The Celtics Got a Game, But We Still Don't Have a Series

The Celtics unexpectedly won Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals thanks to an off-night from LeBron James. So let's not get crazy with the hot takes.

Jae Crowder Game 3 Celtics Cavs 2017
USA Today Sports

Boston Celtics forward Jae Crowder (99) celebrates a three point basket by guard Avery Bradley (not pictured) in the fourth quarter against Cleveland Cavaliers in game three of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena.

Jae Crowder Game 3 Celtics Cavs 2017

Early in the third quarter Sunday, I thought I would be writing about how the Cavs should just sit LeBron James in Game 4 because what difference would it make?

We’d need a hot take to spice up the discussion around what was quickly becoming the most boring Eastern Conference Finals ever. Cleveland was cruising past the Celtics, looking like they were on their way to another blowout victory in Game 3. But the tired cliché of “that’s why they play the games” unfolded surprisingly over the final 18 minutes, and now we might have a series, right?

Wrong.

If you think this one’s going seven games, then we’d like to know what you’re smoking. Because one piss poor performance from the Cavs as a whole and LeBron as an individual shouldn’t change how we view this series. The Cavs are a deserved Goliath. The Celtics are a deserved David. The Cavs need to take two more games from the Celtics before punching their ticket to the NBA Finals, and we’d be comfortable betting our life savings that it happens. But at least the Celtics gave NBA fans a reason to take notice, to get jazzed for more competitive basketball going forward just when we thought things were only going to get worse.

Cleveland entered Sunday’s game as 16.5-point favorites. Without the services of starter Isaiah Thomas, we all expected Boston to absorb another beatdown. What we got instead was one half of Cavaliers basketball as expected, followed by a second half of startling ambivalence and  reaffirmation that, no matter the situation, LeBron needs to do LeBron things for the Cavs to be good, let alone great.

The King played more like a peasant as he finished with just 11 points, dropping the Cavs to 0-6 in postseason play when LeBron scores less than 15. He was 0-4 from three. He missed three free throws. And most egregiously, he had six turnovers.

Drawing any grand conclusions other than LeBron needs to play better means you’re stretching for hot takes. And only the insane think we actually have a series.  

But the loss isn’t strictly on LeBron, even though he deserves a hefty amount of the blame. The reasons the Cavs dropped a game were obvious. They pretty much stopped giving a shit once they pushed the lead out to 21 points. They started turning the ball over like crazy. They barely scored in the third. They didn’t execute down the stretch. The Celtics did the opposite and the Cavaliers’ 13-game postseason winning streak came to a shocking end.

Boston, of course, deserves all the credit for balling out in the second half and not giving up. They out-worked the Cavs, and the guy you wouldn’t expect to hit the big shot at the end did, even if Avery Bradley’s three from the wing bounced on the rim 50 times before somehow dropping in.

But the most telling sign of the night to me was after Bradley’s bucket dropped. With .1 seconds left on the clock, there was no protest for the refs to put more time on the clock. Cavs coach Tryonn Lue didn’t even call a timeout. Cleveland inbounded the ball, didn’t even bother to throw up a prayer that wouldn’t have counted anyway, and walked off unlikely losers on their home court to an inferior team.

You shrug off a performance like that. There’s another game in 48 hours and a chance at redemption. LeBron acknowledged afterward that he played like garbage, that he needs to do better. Now the entire world expects the King to put up a 40-point triple-double effort Tuesday in Game 4 as the Cavs hope to put a chokehold on the Celtics.

But the bottom line was Cleveland was due for an L one of these nights. We just thought it would come in the NBA Finals. Drawing any grand conclusions other than LeBron needs to play better means you’re stretching for hot takes. And only the insane think we actually have a series.  

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