CLEVELAND, May 12, (AP): Green uniforms. Big shots. Championship-level intensity.
The Boston Celtics looked much more like themselves in Game 3.
Jayson Tatum scored 33 points, Jaylen Brown added 28 and the No. 1-seeded Celtics bounced back from a stumble at home, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 106-93 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Celtics didn't mess around after dropping Game 2 on their home parquet floor by 24 on Thursday. They couldn't.

The lackluster performance - Boston was favored by double digits - in Game 2 was reminiscent of the first round, when the Celtics lost the second game against Miami before winning three in a row to eliminate the Heat.

Tatum scored on a three-point play and the Celtics opened the second half with 14 straight points to take a 23-point lead.
That was way too much for the Cavs, who overcame a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun Boston in March.

Luka Doncic already had a balky right knee and an achy left ankle when he fell hard on his back while battling his primary defender, Lu Dort, for a loose ball.

Not only did Doncic win the ensuing jump ball, the NBA scoring champion tracked down the loose ball that followed with his Dallas Mavericks clinging to a late lead.
"Everything,” Doncic said when asked what hurt, a few minutes after walking gingerly to the locker room with Dallas having beaten Oklahoma City 105-101 on Saturday to secure a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. "I'm just battling out there.”

The same could be said for plenty of others.
Kyrie Irving scored 22 points, including a running left-hander in the lane in the final minute to help the Mavs hold on.
Doncic also had 22 points to go with 15 rebounds, and P.J. Washington Jr. scored 27, just two shy of his playoff high from Dallas' Game 2 victory.