Cavaliers 116, Celtics 86 (final)
The Cleveland Cavaliers grabbed control of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals early, building a 19-point lead in the first quarter and cruised to a blowout win over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
The Cavs cut the Celtics’ series lead to 2-1, with a pivotal Game 4 scheduled on Monday night in Cleveland. LeBron James had 27 points on just 12 shots and dished out 12 assists in the win, and the Cavaliers had five others score in double figures.
Kyle Korver was perfect for Cleveland, making all five field goals, including four three-pointers for 14 points in his 20 minutes.
Boston shot just 39% in the loss. Jayston Tatum led the Celtics with 18 points.
Cavaliers 87, Celtics 63 (End of 3Q)
More of the same in the third quarter for Cleveland, who led by as many as 26. The Celtics are shooting just 37.5% from the field through three quarters.
LeBron James is up to nine assists, including this nifty dime to Tristan Thompson for the jam.
Cavaliers 61, Celtics 41 (halftime)
Who needs the slam dunk contest, when LeBron is throwing down in-game dunks like this?
James has 19 points and six assists and the Cavs head into the break with a huge lead, trying to avoid the death knell of an 3-0 series deficit.
Cavaliers 32, Celtics 17 (End of 1Q)
Cleveland came out firing in the opening 12 minutes, nailing 6-of-9 threes and racing to a 19-point advantage at one point. LeBron James was 2-for-2 from distance and scored 12 in the quarter. He also blocked Aron Baynes at the rim to help keep Boston at bay.
Cavaliers 9, Celtics 4 (6:48, 1Q)
George Hill came out firing with five points on four shots in the first five minutes, including a corner three. He also scored the first bucket of the game, too, putting the home team up early.
Preview
The Cleveland Cavaliers need more than just LeBron James’ excellence to win Game 3 of their conference finals matchup with the Boston Celtics on Saturday. Even his 42-point triple-double in Game 2 wasn’t enough to beat Boston, and now Cleveland finds itself trailing, 2-0.
The Celtics are the breakout team everyone expected in the regular season, but not like this. Without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, they’re beating The King behind one All-Star and a fleet of over-performing youths. Jaylen Brown was incredible in the team’s last outing, scoring 23 points on 18 shotts, Terry Rozier had 18 points, Jayson Tatum had 11, and Horford chipped in 15 with 10 rebounds. It’s been a complete effort.
Meanwhile, James can’t find enough help. He shot 16-of-29 from the field in Game 2, with 12 assists and 10 rebounds, but aside from Kevin Love’s 22 points and 15 rebounds, nobody showed up. Kyle Korver’s played well, but he’s not the third scorer — nor the primary defender — the Cavs need so badly. James can’t do this alone.
Related Just boycott the Cleveland Cavaliers
Is someone going to step up? Or are the Cavs going to go down 0-3?
Cavaliers vs. Celtics Game 3
Date: May 19
Where: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Toronto's Dwane Casey called Kevin Love "clever" when talking about his post-ups in the last series. That was Casey's way of saying he gets away with fouls and disguises them well. Love with a "clever" finish over Marcus Smart. Needs to take advantage of those mismatches.
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
My, my, we’ve got ourselves a series.
LeBron James finally received the help from his teammates he had been looking for all series to get a much needed 116-86 win in Game 3 over the Celtics.
As expected, James (27 points, 12 assists, five rebounds) and Kevin Love (13 points, four assists, 14 rebounds) did their parts, but even the secondary characters in Cleveland’s cast of misfits stepped up. Kyle Korver went perfect from the field, J.R. Smith remembered how to shoot 3s and even Larry Nance Jr. got a highlight dunk. It also helped that the Cavs made half of their three-point attempts.
BENDER: Cavs enjoy comforts of home, 3s to get back into series
Boston, on the other hand, looked as though someone had stolen Brad Stevens’ basketball IQ like the Monstars did to the NBA superstars in "Space Jam." The offense early was centered on midrange attempts, and the Celtics could only muster 33 percent shooting in the first quarter. On the defensive end, the team looked porous, allowing open layups and dunks that just were not available to the Cavaliers in the first two games of the series.
The Celtics will need to follow in the footsteps of crosstown coach Bill Belichick: take the loss in stride and move on to the next game.
Have the Cavaliers found the secret formula to taking this series back from the jaws of elimination, or was this just a blip on Boston’s impressive postseason run? That’ll likely be for Game 4 to decide.
Sporting News provided highlights and updates of Game 3. Here’s what you might have missed:
Cavs vs. Celtics: Score, highlights, updates
Game 3 box score
Final Cleveland 116, Boston 86
Cavaliers give the Celtics the 30-piece in a much-needed statement win at home to bring the series to 2-1.
10:53 p.m. ET — Garbage time highlights!
10:48 p.m. ET — It's difficult to explain these kind of blowouts that break team trends, especially in the postseason. Luckily, Zach Lowe is here to help the rest of us figure it out.
LeBron's energy on defense was on a different level. Cavs also got into their offense earlier (at times), even off Boston makes. Just a better game. Difference b/w stagnant CLE and good CLE -- beyond making shots -- isn't rocket science. — Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) May 20, 2018
10:41 p.m. ET — Larry Nance Jr. gets in on the action!
End Q3: CLE 87, BOS 63
The Cavs have continued to dominate even throughout the second half.
10:23 p.m. ET — It's been an odd game.
10:14 p.m. ET — We're trying not to clog the live blog with LeBron highlights, but when he does things like this it makes it difficult.
okay lebron that's quite enough pic.twitter.com/m057uKjyR6 — Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) May 20, 2018
10:07 p.m. ET — Terry Rozier hits back with a slam dunk of his own.
10:06 p.m. ET — LeBron James can still do this in year 15!
9:59 p.m. ET — We're back from halftime. Cavs bump the lead up to 23 after a Kevin Love and-one.
9:48 p.m. ET — ESPN with approximately zero chill.
Halftime: CLE 61, BOS 41
Jayson Tatum : 13 points, 4/6 FG, Al Horford : 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
LeBron James: 19 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, George Hill: 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists
9:41 p.m. ET — Marcus Smart gets a much-needed charge called in his favor to help shift some momentum to the Celtics.
9:38 p.m. ET — This is inadvertantly turning to a LeBron James live blog but we're obligated to show the highlights.
9:32 p.m. ET — "LeBron is good" update:
Still perfect from 3-point land! 🎯🎯🎯
17 PTS, 3-3 3PM, 5 AST for LeBron in the half on @ESPNNBA #WhateverItTakes 52 | #CUsRise 32 pic.twitter.com/xtq6uyT9RA — NBA (@NBA) May 20, 2018
9:29 p.m. ET — LeBron hits the rolling three to put the Cavs up 20 over the Celtics. Timeout Boston.
9:21 p.m. ET — The Celtics are shooting 2/7 from three and the Cavs are shooting 7/12 from the same distance. The latter seems a bit unsustainable.
9:17 p.m. ET — And here's the visual proof of the previous statement.
9:15 p.m. ET — In case you were wondering just how bad things are going for the Celtics, Sean Deveney has you covered with the math.
The @celtics have shot 42.3 percent in 1st quarters in the playoffs, which ranks 12th of 16 in the postseason. Still managed to average 24.3 points in first quarters.
Not looking good tonight: 17 points on 33 percent shooting. — Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney) May 20, 2018
End Q1: CLE 32, BOS 17
Cleveland seeemingly doing whatever they want to do to Boston offensively. The Celtics are playing like someone kidnapped Brad Stevens and stole his basketball juju Monstars-style.
9:06 p.m. ET — George Hill, who had 8 points combined in the first two games of the series, is up to 11 points with an easy three. Kevin Love follows up the bucket with a tough one of his own. Cleveland leads 32-13 with 1:05 left in the first quarter.
8:58 p.m. ET — Not as clean as his block against Splitter a few years ago, but still memorable.
NOT UP IN HERE pic.twitter.com/w0PGbUoVGU — CBS Sports (@CBSSports) May 20, 2018
8:56 p.m. ET — Cavs 17-4 lead is their largest of the series so far. It was since grown to 16.
8:49 p.m. ET — TV timeout: Aron Baynes picks up his first foul less than a minute from checking in. Cavs lead 9-4.
8:46 p.m. ET — Jayson Tatum has shown that he's already stronger than J.R. Smith. The two get physical down low and Tatum shrugs Smith off with ease. Still doesn't result in much. Cavs lead 9-4 with 7:18 1Q.
8:44 p.m. ET — The Cavs are starting George Hill, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson
The Celtics are starting Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Al Horford.
8:42 p.m. ET — And here. we. go. Boston wins the tip and Game 3 is underway.
8:36 p.m. ET — RECORD WATCH
👑 @KingJames is 14 field goals away from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2,356 FGM) as the NBA’s all-time postseason leader in field goals made. #WhateverItTakes pic.twitter.com/jf7h41VTHc — Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 20, 2018
8:14 p.m. ET — After being basically invisible over the last two games, J.R. Smith looks ready to make a big splash in Game 3.
J.R. looks like he's in the zone tonight 👀 pic.twitter.com/UCi025jz0B — Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) May 20, 2018
8 p.m. ET — Bill Russell is ready for tonight's matchup. Are you?
