Lady Luck And LeBron Brought It Home For The Cavs In Overtime Of Game 3

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This was the one Atlanta had. This was their chance to make this a series, and get some of their confidence back after going down 0-2 at home against a Cavs team missing Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. The LeBron Knicks whipped the Hawks at home during the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, but in an ugly, mistake-filled Game 3 that saw LeBron start 0-for-10 from the field and take 37 shots to score 37 points, the Cavs prevailed in overtime, 114-111.

It was largely because of LeBron. This didn’t matter, but he was feeling spritely enough to put Mike Muscala and a trailing Kent Bazemore on a poster:

He shot 1-for-6 from beyond the arc, continuing his atrocious three-point shooting this postseason (10-of-62 through Game 3’s clunkers), but that lone triple came with 36 seconds left and the Cavs down 109-111 in overtime. Despite LeBron’s struggles from deep, Paul Millsap still bit on his pump-fake before ‘Bron drilled the corner three:

That gave Cleveland a 112-111 lead, but James wasn’t done donning the cape down the stretch.

He banked in a runner with 12 seconds left to extend it to 114-111.

Still, Atlanta had a chance to tie in the final minutes. Shelvin Mack (5-for-10 overall, and 3-of-7 from deep), the controversial starter in place of the injured Kyle Korver, got a wide open corner three-pointer. That’s as large a gap you’ll see in the NBA Playoffs for those high-efficiency corner triplets. Alas, it was not to be.

LeBron was incredible, finishing with a game-high 37 points (14-of-37 from the floor, or 37.8 percent), a game-high 18 rebounds and a game-high 13 dimes to pass Jason Kidd for most career playoff triple-doubles while also passing Karl Malone for career playoff points. It was a herculean effort by James even though the Cavs have actually been better when he sits (they were -3 with him on the court last night in the win).

But James was the difference as was the luck of Mack’s miss from the corner. The Cavs are up 3-0 and look to end things in the East on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. EST. They have a date with destiny if Stephen Curry and the Dubs can close out their own 3-0 series lead over Houston tonight.

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