LeBron puts Cavs a win away from final
DODGY CALL: Horford ejection costs Hawks in OT loss
CLEVELAND — In the history of overreactions — at least overreactions by a professional league — this one is right up there among the worst.
With 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final, replay officials in New York decided Al Horford deserving of a Flagrant 2 foul as he came down on top of Cavs guard Matthew Dellavedova with an elbow that resulted in Horford’s immediate ejection.
At the time, the Hawks were leading 48-47 in a game they would go on to lose by just three in overtime.
The 114-111 final gives the Cavs a 3-0 lock on the series with Game 4 Tuesday night in Cleveland.
The difference in the overtime wound up being a LeBron James three-pointer from the corner, his only make from distance all night giving the hosts a one-point lead with 36.4 seconds remaining.
The Hawks went down and after a missed layup wound up deflecting the ball out of bounds. Cleveland extended the lead as James made it a three-point game with a strong drive and finish off glass.
Shelvin Mack had a wide-open three to tie it at the buzzer and force a second overtime, but couldn’t convert.
Credit the Hawks for staying in this one, but with the earlier ejection, common sense was clearly not used in this instance and the Hawks have every right to be upset with the way this went down.
The @NBAOfficial twitter feed explained the Horford ruling as follows:
“Horford threw an unnecessary and excessive forearm/elbow to Dellavedova, making contact above the shoulders, therefore a Flagrant 2 foul was called on Horford.”
Dellavadova also received a technical, which the league did not explain. He appeared to hook Horford’s arm, bringing both players down while he rolled up on Horford’s legs. At that, Horford came down with an elbow that connected at about Dellavedova’s collar bone.
This is the same Dellavedova that rolled up on Kyle Korver’s leg in Game 2, knocking him out of the series with a high ankle sprain. It’s also the same Dellavedova that put a scissorlock on Taj Gibson’s leg in Round 2 and when Gibson tried to kick his leg free he was the one who got ejected.
Horford, on the other hand, has two career flagrants over eight seasons and just one ejection.
As good as Horford was playing at the time — he had 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting — the ejection may not have changed the outcome but no one can know that.
A more reasonable response would have been a Flagrant 1 for Horford and the technical for Dellavedova, letting all involved remain in the game.
The Cavs are now looking at a potential sweep, but it’s at least a little tainted.
For the entirety of the first half the Hawks held the advantage thanks in large part to an uncharacteristic awful start from LeBron James, who has flat-out owned this series in the early going. James was 0-for-10 to start the game, not getting on the board until 3:55 into the second quarter, when he went to the line and finally scored a point.
By the time the game hit the midway part of the third quarter, James already had a triple double.
He wound up with 37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists for his most well-rounded game of the series. “Just unbelievable,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said. “I’ve never seen a stat line like that. He just wouldn’t let us lose. He would not let us lose. Just amazing.”
Blatt went on to say James was battling cramping problems all game and wouldn’t let himself be taken out of the game.
Without Horford for the second half, the Hawks went to Mike Muscala, but the scoring load fell to Paul Millsap and point guard Jeff Teague, the only two Hawks starters still at least close to full strength.
Outside of James’ third-consecutive monster game, the Cavs got 17 points out of Dellavedova, 17 from J.R. Smith and 15 from Iman Shumpert.
Millsap, who only had six points in the first half wound up with 22 while Jeff Teague rebounded from a rough Game 2 with a Hawks high 30.