AUBURN HILLS, MICH.: Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy spent several minutes before Friday’s Game 3 lamenting how good Kyrie Irving has been shooting 3-pointers in this series.
“We have to adjust,” he said. Then they failed again.
Irving’s corner 3-pointer with 43 seconds left and the shot clock buzzing sent the Cavaliers to a 101-91 victory and a commanding 3-0 series lead. They can close out the series with a sweep Sunday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Irving scored 26 points and his corner 3 pushed the Cavs’ lead to 98-90, essentially ending any shot at a Pistons upset. He made three more 3-pointers, pushing his 3-point percentage to 52 percent in the series (12-of-23). The shot was terrific; the pass may have been even better.
Matthew Dellavedova fired the inbounds pass from one corner of the court to the other to find Irving. The Cavs had just seven-tenths on the shot clock when Dellavedova inbounded the ball, but Irving managed to catch and fire before the buzzer sounded.
Irving and LeBron James celebrated at half court before James threw his arm around Dellavedova for spotting him and making the difficult pass.
James had 20 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists despite shooting just 8-of-24 from the floor and Kevin Love had 20 points and 12 rebounds on a night the Cavs’ Big Three carried them yet again.
“It’s been the best I’ve seen them play, all three together,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “LeBron is just being LeBron. He’s trying to take the defensive challenge to hold Tobias [Harris] in check and hold [Marcus] Morris in check. Kyrie and Kevin [Love] have carried the load as far as scoring the basketball for us.”
Irving’s shot was just the Cavs’ second basket over the game’s last five minutes, which allowed the Pistons to hang around and nearly steal a playoff game at home.
A floater by Dellavedova put the Cavs ahead 87-78 in the fourth, but the Pistons scored the game’s next eight points. A jumper by Harris pulled the Pistons within 87-86 and sent the Cavs to the bench for a timeout. Irving’s 3-pointer coming out of the timeout cooled the Pistons’ momentum.
Irving has been terrific through the first three games after struggling badly with his shot during the regular season.
Lue said the Pistons challenged Irving to shoot in Game 1 by going under screens and leaving him an opening. Irving took it and hasn’t cooled down since.
“Now he can get in the paint, share the basketball or finish in the paint,” Lue said.
A series that has been dominated by trash talk and sharp elbows had a little more of it, but it didn’t dominate the game. Marcus Morris caught James hard on the head going for a block and center Andre Drummond caught James again with another elbow — they were the two culprits hammering James in Game 2 as well.
James capped the night with a block of Pistons guard Reggie Jackson on the game’s final play.
Jackson had 13 points and 12 assists and Drummond had 17 points and seven assists. Dellavedova had 12 points and five assists and Tristan Thompson had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Cavs.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.