Cavs Fall 111-108 in Game 3; Six Takeaways from the Loss

3. Stevens’ Play Calling

Stevens’ play calling was referred to numerous times in the post-game press conferences.

“I think it was the play call by Brad Stevens,” Bradley said when asked about his last second shot.

“He did a great job of putting us in the right position, forcing them to help and not be able to switch.”

Stevens had his team run a loop action that caused confusion for the Cavs defensively on that final play. As a result, no switch occurred, (which is what Lue wanted) and after Tristan Thompson got pinned by Al Horford, Bradley had a relatively easy shot.

Avery Bradley on that last play. Says it was great playcalling by Stevens. pic.twitter.com/7rDVLSuTe9

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) May 22, 2017

Stevens is also notorious for his difficult to predict out of bounds plays. The Cavs struggled immensely tonight with that aspect of the game plan, considering Boston got seven points from after timeout plays in the final minutes of Game 3.

“[Stevens] has so many different wrinkles, misdirection, thinking the ball is going this way, he has a misdirection going the other way,” James said when asked about the Celtics’ ATOs.

“You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel. He has a lot of packages. So you can plan for a few, but then he might run something you’ve never seen before.”

James on facing Brad Stevens out of bounds plays pic.twitter.com/CFdi6v75u7

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) May 22, 2017

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