The Cleveland Cavaliers have a 2-1 lead over the Boston Celtics after a miraculous comeback from 21-points fueled the C's to an 111-108 win. The Cavaliers suffered their first loss in this year's playoffs and it was at the most inopportune time. The Golden State Warriors just wrapped up their series against the San Antonio Spurs Monday, sweeping them in convincing fashion 4-0. The Warriors will now have Time To Rest until The Finals. The Cavs will have to play at least two more games, and they need to play with some urgency and get their Eastern Conference Finals series over with.
They can't afford to play more games which might result in a key player getting hurt.
Get it over with
The Cavs let game three slip away from them as they had a huge lead. They allowed the Celtics to come back and now they are looking for a 3-1 lead, not a possible sweep of the series if they won game three. Many fans of the NBA playoffs were excited to see a team win against the Cavs and make the series interesting, but the Cavs need to go back to domination basketball and get this series over with. It might not be the type pf basketball the fans want to see, but it's the kind of basketball the Cavs need play. The are losing precious days of rest for every game they have to prepare for and play.
The Warriors have a little over a week to rest before they take the court to play the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavs have to win Tuesday and win on Thursday in order to give themselves exactly a week of rest before taking the court. Days of rest are crucial in the playoffs, as time off could give players time to heal and give players who play big minutes (like LeBron James) time to rest their bodies.
The Cavs didn't help themselves by losing game three, and the might pay for it in The Finals by not having enough days rest. The Cavs might not admit it, but they are in competition with the Warriors for everything, including the number of rest days the have.
Play better next time
As great as LeBron James has been playing in the NBA Playoffs, he laid an egg in game three and the Cavs suffered because of it.
James scored only 11 points and shot an awful 4-13 shooting. He was shooting the ball really well up until game three, but he must've ran into a wall or the Celtics changed up their defensive strategy. James didn't play up to par in game three and he needs to play much better and with more urgency, if he wants to maximize the days of rest between now and The beginning of The Finals. James has the highest minute total in the playoffs and the days of rest have been crucial to his ability to keep his hot streak going. If James wants to have the best opportunity to win against the Warriors, his amount of rest will be a big factor.
The fans of Cleveland shouldn't be worried about competitive basketball in the playoffs.
They need to see the Cavs dispose of the Celtics in these next two games and getting as much rest as they can. The Cavs are in a race with time, as their counterpart is already done with their series and enjoying the rest they earned. The Cavs missed an opportunity in game three, and now it might come back to haunt them
