Early in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena, the Cleveland Cavaliers found themselves down by nine points, but they quickly reversed their fortunes and pulled out a 123-98 win, which gave them a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.
After Hawks shooting guard Kyle Korver hit a three-pointer with 11:14 to play in regulation, the Cavaliers answered with a 21-9 run over the next five-plus minutes and never trailed again.
“More than anything, keep our composure,” shooting guard J.R. Smith said. “At times like that in the past, we’ve been known to have bad body language and let teams do whatever they wanted to do, but we came back and played extremely well. I’m proud of everybody. The way Channing played was unbelievable. The opportunities Double T. had, creating plays for Kev on the threes, everybody played well.”
Power forward Kevin Love added, “It was a big win for us. We dug ourselves a hole. They got the crowd in it. Guys were making shots for them, but we stepped up on both ends when we needed to. That energy carried on over to the locker room after the game, and we feel good, but we know we still have a job to do on Sunday.”
On the strength of their 12-of-21 shooting performance (57.1 percent), including a 7-of-12 mark from three-point range (58.3 percent), the Cavaliers outscored the Hawks, 36-17, in the final period.
Although the Cavaliers had plenty of success on offense, the players credited the defense for their turnaround. The Cavaliers stole three Hawks passes, and turned Atlanta’s four turnovers into eight points in the final period.
“It was huge,” Smith said. “We played great on defense. That’s what really started us off. We stopped fouling, played extremely well with our length more than anything, created chaos on the wings and the bigs did their jobs in the post, so after that, we had to get out and run.”
Love added, “Definitely, it was a full team effort. There were a lot of things that didn’t show up in the stat sheet, like big box outs that helped us get numbers on the break and convert on that end, get to the free-throw line, knock down big threes. It was everybody. It wasn’t just two guys, but in different parts of the game, different guys shined.”
While the Cavaliers enjoy a 3-0 series lead over the Hawks and know no team has ever come back to win a playoff round after losing the first three games, they understand the task of closing out Atlanta and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year is far from complete.
“You always want to go into an opponent’s building and win, preferably the first one so you put pressure on them,” Smith said. “More than anything, we’ve just got to keep taking it game by game. The series is still not over until they say they’re eliminated, so we’ve got to come in and be ready on Sunday.”
Love added, “We know we still have a lot of work to do. Sunday included, we feel like we’ve been tested in both series so far, so that’s been great for us. I sound like a broken record, but we have a lot of work to do. Closeout games, I’ve been told, are never easy, and I’ve been a part of two now. This will be my third on Sunday. It’s going to be tough here on the road.”
