Celtics steal Game 3 from the Cavaliers: 3 takeaways

Despite losing Isaiah Thomas to injury, the Boston Celtics handed the Cleveland Cavaliers their first loss of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.

Only in the NBA does a a shot like Avery Bradley’s feel anti-climactic. In the movies, and in our imaginations in the backyard, the game-winning shot is always a swish, no-doubter.

Yet for Bradley, his game-winner rolled and bounced straight up off the back of the rim, where it fell back down and in. Still, though, it wasn’t the most Hollywood finish, Bradley’s shot carried with it the deflation and silence that comes from all buzzer beaters on the road.

Game 3 was the most competitive of the series, for obvious reasons, though itself a mixture of normality and strangeness at certain points. In the first half, if you didn’t look at the score, the game seemed close. The Celtics and Cavaliers were trading baskets. Then you looked at the box score and realized the Cavaliers were up 16 at half — a by product of their cerebral 3-point shooting and the disparity in free throws. For the seventh and eighth times, the Cavaliers had a 30-point quarter.,

But then the second half happened and the Cavaliers wilted. At one point during the broadcast, Celtics coach Brad Stevens could be heard saying that if his team played hard enough, the Cavaliers would fold. He turned out to be right.

The hot shooting that seemingly foreshadowed a big night for the Cavs evaporated — or perhaps transferred is a better word. The Cavaliers shot 2-17 from 3 in the second half, though one was a half-court heave by J.R. Smith at the end of the third quarter. Conversely, the Celtics his 11 3s in the second half, erasing a 20-point deficit and eventually sealing the win on Bradley’s shot.

Here are three takeaways on hot the Celtics pulled it off without their best player.

Takeaways

The Celtics owned the 3-point-line in the second half: So are we in agreement the Celtics are a better team without Isaiah Thomas? No? OK, good.

After it was announced he would miss the remained of the postseason with a hip injury, feelings were the Celtics were even more cooked than originally believed. Vegas made the Cavs 17-point favorites. The Celtics were down by 20 at one point. But, a team who shoots 3s on 42 percent of their 3s is bound to have a night where they make a bunch. And unlike Games 1 and 2, they didn’t have the hot hand of Marcus Smart.

Smart shoots 29 percent from 3, so we can safely consider his seven 3s as something befitting a one-game sample in the playoffs. Still, he deserves credit for taking on Thomas’ scoring burden and carrying it. Even better for Smart, he shot six free throws off of two fouls from beyond the arc. We can’t expect Smart to be a long-term replacement for Thomas, or even a three- or four-game replacement. But at least for Game 3, Smart was Isaiah Thomas.

The Celtics stayed at home on drives: In the first half, Cavaliers forward Kevin Love hit seven 3s. He couldn’t miss, and worse for the Celtics, he was always open. Whether it was fooling Al Horford on a pump fake every time, or getting open off pick-and-roll, Love found himself wide open. And he made the Celtics pay.

That is … until the second half. Love hit zero 3s in the second half. The Celtics stayed at home on shooters, forcing drives into the paint without the possibility for kick-outs. Subsequently, and understandably, the Cavaliers’ offense stalled, and the prolific shooting from the first half was nowhere to be found. Several times the Cavs would drive into the paint, only to jump and contort their bodies into awkward positions to try and pass out to the 3-point-line.

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LeBron James looked strangely human: Much has been made of LeBron missing the top-3 in MVP voting. By now we all understand he’s the best player in the world, but during Game 3, well, and I’m not sure how often this has ever been said about a LeBron James game, but he stunk. He finished with 11 points and only five assists to three turnovers. He looked passive and lethargic, like he wasn’t interested in anything other than moving on to Game 4. He lacked any semblance of his aggressiveness from the first two games.

On defense, LeBron was outworked for rebounds by Kelly Olynyk and Jae Crowder. He allowed drivers to go past him.

The Cavaliers were bound to lose a game, and in the same way we won’t overreact to one game for the Celtics without Thomas, we won’t overreact to one game for LeBron James. Perhaps he felt funky without Thomas being his safety valve to run the offense through. Thomas is such a liability on defense, LeBron could force the Celtics to switch a big man onto him, which sparked much of his drives to the lane. But with Smart, Bradley and Crowder all good defenders on the perimeter, maybe it threw the King for a game. Maybe just one game.