Cavaliers, Celtics Game 3 Instant Reaction: Takeaways From Cleveland's 106-93 Loss

The loss was the first for the Cavs on their home floor during the playoffs.

May 11, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) dunks against the / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

With the series tied at a game a piece, the Cavaliers returned to the friendly confines of Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for Game 3 looking to feed off an electric home crowd.

Led by Donovan Mitchell, who posted 33 points, and another strong outing from Evan Mobley, the Celtics proved to be too much for the Cavaliers in a 106-93 loss. It was Cleveland's first loss at home during the playoffs.

With Boston now leading the series 2 games to 1, here are 5 takeaways from the Cavs Game 3 loss:

1) The Return Of Dean

It's been two months since Dean Wade has been able to suit up for the Cavaliers, as he dealt with a knee strain. He made his long-awaited return to the floor in Game 3 and received a warm greeting from the Cleveland faithful. Ironically one of the last games he played in was against the Celtics back on March 8, on a night where he led a miraculous comeback by dropped 20 points in the fourth quarter.

With the Celtics in town for his return, Wade was quick to get involved, knocking down a three about 30 seconds after being subbed into the game, which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Wade played 16 minutes in his return and finished with five points, three assists and three boards.

2) Getting Involved Early

There was a clear point of emphasis on getting Evan Mobley involved early to build up his confidence. It led to him producing the best playoff performance of his young career with 21 points 10 rebounds and two blocks.

Getting Mobley involved early was once again a point of emphasis for Cleveland in Game 3 as Mobley found himself involved in a lot of the offensive actions from the jump. He finished the opening stanza with seven points. Went to the break with 11. When the night was over he had 17 and eight boards. It's safe to say these last two games have been two of the best individual outings of Mobley's career, playoff or regular season.

YEA EV.@evanmobley | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/sRVofS9z4K

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 12, 2024

3) Streaky Shooters

After a 21-point night in Boston on Thursday, Caris LeVert got off to a rough start in Game 3 –going 0-for4 int he first half. He turned it around in the second half to finish with 15, shooting 50% from the floor but it was a microcosm of the streakiness that's always been part of LeVert's game.

Meanwhile, Isaac Okoro who had put together back-to-back solid outings in Boston had his worst performance of the series, shooting 1-of-7 from the floor and 0-fo-4 from three. Max Strus was an equally disappointing 2-for-8. Game 2 was the first time all the Cavs role players seemed to all find their shot at the same time in these playoffs. Game 3 was back to reality for this inconsistent group.

4) Ice Cold

A game that was very back-and-forth in the first half really flipped in Boston's favor coming out of the half when Boston went on a 14-0 run to open up the third quarter and quickly turned a nine point lead going into the break, into a 23 point lead, 71-48.

Cleveland couldn't buy a bucket over the first three and a half minutes of the stanza, missing their first six shots. Finally, Mitchell stopped the bleeding with a layup around the 8:30 mark. It was too little too late though. Despite finishing out-scoring Boston 21-13 to end the quarter, the Cavs had simply created too big of a deficit to climb out of. They got it to nine a couple times the rest of the way but could never quite get closer.

5) Trying Something New

With Wade back in the rotation, head coach J.B, Bickerstaff tried a few new look lineups in the loss. One lineup late in the third quarter featured Mitchell, Sam Merrill, Wade, Max Strus and LeVert. An evolved version of that lineup swapped Mobley for Wade and Garland for Strus, while Merrill and LeVert stayed on the floor. The objective was clearly to create more space on the offensive end and it saw some moderate success. It's a wrinkle Bickerstaff has in his back pocket for Game 4.