Kyrie Irving beat the shot clock and broke the hearts of the Detroit Pistons.
Irving scored 26 points, including a key triple with 45 seconds remaining, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Pistons 101-91 on Friday to grab a commanding 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference opening round playoff series.   
“Kyrie is a great point guard but more than that he’s a great player,” said teammate LeBron James. “He knows how to play the game and make big shots. Obviously, the big shot was with .7 on the clock.”  
James finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds while Kevin Love also had 20 with 12 boards for the Cavaliers, who hit 12-of-29 triples and controlled the boards 46-32 en route to their 11 consecutive playoff victory against the Pistons.
“Right now we’re in a great flow,” James said of Irving, Love and himself. “We understand what we all want individually and what will help the team.”
The top-seeded Cavs complete a 4-0 sweep of the eighth-seeds in Sunday’s game 4 in Detroit. “My focus now is on Sunday and how I can prepare these guys to close those guys out,” James said. “A Stan Van Gundy (coached) team never quits.”  
The Cavs led 95-90 on a J.R. Smith 3-pointer with 3:30 remaining. Out of a timeout, heady Matthew Dellavedova found Irving in the right corner for a quick release 3-point dagger with .7 seconds left on the shot clock to open up an eight point advantage.  
“It was a great play drawn by T-Lue (coach Tyronn Lue) in time in the moment,” said Irving, who shot 11-of-20 and 3-of-6 from behind the arc. “With .7 and you have the talent, execution is all that matters.  “Whoever gets the shot we just want him to shoot it confidently and we all believe in it. Luckily, I got the shot off and it went in.”  
Dellavedova tacked on two free throws and aside from a meaningless foul shot by Aron Baynes with 22 seconds left, the Pistons went scoreless for the final 3:56. “We didn’t do what we were supposed to do, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We went to the plays we always go with, we just didn’t do a good job.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 18 points, Andre Drummond added 17 while Reggie Jackson finished with 13 and 12 assists for the Pistons, who are making their first playoff appearance in seven years.
“We fought hard down the stretch. We made mistakes and it came back to bite us,” Drummond said. “They’re a veteran team and when it comes to crunch time they’re going to make the right play.”
Detroit will be looking to avoid an early exit on Sunday. No team has ever rallied to win a series after trailing 0-3. “We’re down 0-3 but someone has to be the team that comes back from it, so why not us?” Jackson said.
“We’ve been in every game. We’re confident and have to continue to play the same way, figure out a way to put it together for a whole 48 (minutes) and take those five-minute windows out where when they’re better than us.”
Elsewhere:
•Boston Celtics 111, Atlanta Hwks 103: Isaiah Thomas exploded for a career-high 42 points and the Celtics escaped the visiting Hawks to pull within 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round series. Thomas’ total was the most for a Celtics player in the post-season since Rajon Rondo went off for 44 in 2012. Boston blew a 20-point third-quarter cushion and was knotted at 96-apiece with 6:50 left before Thomas scored 10 points in a game-ending 16-7 run. Evan Turner had 17 points and Amir Johnson added 15 for the fifth-seeded Celtics, who gave coach Brad Stevens his first playoff win. Jeff Teague had 23 points for the fourth-seeded Hawks, while Kent Bazemore and Germany’s Dennis Schroder added 20 apiece.
Game 4 is Sunday in Boston.
•San Antonio Spurs 96, Memphis Grizzlies 87: Kawhi Leonard tossed in 13 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and the visiting Spurs pulled away from the injury-depleted Grizzlies to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their Western Conference opening round series. Second-seeded San Antonio can complete a 4-0 sweep Sunday in Memphis. Zach Randolph had 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Matt Barnes added 17 with 11 boards for the seventh-seeded Grizzlies, who were outscored 26-16 in the decisive fourth quarter.
PLAYOFF RESULTS