CLEVELAND — While the Cavaliers were crisp in their execution throughout Game 2, that wasn’t the case as the series shifted to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The Celtics were the better team throughout Game 3 even though the Cavs got a big night from Donovan Mitchell.
While the Cavs kept pace with the Celtics throughout the first half, Boston broke the game open by going on a 14-0 run out of halftime. The C’s built up a 23-point lead, and while they saw that lead slimmed down to nine at multiple instances, they never let the Cavs generate a serious comeback attempt. The Celtics took the 2-1 series lead after the Game 3 victory.
Postgame, when asked if the Game 3 loss was more bothersome than other playoff losses, Mitchell agreed with that sentiment.
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“Yeah, I think because a lot of it was self-induced,” Mitchell said. “I think a lot of things we did wrong. You give them credit, they played the way they have been. I think we did a bunch of things — there were a bunch of things we could’ve done better. … Defensively, we held them to 106. It felt crazy in the moment because of those spurts.”
Mitchell poured in 33 points on 12-for-22 shooting, including a 7-for-12 mark from 3-point land. Evan Mobley added another 17 points and eight rebounds as the big man has impressed this series. But the Cavs didn’t get enough production from the rest of their roster as they lost their first home playoff game this season.
The Cavs do have an important chance to bounce back in the form of Game 4, set for 7 p.m. in Cleveland. But unless the Cavs can clean up some of those mistakes Mitchell mentioned, they could quickly be looking at an elimination game coming up.
“It’s the key moments of when they get those points, the runs they get and them not being able to score back on the other end,” Mitchell said. “It just compounds and compounds. I think that’s what’s the frustrating part of it. But it happens. But we gotta figure it out and get ready for Monday.”
