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NBA Finals

After his dominance gets overshadowed, LeBron James dismisses Matthew Dellavedova's 'bad rap'

Jeff Zillgitt
USA TODAY Sports
LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers gets up from the court as Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson look on in the third quarter against the Atlanta Hawks during Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena.

CLEVELAND – The Atlanta Hawks gave measured responses about Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova in the aftermath of a gutty, hard-fought and disheartening loss to the Cavaliers.

Using drawing pencils instead of paint, the Hawks sketched a portrait of Dellavedova as a player who gets too close to the line of hard play and dirty play and potentially crosses that line.

"There's chippiness out there. He's a player that plays hard. There has got to be a line at some point," said Hawks forward-center Al Horford, who was called for a flagrant foul two and ejected from Game 3 late in the first half after an incident with Dellavedova.

The call had a direct impact on the game which the Cavaliers won 114-111 in overtime on Sunday. Cleveland took a 3-0 series lead and can sweep Atlanta in Game 4 on Tuesday. Atlanta's Shelvin Mack missed two three-point attempts in the final 4.9 seconds.

But two topics, and one more than the other, will dominate the conversation until then:

• LeBron James, who missed his first 10 shots and 16 of his first 19, registered his 12th career playoff triple-double, scoring 37 points, grabbing 18 rebounds and delivering 13 assists. He scored Cleveland's final five points in overtime, including a go-ahead three-pointer, and altered Jeff Teague's potential go-ahead shot with 31 seconds left in overtime.

• And the Dellavedova-Horford incident – the incident itself, the response from the officiating crew, the postgame comments from the Hawks and James' impassioned defense of Dellavedova.

Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford (15) shoot over Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova (8) during  in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals.

James had his first triple-double in the postseason since the 2013 NBA Finals, and it was 12th career playoff triple-double, second-most in NBA history behind Magic Johnson's 30. It was also his 54th playoff game – most all-time – with at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists.

He played also with cramps and other pain and came close to checking out of the game late.

"I gave it everything I had tonight. My teammates did," James said. "Played our tail off, and to be able to win the game like this, with so many ups and downs and so many lead changes, it's a huge win for our team. …

"I'm not the only guy who's limping. I'm not the only guy who's cramping. I'm not the only guy who's hurting. There are a lot of guys out there playing as well, and I'm one of them as well. So I've got to go out and help our team win, no matter where I'm at."

But James' monumental game is secondary to the Dellavedova-Horford incident, which happened with 34 seconds left in the second quarter. Dellavedova and Horford both wanted the rebound. Some of what transpired is open for interpretation and debate and some is not.

In very basic terms, Horford and Dellavedova were tangled and as Dellavedova fell to the ground, he fell into Horford. The normally reserved Horford launched an elbow at Dellavedova above the shoulders.

Referees Ken Mauer, Ed Malloy and Tony Brothers reviewed the play and gave Horford a flagrant foul two and Dellavedova a technical foul. The NBA said, "Horford threw an unnecessary and excessive forearm/elbow to Dellavedova, making contact above the shoulders, therefore a Flagrant 2 foul was called on Horford who was ejected from the game, and Dellavedova received a technical."

Afterward, Mauer the crew chief, talked to a pool reporter and confirmed the ruling on Horford and said Dellavedova received a technical foul for making "contact with his head and shoulders into the knee area of Horford. So we ruled that a live ball physical taunt technical foul."

All three refs and alternate ref John Goble, who was on a headset in the locker room, agreed to give Horford a flagrant foul two, a person with direct knowledge of the ruling told USA TODAY Sports. The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova finished with 17 points in Game 3.

Dellavedova was part of the play in Game 2 in which he went for the ball and landed on Kyle Korver's leg. Korver sustained a severe high right ankle sprain, which ended his season. Dellavedova was also involved in an incident with Chicago's Taj Gibson in the conference semifinals, and Gibson was also called for a flagrant foul two and ejected. Dellavedova had Gibson's leg trapped and as Gibson tried to free himself, the NBA said he used excessive contact against an opponent.

Dellavedova, who had 17 points in Game 3 against the Hawks, has been a central character in the playoffs. He also had 19 points in Cleveland's series-clinching Game 6 victory against the Bulls.

The Hawks weren't thrilled with Dellavedova.

"Was it on purpose or not? We don't know," Horford said. "Maybe it wasn't on purpose. But just his track record, I just felt like it was. On my part, it was very poor for doing that."

Horford said he felt like Dellavedova went at him.

"He's got to learn," Horford said. "He's only been in this league for a couple of years or whatever. But he's got to learn at the end of the day it's a big brotherhood here. Guys look out for each other. I don't think it was malicious, but he has to learn."

Dellavedova took exception to Horford's contention that the second-year guard from Australia has a track record.

"I would obviously disagree with that," Dellavedova said. "I was boxing him out, and you can see from the baseline view that he's pulling my left arm down."

Then James took over the press conference, too.

Another reporter asked what responsibility each player on the court has for the safety of other player.

"You just play the game the right way," James said. "At this point, you try to do whatever it takes to win. You don't want to hurt nobody. No one in our league goes around trying to hurt people, but you don't take the aggressive nature out of the game."

Then James rattled off a sequence during another portion of the game in which guys were diving for loose balls.

"We don't never want to play with the integrity of the game and try to get people hurt," James said. "That's not what it's about because we all want brotherhood at the end of the day, NBA family. But I play to win the game, and you play aggressively. That's what it's about.

A reporter asked Dellavedova what he thought of Hawks forward DaMarre Carroll's comments that a player should never dive at another player's feet.

James replied, "I got it," and was ready to answer for Dellavedova.

But Dellavedova said, "I can answer if you want. I saw the ball (on the play with Korver). I dived on the floor. If I stay on my belly, it's going to be a jump ball. So I protect the ball and kick it out to a teammate.

"On the other one (Horford incident), I'm boxing him out. He's pulling my left arm down. I'm trying to stay up, and he's just pulling me down. I mean, the tape's there."

James started talking as soon as Dellavedova finished.

"In Game 2, when (Pero) Antic two‑hand shoves me out of the air. The fact that I'm still playing, we don't talk about it, but he two‑hand shoves me in the air," James said. "So what are we really talking about?

"Are we going to talk about us trying to win basketball games or about those guys trying to figure out a way that Matthew Dellavedova is this type of … this guy, he works his tail off every single day. He beats the odds, and he comes to play as hard as he can every single night. If they're focused on Delly, then they're focused on the wrong thing.

"I'm a little bit off about it because this is my guy, this is my teammate, and this is a guy that goes out and works his tail off every single night, and people are trying to give him a bad rap. He doesn't deserve it, and I don't like it."

Horford and James both used the word brotherhood to describe NBA players as a collective. But not everyone in a brotherhood always sees issues the same way.

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