Yes Smart played out of his mind. LeBron had one of his worst games in years. But overall, the shooting was pretty even, and the calls definitely went their way. We didn't win because we got hot and they didn't.
We figured out how to defend them. We got our defensive mojo back. We were getting run right off the court until the second half of game three. If we can keep the pace under control and one or two players gets hot, we can win against these guys.
We've also got a much better coach, and the longer this goes, the more that helps. I also think Bradley has a big game left in him. It would be a lot of fun if they stole the game tonight
Great points.
I don't think enough weight is being given to the unbalanced officiating which, per the usual, is not in the Celtics favor and in this series is verging on the surreal. Inject a minimum of balance/fairness, and things could get very tight which is, of course, the last thing the NBA and the networks want.
The important thing now for the Cs is: make and keep it old school, one possession at a time, tough D, and all that, and thereby give Avery, and others, multiple chances to duplicate the Jimmie Chitwood in Hoosiers thing to win the game.
Three more of them, in fact.
there are a number of factors that could shift that would be in the C's favor and give them a legitimate chance in game 4:
- There's a closer balance in fouls called on each team. I would never expect an equal number because as we all know Lebron never fouls
but a 23 to 11 imbalance for Cleveland is ridiculous. We can only hope someone in charge saw that farce of an officiating bias and talked to the officials. unlikely but one can hope. 36 to 12 in FTs taken is just egregiously biased officiating.
- Crowder, AB and Horford don't shoot a combined 21 for 55 - 38%. Particularly AB going 8-23 is just abysmal.
- Brown and Rozier coming off the bench to provide more than 2 points.
- Kevin Love not shooting 7-13 from 3.
- Kyrie Irving not shooting 10-15 including 4-6 from 3.
- Tristan Thompson not getting 7 offensive rebounds and shooting 12-15 from the FT line.
Granted, we didn't get Bron's best game thrown at us nor are we likely to see Smart provide that kind of offense or shooting again this series or JJ providing that much offense off the bench but there's a lot of things that could go the C's way that would just be an adjustment to the mean rather than them having to have a miracle to win.