Boston at Cleveland

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a gut check in Game 3, squandering a 21-point third quarter lead against the Celtics to leave the series at 2-1 in their favor. LeBron James had an outlier playoff game, as he contributed zero points, zero rebounds, and just one assist in the last 16 minutes. That has never happened before, and truthfully it will likely never happen again. Boston has made a habit of falling behind by huge margins, not able to recover in both this series, and the series before this one, so Game 3 was also an outlier for Boston. The optics of this series has been LeBron getting in the lane and scoring at will, but for some reason he did not do it in Game 3. I expect that to change in a significant way tonight. Boston remains without Isaiah Thomas, and have had no way of stopping Tristan Thompson getting to the glass on the offensive end. I'm sure whatever focus that was lost by the Cleveland in Game 3 will keep them alert at home in Game 4. Boston has trailed in the playoffs by 19 points or more in six of their contests, and a focused Cleveland team has already shown what they can do against this team. Lay the points and take Cleveland.