LeBron James had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Kyrie Irving made a pair of big 3-pointers down the stretch to help the Cleveland Cavaliers move within a game of a first-round sweep with a 101-91 victory over the Detroit Pistons Friday night. Irving scored 26 points for Cleveland, which overcame a gritty effort by the Pistons in Detroit's first home playoff game since 2009. Andre Drummond scored 17 points for the Pistons, but Detroit fell behind toward the end of the third quarter, and a late rally came up short. The Cavs lead the series 3-0, with Game 4 coming up Sunday night. The Pistons have now lost 11 straight playoff games against Cleveland, and they've lost nine in a row overall in the postseason. Celtics 111, Hawks 103: Isaiah Thomas scored a career-high 42 points, and Boston held on to beat Atlanta in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series. Evan Turner, inserted into the starting lineup, had 17 points and seven assists. Amir Johnson added 15 points and seven rebounds as the Celtics closed to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Playing by far their best first half of the series, Boston led by as many as 20 points before seeing that mostly erased by a 12-0 run by the Hawks in the third quarter. The Celtics then survived a frenetic fourth quarter that featured three ties and a pair of lead changes, finally getting separation with five straight points for a 104-98 lead. Jeff Teague had 23 points for Atlanta. Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schroder each finished with 20. Game 4 is Sunday in Boston. Spurs 96, Grizzlies 87: Kawhi Leonard scored 32 points, and San Antonio beat Memphis to take a 3-0 lead in their Western Conference first-round series. The Spurs are a win away from their ninth postseason series sweep and third against Memphis. They finished the game on a 13-6 run in the final 3:41, and Leonard, the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, scored 13 points in the quarter as he shot 11 of 22 for the game and 6 of 9 from 3-point range. LaMarcus Aldridge added 16 points and 10 rebounds. Danny Green and Manu Ginobili each added 11 points for San Antonio. Zach Randolph led Memphis with 20 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-21 shooting. Matt Barnes added 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Vince Carter had 11 and JaMychal Green was 5 of 5 for 10 points. "Game 3 is always huge (in a playoff series) and they knew it," Ginobili said. "They were aggressive. They went to the boards."
