In Thursday night’s Game 3 matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, NBA fans witnessed one of the greatest come-from-behind victories in postseason history.
Down 25 points at halftime inside a hostile Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Cavs were in trouble.
Slowly but surely, the Cavs began cutting into Indiana’s big lead in the second half. In large part, Cleveland’s comeback effort was led by LeBron James, who recorded 41 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists, two blocks, and one steal in Thursday night’s game. However, the Cavaliers also received a big spark from their bench players.
Keen-eyed Cavs fans may have noticed that head coach Tyronn Lue elected to keep several of his reserves on the floor with James during the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s game — a decision most coaches would have made. Sticking with what works is common knowledge.
Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert, Kyle Korver, Deron Williams, and James — The King. That was the lineup really hurting the Pacers down the stretch. Prior to Thursday night’s game, that particular five-man team had played together for all of nine minutes. In just over 10 minutes together in Game 3, the five-man come-back crew scored 28 points (9-of-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from three-point land).
During his post-game media availability, James spoke highly of the effort given by his teammates.
Via Chris Fedor of cleveland.com:
“We haven’t been able to get a full dosage of what we can become,” James said following the 119-114 comeback win. “Our bench definitely got the game ball. Channing, Shump, D-Will, Kyle, those guys came in and gave us huge minutes. We needed everything from them.”
If the Cavaliers can get solid production from their bench players on a consistent basis, opposing sides will simply have too many threats to defend — a fact Channing Frye touched on after Game 3.
“That second unit, we kind of showcase ‘Bron (LeBron) and what he does,” Frye said. “He’s basically the best rolling to the basket passer in the league right now. For us when you have Kyle (Korver), myself, Deron (Williams) is also a great assist guy and Shump (Shumpert) who’s a great spot-up shooter and a great defender, it makes it kind of difficult. I think you saw a lot of layups where nobody was even near the paint. You’ve got to pick your poison.”