Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Cleveland Cavaliers, fueled by 35 points from Donovan Mitchell and a bravura finish from James Harden, grabbed a crucial 116-109 game-three victory over the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals on Saturday. The Cavs, who dropped the first two games in Detroit, remained unbeaten at home in these playoffs, including a seven-game first-round series against Toronto in which the host team won every game. More importantly, they avoided falling into a 3-0 hole — a deficit no NBA team has erased to win a playoff series.
Mitchell added 10 rebounds and four assists. Harden, a three-time NBA scoring champion who came in for criticism after lackluster shooting performances in games one and two, scored nine of his 19 points in a tight fourth quarter. His run of seven straight points late in the fourth included a dagger trey that pushed Cleveland’s lead to four with 25.9 seconds left. “Whatever this team needs me to do, I’m going to go out there and do it,” the bearded 36-year-old said. “Fourth quarter, my number was called and I go to work.”
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The Cavs withstood a 27-point triple-double from Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, who added 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Trailing by as many as seven in the first quarter, the Cavaliers seized control in the second behind a clinical display from Mitchell, who electrified the Rocket Arena crowd when he wrong-footed Duncan Robinson and buried a step-back three, then fed Jarrett Allen for a dunk. Cleveland led 64-48 at halftime and pushed the lead to 17 early in the third before the Pistons clawed back, putting together a 12-0 scoring run to edge in front before the Cavs answered with a 9-0 run of their own.
The back-and-forth battle saw the Cavs up 83-81 heading into the final frame, the top-seeded Pistons briefly edging ahead with less than four minutes to play before Cleveland responded again. “They made a run (when we were) up 17. We’ve seen it before,” Harden said. “Stay composed and win the game, and that’s what we did.”
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are also trying to climb out of a 2-0 hole when they host the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in game three of their Western Conference series later Saturday. The Lakers, still without injured league-leading scorer Luka Doncic, lost the first two games in Oklahoma City by 18 points apiece, the Thunder’s depth proving decisive. The Thunder, who topped the West with the best regular-season record in the league, will aim to extend their dominance over the Lakers, who also lost all four regular-season matchups.
© 2024 AFP
