Cleveland Cavaliers: Notes From A Wild Game 3

This was one for the record books. Literally. There were records broken, leads thwarted, players ejected and more. Game 3 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals had all you could ask for.

Here is some of the more salient stuff I took away from that game:

1. The King Reigns

So much crazy/awesome stuff happened with LeBron James in this game that I am going to have to make sub-points:

A) 0-of-10 Start

It was the worst start to a playoff game of James’ career. He just didn’t have it going early. He looked like something was off, like he just didn’t have his normal bouncy forcefulness. Then TNT’s Rachel Nichols reported on TV that he was being treated when on the sidelines for his back and his knee.

Not so good.

During this time, the Atlanta Hawks were playing pretty well and managed to take a lead. But the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t go away and the role players stepped up once again to keep the game close despite LeBron’s struggles.

LeBron then confirmed after the game in a post-game interview with Nichols that he has a lot of nagging injuries weighing him down.

But that didn’t stop him from…

B) Finishing With A Stat Line of 37-18-13

Seriously, when was the last time you saw a line like that? Your answer probably includes the name Russell Westbrook but this line was even more important because of its context.

LeBron is the first player in NBA history to post that line in the postseason.

Just let that sink in. The very first.

That 0-10 start was quickly forgotten. Especially when he…

C) Drilled a Three-Pointer, Then Hit a Layup to Save the Game

This is pretty important when you think about how awful James has been shooting the three ball this postseason. He’s just 10-61 in the playoffs, which amounts to a horrific 16.3 percent.

One of those triples beat Chicago in Game 5, and now another helped save last night’s game. Maybe LeBron should only shoot them in big moments? You could almost hear the Quicken Loans crowd gasp when they saw Tristan Thompson whip the ball back out to James in the corner.

Even they didn’t think it was going in.

That shot put the Cavs up 112-111 with 36.4 seconds to go. After a series of wild events in the ensuing seconds, James then drained a tough layup with 12.8 seconds left to seal the game.

But he’s not clutch right?

D) See Ya, Mailman!

LeBron passed Karl Malone for sixth place on the all-time playoff scoring list. Just another cementation of his greatness.

E) You Too, Kidd!

Oh, and he passed Jason Kidd for second on the all-time playoff triple-doubles list with 12.

F) THIS

2. Delly’s Not Dirty

This play happened in the second quarter:

Instantly there was debate about whether or not the play was dirty, especially since Matthew Dellavedova has been involved in a few other plays were injuries have occurred; namely the play where Kyle Korver’s season ended.

Here’s my two cents: this play is absolutely, 100 percent not dirty.

It’s pretty clear that Al Horford wraps him up, pulls him down and then proceeds to land an elbow on him while they’re all tangled up.

Now, do I think this play was worth ejecting Horford over? Probably not. It definitely should’ve been a Flagrant 1, but an Flagrant 2 was likely a bit much.

Still, I can see where the officials are coming from. The elbow does land close to Delly’s head, and the contact can be viewed as rather excessive.

As for Delly’s part in the whole thing, there is just no way he made this play dirty. None at all.

We’ll be talking about this moment for far longer than we have to, but I’m glad I’ve gotten my take out there and done with.

3. Hawks Had Fight!

Even after Horford was ejected from the game, the depleted Hawks showed some spunk! I was fairly impressed with their resilience. They could’ve rolled over at that point, since the Cavs had a decent lead.

But nope. They fought in a grind-it-out style. Jeff Teague began attacking the bucket like no one could guard him one-on-one off the dribble (they couldn’t) and Paul Millsap finally showed up to make some important baskets.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough. But they still got the damn thing to overtime! Which reminds me …

4. Scott Held Fate, And Let It Slip

There was a moment, with 31.3 seconds left in overtime, when the ball was knocked off of a Hawk towards the weak side corner. Mike Scott was standing there alone, with no one near him. He could have, should have, grabbed that ball immediately.

Spoiler: he didn’t.

Clearly he thought that the ball was off of a Cav, so he decided to let it bounce out of bounds. The refs called it Cleveland ball, but did take the play to review. After a few minutes, the call on the floor stood and the momentum was shifted back to the Cavs.

The ensuing play was LeBron’s layup to close out the game.

You can’t blame a loss on a single play, but dang, that was a huge one for the Hawks. Scott had a golden opportunity to snatch the loose ball and do something positive with it. Instead, he allowed it to fall right back into the hands of the best player on the planet.

Just a brainfart moment. Atlanta fans will remember that one. Ouch.

5. No Kyrie, No Problem

Perhaps the best thing about this game for Cleveland was the fact that they allowed Kyrie Irving to get another full day of rest while still picking up a victory.

Before the game, Kyrie had gone through a workout and said that he felt significantly better. But team doctors decided that it was best to withhold him from the lineup, so he didn’t play.

That piece of news is positive though, and hopefully it means that come the next time time Irving steps onto the hardwood he’ll feel even better than he did last night.

Kyrie is so important to the Cavaliers that he may not see another minute of play time until the Finals begin. I mean, if you’re the team, you don’t let him play, right?

I wouldn’t.

There’s no point in risking it. Besides, the Cavs have been doing a pretty good job holding their own so far without him. And they’ll need every ounce of him against Golden State.

The final result of everything, of course, is that the Cavaliers are now up 3-0 in the series. Game 4 will be played on Tuesday. But for all intents and purposes, you can start planning for Cavs-Warriors in the Finals.

Next: NBA: 5 Playoff Teams Facing Franchise-Altering Summers

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