More than hour after his first NBA play-off game with LeBron James and Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving made a statement more profound than anything he did on the floor.
“We,” Irving said, “are the Big 3. We have really great players on this team, but we set the tone.”
Tone set.
Irving scored 30 points in his play-off debut, James added 20 in his first post-season game with Cleveland in five years and Love shook off a slow start to record a double-double, leading the Cavaliers to a 113-100 victory in Game 1 over the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
Irving made five three-pointers and Love, another post-season rookie, added 19 points – 13 in the second half – and 12 rebounds
James was proud of how his teammates handled their first venture onto the play-off stage.
“They were phenomenal,” he said. “Those two guys, they succeeded for the first time being in the post-season.”
It was Cleveland’s first home play-off game since May 11, 2010, when the Celtics won Game 5 and James left the floor to some boos from Cavaliers fans. He departed for Miami two months later, but he’s home now, all is forgiven and Cleveland are aiming to end a championship drought dating to 1964.
Isaiah Thomas scored 22 points to lead the seventh-seeded Celtics. They will try to even the best-of-7 series in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
“We’re still confident,” Thomas said. “Guys are ready for Game 2, knowing that good or bad you’ve got to have a short memory. There are possibly seven games in this series and it could go either way.”
The Cavs built a 20-point lead in the third quarter, let the Celtics get as close as six and then finished the quarter with a 9-0 run – capped a three-pointer by James Jones – to take a 15-point lead into the fourth. Boston climbed within 10 in the final 12 minutes, but Love made a crucial three-pointer with 3:32 left to slow Boston.
In the days leading up to the opener, James said he was confident Irving and Love would be ready for the play-offs, but added “you never know,” perhaps the superstar’s way of motivating his teammates. Irving and Love looked like play-off veterans as Cleveland’s “Big 3” combined for 69 points.
Irving said four days of preparation helped the Cavs get ready, and while he and Love didn’t say they were nervous, they both seemed relieved to have the opener behind them.
“I’m just glad I got Game 1 out of the way,” Irving said.
Love started slowly, shooting 2-of-11 in the first half. But he was assertive in the third quarter, and James liked what he saw in a player whose game has been scrutinised all season.
“Even with Kev’s shot not falling early, I felt like just the rhythm he was in, the aggressive he was in will pay off for us later,” James said.
James came in with more play-off experience – 158 games – than Boston’s entire roster, an inequality that seemed to favour the Cavaliers. However, the young Celtics weren’t overwhelmed on the bigger stage or intimidated by Cleveland’s towel-waving fans sporting T-shirts that said, “All In,” the team’s post-season slogan.
Boston led by eight in the first quarter, but got careless with the ball and finished with 14 turnovers – 13 after the first quarter.
“We’ll learn from it and improve from it,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “Very simple. I don’t want to overdo it. This is a long series.”
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Hawks survived their first test as the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
They were just good enough against the Brooklyn Nets.
Leading nearly the entire game but struggling to put the No 8 seed away, the Hawks got 21 points from Kyle Korver and shook off another injury to beat Brooklyn 99-92 in Game 1.
All-star centre Al Horford dislocated his right pinkie finger going for a rebound early in the fourth quarter. X-rays were negative and he finished the game with his shooting hand heavily taped, giving Atlanta another concern on top of forward Paul Millsap, who looked out of sorts after missing five games late in the season with a sprained right shoulder. He managed just six points on 2-of-11 shooting.
“It’s going to be tough to just blow teams out,” Millsap said. “It’s the play-offs. You expect them to hang in there and fight hard.”
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Atlanta before the series shifts to Brooklyn.
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