Terry Rozier finds the positives after Celtics humbled in Game 3 vs. LeBron James, Cavs
By Cody Rivera
The Celtics needed a wake-up call to keep them grounded, and they got it in Game 3.
For Boston Celtics fans, it was not a pretty sight at the Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday night.
After winning the first two games in Boston to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics headed to Cleveland for Game 3 and got steamrolled by a team hoping to make it back to the NBA Finals for a fourth straight year. The Cavaliers took control of the game early and never looked back, running over the Celtics 116-86 to cut Boston’s lead to 2-1.
The Celtics, who are 9-0 on their home court in the 2018 playoffs, won the first two games of the series each by double-digits. To put it lightly, they embarrassed the Cavs in back-to-back games, despite LeBron James exploding for 42 points in Game 2.
With a 2-0 series lead, it’s easy to let your foot up off the gas pedal a little bit – something you can never do when you’re playing against the greatest basketball player in the world. That’s why getting blown out of the water in Game 3 was a necessary defeat for the Celtics, just to remind them where they are.
Backup point guard Terry Rozier, who was the second-leading scorer for the Celtics during the first two rounds of the playoffs while filling in for the injured Kyrie Irving, called it a much-needed wake-up call.
“We needed to get our butts whooped,” Rozier said, via ESPN. “(We’ve got to) come back to reality and take care of business on Monday.”
It appeared that the Celtics, comfortable with their 2-0 lead in the series, let up defensively to an extent. In Game 1, their defensive play held LeBron to just 15 points. In Game 2, despite LeBron unleashing 21 points in the first quarter alone, their defensive play slowed him down in the second half while they finally took the lead to win the game.
In Game 3, there was clearly a difference, as the Cavaliers unloaded for 17 3-pointers, shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc. Cleveland also outrebounded the Celtics 45-34.
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Now that they have been reminded that they clearly aren’t invincible, Boston will need to get back to playing the way that won them the first two games: lights out defense, solid rebounding, and getting the ball into the hands of youngsters Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.