The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 26-point deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 119-114 Thursday night in Bankers Life Fieldhouse to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the first round of the 2017 NBA playoffs.According to ESPN Stats and Info, Cleveland's win probability dropped to below 2 percent at halftime:Cleveland prevailed despite Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love combining to score 26 points on 8-of-29 shooting.The Cavs turned into a one-man show in the fourth quarter, as The Athletic Cleveland's Jason Lloyd pointed out Irving and Love remained on the bench:The Undefeated's Marc J. Spears tweeted about Cleveland's late-game offensive game plan:Head coach Tyronn Lue's gambit paid off since taking Irving and Love out of the game left the Cavaliers with a slightly better defensive unit on the floor. And no player can single-handedly take over a game in the way LeBron James can.James finished with 41 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.ESPN Stats & Info noted how much of Cleveland's offense went through its best player:The Pacers relied heavily on Paul George, who scored 36 points but struggled as he got less and less support from his teammates as the game went on. George shot 10-of-28, including 5-of-15 from three-point range.The Pacers were coasting through the first two quarters, taking a 74-49 lead into the locker room at halftime. According to NBA on TNT, the 74 points were a franchise record for scoring in one half of a playoff game.The NBA shared highlights from Indiana's first-half performance:Then the Pacers offense went off the rails in the third quarter. Cleveland outscored Indiana 35-17 in the third frame to make it a seven-point game, 91-84. The Indianapolis Star's Gregg Doyel showed how much had changed for the Pacers offensively compared to the first half:CBSSports.com's Matt Moore saw a worrying trend for Indiana:SB Nation highlighted one concerned Pacers fan after the Cavs cut the deficit to two points:Cleveland took a 100-98 lead with a thunderous right-handed jam by James with 6:28 remaining in the game, courtesy of the NBA:CBS Sports showed how Monta Ellis offered little resistance to LeBron before the dunk:The Pacers continued to stay with the Cavaliers until Channing Frye connected on a three-pointer with 54 seconds left that put Cleveland ahead 114-107.Many questioned whether the Cavaliers' sluggish end to the regular season was a foreboding sign of their ultimate fate in the postseason or if they could flip a switch in the playoffsnot unlike they did last year.With the series in Cleveland, the Cavs narrowly escaped with a victory in Game 1 and were outscored 33-21 in the fourth quarter of Game 2, turning what should've been an easy win into a hard-fought affair.The first half of Game 3 was a continuation of a lackluster postseason performance from the Cavaliers.Then they put together one of their strongest collective halves of the 2016-17 season.Thursday's comeback will be quickly forgotten should Cleveland begin suffering the same problems that plagued the team in the opening two games of the series.Should the Cavs go on to make the NBA Finals, though, Game 3 will likely be remembered as the turning point when things began clicking for the defending champions.
Click here to read full news..
