By Josh Tolentino | EBC Sports
CLEVELAND, USA (Eagle News) — Avery Bradley knocked down a three-pointer with .1 left to lift the Boston Celtics past the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-108, Sunday evening, as the Celtics stole Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Quicken Loans Arena.
The Celtics, who are without leading scorer Isaiah Thomas (hip) for the rest of the playoffs, are the first team to defeat the Cavs this postseason. The Cavs’ loss also marked their first defeat in 14-straight postseason games dating back to last season.
“(The last play) It was called by (coach) Brad Stevens,” said Avery Bradley who scored 20 points off 8-of-23 shooting. “He did a great job of putting us in the right position, forcing them to have to help and not be able to switch. Al Horford made a great screen and Marcus Smart made an even better pass, and I was able to knock down a shot.”
Lebron James, who has been dominant throughout the Playoffs, struggled especially late in the game thanks to terrific defense by Jaylen Brown and Jae Crowder. He didn’t register a point in the fourth quarter, finishing with just 11 points, six assists, five rebounds and six turnovers. James is 0-6 all-time in the playoffs when scoring 15 or fewer points.
“I feel some adversity is all part of the postseason,” James said. “You have to have some type of adversity in order to be successful. If it was going to happen, let it happen now; let us regroup. Let us regroup and all the narrative and everything that was going on, let’s regroup and let’s get back to playing desperate basketball, which they did tonight. We’ve got to be a lot better, for sure.”
Kyrie Irving led all scorers with 29 points off 10-of-15 shooting. Irving believes the Celtics played much more free basketball without Thomas in their lineup.
“That becomes dangerous, especially with a team like that,” said Irving who shot 5-of-5 from the free-throw line while adding seven assists. “Guys are feeling the void of Isaiah and the freedom is just automatically there. They really have nothing to lose. So for us, we just have to command our focus and make sure that our execution is at a high level. In the third quarter, we got out and Marcus Smart started making some threes, started making some plays as well as other guys. They took advantage of our schemes and a lot of mistakes on our end as well.”
The Cavs, who once led by 21 points, entered halftime with a 66-50 advantage, but were outscored 61-42 in the second half. The Celtics shot 11-of-22 from the arc in the second half, while the Cavs, who dominated from deep in the first half, made just 2-of-17.
“Our mindset was the same all the way through,” said Kelly Olynyk who finished with 15 points off the bench. “We just wanted to play our style. We wanted to play together on both ends of the floor, be physical and play hard. If we go out and play hard, we know that we have a shot.”
The Celtics will have another shot at stealing a victory from Cleveland on Tuesday.
“(Tonight) was a game we should have won, but they played hard,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “They scrapped. They have a scrappy team. We knew that coming into tonight. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we got some things we can correct and come back ready to go on Tuesday.”
The Cavs enter Tuesday’s Game 4 with a 2-1 series advantage. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.
