NBA playoffs 2015: Cavaliers nip Hawks in overtime to take 3-0 series lead

Was it intentional? Perhaps we’ll never really know, but the referees ruled it as such and ejected Horford. Here was their explanation:

His sister was not impressed.

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SB Nation presents: Simple rules for playing against LeBron

Poor guy just had a bad day at the office. It happens, but the timing was ugly.

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Now Cleveland will have a chance to go for the sweep when the two teams meet again for Game 4 at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in an NBA playoff series, but the Hawks will try to be the first.

Here are three things we learned from the Cavaliers’ exciting win:

Cavaliers trainers had been massaging James’ knee earlier in the game. He finished the game with 37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists.

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Look at the poise. The precision. It’s not easy to get up on two legs and beg like that while being on a moving platform. The dude is pretty impressive too, I guess.

The Cavaliers sustained another injury before Game 3 began, and no we’re not talking about Kyrie Irving. Tristan Thompson decided to throw it down on Timofey Mozgov, but Mozgov’s nose ended up being the worse for wear.

Save it for the Hawks, fellas!

Korver has been at the heart of Atlanta’s inefficiencies. He was only shooting 39 percent from the floor and 36 percent on three-pointers in the playoffs after posting 49 percent for both during the regular season. Despite his struggles, his absence is a huge hit for the Hawks -- when he was on the court in the playoffs, the Hawks’ outscored opponents by 60 points; when he was off the court, they were outscored by 30. His dead-eye marksmanship was one of the Hawks’ biggest offensive weapons and with that taken away, Atlanta just can’t score enough points to keep up with the Cavaliers.

If the Hawks can get the ball moving fluidly and hit their open shots on Sunday, perhaps they can take a game in Cleveland and head back to Atlanta for Game 5.

Game 3 between the Hawks and Cavaliers is set for Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET.