Inconsistent Cavs show their good side in Game 3 blowout

CLEVELAND - After a 30-point loss to Cleveland on Saturday, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens gave full credit to the Cavaliers for their most complete performance of the series.

"They were great," Stevens said. "We were not the harder-playing, more-connected team."

The connectedness of the Cavaliers has been the central theme of this season, during which the roster went through significant turnover both at the start of the year and at the trade deadline It's often felt like LeBron James and everyone else, and on a night-to-night basis, it's been unclear who else on the Cavaliers' roster is ready to join James and rise to the occasion.

It was most evident during Tuesday's Game 2 loss in Boston, when James had 42 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists, but the Cavaliers still lost by 13 points to fall behind 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals.

"I think the biggest thing is we can’t get frustrated when things don't go the way we want them to," Kyle Korver said at practice on Thursday. "It's been a challenge for us all year … The standard is just really high here. The bar is set really high, going to The Finals a bunch of years in a row."

Cleveland’s inconsistency defined it during the regular season, and a trade-deadline roster makeover meant there was very little continuity heading into the playoffs, which has been a roller-coaster ride so far.

In the first round, the Cavs were outscored by 40 points over seven games by the Indiana Pacers. Cleveland followed that uninspiring performance by sweeping the Toronto Raptors and outscoring them by 56 points over four games. However, just when it appeared the Cavs had turned a corner, they lost the first two games against Boston by a combined 38 points.

When the Cavs have won, it's usually been by the slimmest of margins and thanks to James' brilliance. When the supporting cast hasn't shown up, it's been ugly. Saturday’s win was just the third time the Cavaliers have won by double digits in the postseason. Their other six victories have been by a combined 17 points.

Saturday's game saw the return of the good Cavaliers. George Hill had 11 points in the first quarter after scoring just eight combined in the first two games. J.R. Smith, who was 2-for-16 from the field and 0-for-7 from beyond the arc in Boston, made three of his four 3-pointers, celebrating each one with exhilaration and relief.

Five Cavs players made at least three 3-pointers. Six players scored in double digits. Cleveland raced out to a 20-4 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, Cleveland was 2-for-15 on uncontested 3-pointers in the first two games of this series. Back on their home court Saturday, the Cavaliers made their open shots, finishing 17-for-34 from beyond the arc.

It was the perfect balance in a game where James dictated the offense as a facilitator, finishing with 12 assists along with 27 points on 12 shots. "If you look at any box score throughout the postseason or throughout the regular season," James said, "if you're able to get four, five, six guys in double figures, most of the time that team is going to win … Obviously every game doesn’t work out that way."

The Cavaliers are three wins away from a fourth consecutive Finals appearance, but they've yet to exhibit any consistency throughout the 82-game schedule or during the playoffs. They’re a different team from night to night, which makes Saturday’s result hard to assess.

Their playoff success can be boiled down to several key factors, like their 3-point shooting and how well they take care of the ball on the offensive end. Heading into Saturday, the Cavs had shot 37.9 percent from three in their postseason wins, and averaged 10.5 turnovers in those games. In their losses, they've shot only 27.3 percent from three while averaging 14.8 turnovers.

"We can sit up here and say why doesn't it happen like that every game," James said after Saturday's victory. "But it's just not how the game works every game. But tonight was good ingredients of that for us to be able to get everybody involved."

The Cavs will need to carry their Game 3 performance into Monday’s Game 4 in order to even the series and avoid the possibility of a 3-1 deficit with two of the next three games in Boston. They'll need Hill, Smith, Korver, and Kevin Love to continue to make shots. They'll need contributions from players like Larry Nance Jr., who played 21 minutes on Saturday and brought energy on both ends of the floor, finishing a perfect 4-for-4 from the field with six rebounds and three steals.

After the game, Tyronn Lue spoke like a head coach who was still weary of another downturn ahead, preaching the importance of ending quarters right, and starting the second half by not giving momentum to the other team. From game to game, the Cavaliers have been entirely unpredictable.

On a night like this, the Cavaliers made their blueprint for success look easy on the court. Now, they need a consistent effort for the rest of this series, even if nothing from this season indicates they'll be able to do so.

Asked after Saturday’s win why the physicality, the energy level, and the extra passes that make the Cavaliers so successful don't show up on a nightly basis, James didn't even bother offering an explanation.

"I don’t know," he said.

"I don’t know either," Love added.