NBA playoff scores 2017: Celtics-Cavaliers Game 3 was finally a close, incredible game

WE HAD A CLOSE GAME AHHHHH GOOD JOB EVERYONE.

I’m so used to 154-point blowouts and games that are over four minutes into the first quarter that I forgot what I’m supposed to write so instead I’m just going to break every conventionality that my journalism professors taught me and instead lead this post with a sentence in all caps and follow it up with a ridiculous run-on sentence that’s giving me a heart attack to actually write but still feels necessary because we actually had a wonderful NBA game last night and it was a blessing for all of us.

Whew.

Boston is a weird, gritty team — ugh, I know it’s cliched to call them gritty, but I also can’t — that always seems to do weird, unexpected things like this. The Celtics are good at winning games: this season, advanced stats had them overachieving their expected win-loss record by five wins. Brad Stevens is a huge part of that, and it was his out-of-bounds play that freed up Bradley for the game-winning dagger.

Basketball in non-blowout form is the best damn sport on the planet. Let’s have more games like this.

Front rim, back rim, then a bounce straight up in the air, nearly to the top of the backboard. One bounce straight back down onto the rim’s heel, then a slight one-two tap on the front of the rim as the ball dropped through the net.

That’s the path Avery Bradley’s game-winning three-pointer took as it knocked off the Cavaliers in Game 3 in a 111-108 thriller. Just like that, Cleveland’s attempt at advancing to the finals undefeated has been shot, and we now move onto a Game 4 with actual stakes.

Boston couldn’t have won without an enormous effort, something it did even as star Isaiah Thomas is out for the postseason with a hip injury, and even though the team trailed by 21 points in the first half. Game 3 was perhaps the most compelling example of the make-or-miss league that people call the NBA.

Read more right here.

Marcus Smart is a bad three-point shooter. He was a bad three-point shooter at Oklahoma State, where he never eclipsed 30 percent in either of his two seasons. He’s been bad in his three seasons with the Celtics, where his 29.1 percent career number is just decimal points away from what it was at OSU.

And yet! Here was Marcus Smart on Sunday night, launching up 10 triples and knocking down seven of them in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers. Smart also got fouled on a three-pointer with 1:19 to play, and the two (of three) foul shots he made after that turned out to be critical. Smart scored 27 points to lead Boston to a stunning comeback win, sealed at the buzzer by Avery Bradley. Almost all of those came via the three, and all of those makes came from 23 to 25 feet out.

Read more from Alex “Kirshgawd” Kirshner here on Smart’s stunning shooting display.

LeBron James, who has spent this postseason obliterating his opponents and forcefully reminding them he’s the best player in the league, finally had a bad game. Understandably, the Cavaliers lost.

It happened on a final shot from Avery Bradley that received all sorts of luck to drop into the basket, and it certainly doesn’t change anyone’s outlook on this series. The Cavaliers are clearly still the favorites, and most people would still probably pick them in five games.

However, James scoring just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting with six rebounds, six assists, and six turnovers is such an average, bland performance from him that it’s shocking. It’s not even so much a criticism as a reflection on how damn good the rest of his postseason has been — he came into this game averaging 34.3 points on 57 percent shooting with 8.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists.

I don’t really have a good reason for this, but James’ absence from being his normal self was clearly noticeable in the second half as Boston surged back. Read more on his struggles here.

Avery Bradley with the shot, boi.

Celtics 111, Cavaliers 108 (Celtics Blog recap | Fear the Sword recap)