going to continue to play that way throughout the series“.

Boston closed the series gap to 2-1 and yet nobody believes it has a chance to pull off the upset, and rightfully so, especially now that James has the one game in which he played like a mere mortal this series out of the way.