Struggles on road continue for Celtics

With Rondo struggling to make correct decisions, the Celtics' offense was disorganized and stodgy. They took turns forcing shots, over-passing and missing layups (nine of these). Overall, they played as though they hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before, were grossly overconfident and/or were convinced that they didn't have to win on the road to win the series. As a result, the Celtics embarrassed themselves (again!) and gave NBA-watchers another reason to doubt that they have the will-power, focus and resourcefulness to truly be a championship team.

Of course, the Celts' poor showing was profoundly affected by the Cavs' superb effort. For example:

LeBron James didn't have his best shooting performance in Game 3, but he got the rest of his teammates involved to help cut the Celtics' series lead to 2-1. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / Getty Images)

Although on occasion he did move well without the ball (setting screens, cutting along the baseline, then curling around a down-screen on the weak-side), he had too many possessions where he simply over-handled the ball without gaining any ground. In fact, on two of his most sticky-fingered sequences, the Cavs wound up with 24-second violations. His pass-work, however, was admirable, proving once more that his court-vision and ability to deliver the ball remains unsurpassed.

James made a pair of stunning blocks on breakaway layups by Rondo and also plucked the ball from the clutches of several careless Celtics. But there were several flaws in his defense as well.

The Celtics focused on involving James in high screen-and-rolls when he was covering Pierce. Cleveland's counter to this strategy was generally to switch defensive assignments, but James mostly got lost after the switch occurred and wound up passively trailing the action.

In addition, LeBron was constantly beaten by Pierce on right-to-left cross-overs but was usually bailed out by some timely rotations by his big men. James still has the habit of turning his head to watch the ball. On one play, he took a look at Cassell operating in the low-post and lost touch with Posey, who moved into a spot where Sam-He-Isn't-Anymore could spot him, received the out-pass — and then buried a triple.

The Cavs shot extremely well against Boston's lackadaisical defense with 53.6-percent clip. They also moved the ball in-and-out as well as side-to-side with quickness, precision and total unselfishness. Just compare the Cavs' 29 assists on their 37 field goals to the Celtics' 18 on 30.

Depending upon who had possession, the Cavs also attacked the ball on defense — crowding Ray Allen at every turn, walling off the basket when Pierce dribbled around James, smothering Rondo when the young man fruitlessly tried to find an opening in the shadow of the basket and making Garnett turn away from the basket and profusely sweat to uncork each and every shot.