NBA playoffs live updates: TV schedule, results, analysis for Cavaliers-Pacers; Raptors-Wizards, Celtics-Bucks

Bojan Bogdanovic has gone off for the Pacers in the third quarter of Game 3 against the Cavaliers. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

The first round of the NBA playoffs continues tonight with three more pivotal Game 3s. Follow along here for the latest analysis and commentary from The Post’s NBA reporter Tim Bontemps, and ask him questions in the comments section. Catch up on last night’s games here.

Schedule and results | Pregame reading | Comments section Q&A

Cavaliers stall out while Bogdanovic carries Pacers to win

At halftime, it looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers were in position to retake control of their first round series with the Indiana Pacers. They held a 57-40 lead, were getting big contributions from their secondary players and looked like the team that had played well down the stretch of the regular season.

Then the second half happened. And now, once again, the Cavaliers look like a team in crisis.

Behind 30 points from Bojan Bogdanovic, who impressed both offensively and helped to slow down LeBron James defensively, the Pacers roared back to beat the Cavaliers 92-90, taking a 2-1 advantage in this series and making Cleveland look more vulnerable than it has at any point in an Eastern Conference series since James returned to Northeast Ohio.

“Our energy,” Bogdanovic said in a walk off interview with ESPN, when asked what caused Indiana’s second-half surge. “The crowd gave us energy, especially in the second half.

“We’ve been playing great defense all season long, so we did what we were supposed to … holding this team under 90 points is amazing.”

It’s especially amazing when one considers Cleveland was on pace for 114 points at halftime. But the Cavaliers stopped playing with energy, stopped moving offensively, and were simply overwhelmed at both ends by a Pacers team that looked like it wanted it more.

“Our point guards do a great job of finding us shooters,” said Bogdanovic, who went 11-for-15 from the floor and 7-for-9 from three-point range. “That was the key for us.”

James had a typically strong game numbers-wise, scoring 28 points to go with 12 rebounds and eight assists. But he looked disengaged down the stretch as things went sideways for Cleveland. Even still, he scored 10 straight points when it looked like the game might have been getting away from the Cavs, and Cleveland had a chance to win when J.R. Smith rebounded a missed free throw with five seconds left by Darren Collison.

But the Cavaliers didn’t have a timeout and Smith’s heave from 40 feet wasn’t close, leaving Cleveland to walk off the court and wonder what happened — and if its season is in jeopardy far sooner than anyone ever expected.

Defense doing the trick for Indiana

The downside of the Cleveland Cavaliers being a one-sided team is that if a team can shut them down offensively, they can be exploited.

That’s been the case in the second half of Pacers-Cavs Game 3.

Indiana has outscored Cleveland 44-26 in the second half, and the Pacers have been able to come back because they’ve completely neutralized Cleveland offensively.

Unless the Cavaliers can change that, they’ll be down 2-1 here in a few minutes.

Pacers rolling and Cavs need all they can get from LeBron

Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue kept LeBron James on the court at the start of the fourth quarter, opting to avoid his usual break to try to halt Indiana’s momentum after a strong third quarter.

It didn’t work.

The Pacers have continued to roar back into the proceedings, and now lead 84-77, with 5:40 remaining after trailing by 17 to start the second half. That’s a 24-point turnaround.

Now James will have to play the rest of the second half without a break, and Cleveland finds itself in another dogfight after building an early lead for the second straight game.

Cavaliers flounder in third period

Just when it looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers were getting things together, they fell apart in the third quarter.

Indiana outscored Cleveland 23-12 in the third, pulling to within 69-63 after three quarters. The Cavaliers did nothing right in the third: they went 5-for-19 from the field, including just 1-for-10 from three; committed seven turnovers, leading to six Pacers points; and gave up eight free throws to Indiana, while taking just one.

LeBron James would typically sit to start the fourth, but he remains in the game. That is perhaps a sign of Coach Tyronn Lue understanding the importance of these moments, and not wanting to risk losing even more of this advantage with James on the bench.

Late first quarter run just what Wizards needed

Things looked like they were about to go sideways in the first quarter again for the Wizards, who found themselves down 27-18.

But that was before a 12-2 run to end the first and turn the game to a 30-29.

Bradley Beal has 12 points on seven shots in the first quarter — after taking just 11 shots in all of Game 2 — to lead the Wizards in this one. Washington needs more of that to get back into this series.

Beal getting involved for Wizards

There’s been a lot of talk about the Wizards wanting — and needing — to get Bradley Beal more shots after he took just 11 in Game 2.

So far, mission accomplished.

Beal already has three shot attempts in the opening minutes of the game for Washington, and looks engaged in the action. That’s a good sign for the Wizards, who are fighting for their playoff lives.

And while it’s early, Marcin Gortat already has four points and four rebounds, lending some credibility to Coach Scott Brooks’ decision not to go small to start Game 3.

Still, Toronto has a four-point lead early in D.C.

Cleveland masters are of closing out quarters

The way teams close quarters very often determines how games go. Through one half in Indianapolis, the Cavaliers have a huge edge in that department.

Over the final 5:55 of the first quarter, Cleveland went on a 16-5 run. And, over the final 4:45 of the second quarter, Cleveland went on a 10-2 run.

That’s a plus-19 Cleveland in those two stretches of the game, building the entirety of the Cavaliers’ 57-40 halftime lead.

More important than the runs to close quarters for Cleveland: the continued production from the “others.” Kevin Love leads all scorers with 16 points, while George Hill has 11. As a team, Cleveland is 5-for-10 from three, as well.

Indiana, meanwhile, has gotten nothing from Victor Oladipo, who has five points on 2-for-6 shooting with four turnovers in 17 first-half minutes. Only Thaddeus Young (11 points) is in double figures for the Pacers.

Pacers need to clean it up

The Pacers are extremely lucky their tendency to turn the ball over in hasn’t cost them more.

Indiana has already given the ball away 10 times. But Cleveland has failed to take advantage, scoring only eight points off those turnovers. Given the Cavaliers are already up by 13 points, it could be a lot worse.

The Pacers have hung around thanks to shooting 50 percent overall and making four threes, but if they don’t clean up the mistakes it’s going to be extremely difficult for them to win.

Love doing his part

In the first quarter, a close-up of Kevin Love’s hand showed a lot of bruising around his left thumb, caused by a partial ligament tear in the fourth quarter of Game 2.

But other than flexing it a bit while he was about to shoot some free throws, Love has looked great so far in Game 3, scoring 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting so far after scoring a combined 24 in the first two games of the series.

More importantly, this Love-anchored second unit has allowed James to get some extended rest on the bench to start the second quarter.

LeBron getting plenty of help

The theme coming into Game 3 for the Cavaliers was to get more production from the players around LeBron James.

Through one quarter? Mission accomplished.

The Cavaliers lead 35-25 early in the second quarter, outscoring the Indiana Pacers 16-5 to end the first and getting 23 of their 31 points from players not named LeBron.

Refs calling it tight in Indy

Something to monitor moving forward in Cavs-Pacers Game 3: the quick whistle from the referees.

With six fouls called in the opening three minutes of the game — Indiana’s Bojan Bogdanovic and Cleveland’s Kyle Korver each picked up two — and 11 total just nine minutes in, it’s clear the referees are trying to call things tight in this one.

It’s broken down evenly on both sides, but early fouls add up later in the game.

Indiana, meanwhile, is lucky that despite already committing six turnovers, they have only allowed three points off them.

Hill the first Cav to aid LeBron on offense

George Hill had a very revealing quote in a pregame interview on the court with ESPN’s Lisa Salters when asked about his role in Cleveland two months after arriving in a deadline-day trade.

“I don’t know,” Hill said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

It was an honest quote, but one that’s emblematic of a Cavaliers team that has been in flux all season and certainly looked like it during the first two games of this series.

Hill has clearly tried to be more aggressive early in Game 3, though. After taking a combined 10 shots and scoring 13 points in the two games of this series, he’s already taken three shots and four foul shots (making three) to score nine of Cleveland’s 17 points early in this game.

As LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers prepare for Game 3 of their first round series with the Pacers Friday night in Indianapolis, the question that could decide the outcome of this series is obvious: will James start getting any help?

Through two games, he hasn’t. James has been sensational, particularly in scoring 46 of Clevleand’s 100 points in its Game 2 victory. The rest of the Cavaliers? Not so much.

As ESPN’s Brian Windhorst pointed out Friday, the second-leading scorer through two games behind James’ 70 combined points? Kevin Love, with 24. The next five leading scorers on the team this regular season behind James — Love, Kyle Korver, Jordan Clarkson, Jeff Green and Rodney Hood — have combined to shoot 22-for-68 from the floor overall in the series, including 11-for-35 from three. Remove Love and Korver, and the numbers for the remaining three are even worse: 10-for-33 overall, and 2-for-13 from three.

The Cavaliers ranked 29th in the NBA in defensive efficiency during the regular season, meaning subpar offensive performances simply won’t cut it. Cleveland needs to be great on offense to advance to a fourth straight NBA Finals.

In fact, the Cavs may need to be great simply to advance out of the first round. So far that quality has eluded them.

Cleveland took a step in the right direction in Game 2, when Coach Tyronn Lue went to an all offense starting lineup featuring George Hill, J.R. Smith, Korver, James and Love. That quintet isn’t going to stop anyone, but no Cavaliers lineup is. What that lineup will do, however, is score.

In the 16 minutes that grouping played together in Game 2, the Cavaliers outscored the Pacers by a margin of 50-29. They were outscored in the remaining 32 minutes, 68-50, which is far from ideal, but at least they found something that works.

They’ll need that to continue in Game 3 and beyond, even as the series shifts away from the friendly environs of Quicken Loans Arena to hostile territory of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Otherwise, the possibility of James not only seeing his consecutive NBA Finals appearances end at seven, but failing to get out of the first round for the first time in his 15-year career, becomes very real.

Cavs dressed for success

In an interesting show of unity prior to Game 3 of their first round series, the Cleveland Cavaliers all showed up at Bankers Life Fieldhouse wearing the same outfit: grey suits with a grey vest and black boots.

The outfits, per ESPN’s Lisa Salters, were gifts from LeBron James to his teammates from designer Thom Browne. We’ll see if it leads to better production from the rest of the Cavaliers after lackluster showings in the opening two games of the series.

Wizards stand pat with lineup

It isn’t all that surprising that Scott Brooks would decide against changing his starting lineup for Game 3 despite the Wizards’ success going small in Game 2. The Toronto Raptors will still start Jonas Valanciunas, and Marcin Gortat remains one of the league’s best screeners.

But it is a bold call on Brooks’ part, and one that had better pay off.

As my colleague Candace Buckner has written, the Raptors have owned the first quarter so far in this series, a big reason Toronto has a 2-0 lead. Washington needs that to change in order to make this a competitive series.

Changing the starting lineup would have been one way to try to do that. Brooks passed. Now we’ll find out if he was right.

Curry cleared for limited practice

The Golden State Warriors got a bit of good news Friday with the revelation that Stephen Curry had been reevaluated and allowed to begin participating in limited portions of practice.

Curry, who has missed the past 13 games since center JaVale McGee fell into his leg causing a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee on March 23, is continuing to, “make consistent functional progress since the injury,” per a statement from the team

As a result, the Warriors said Curry would begin to participate in “modified team practices” beginning Saturday and that the intensity of his rehab program would continue to increase.

Most notably, the team said that Curry would again be reevaluated a week from Friday, which, conveniently, marks either a day or two before the likely start date of Golden State’s conference semifinal series.

Because both the Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans are beating their respective opponents, 3-0, the overwhelming likelihood is both will advance in well short of the seven games necessary. That puts their next series either Saturday or Sunday of next week, with Game 2 being Monday or Tuesday before a lengthy gap between Game 2 and Game 3, which would come the following weekend in New Orleans.

Under such a scenario, Curry would be able to be evaluated — and potentially cleared to return — ahead of Game 1. The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson reported that Curry could take the full six weeks to return from his injury, which would keep him out of the first two games and push a return to that following weekend in New Orleans.

Assuming Golden State takes care of business in Game 4 Sunday, the Warriors will spend the next week watching Curry’s every move, and waiting to see when their superstar point guard will be cleared to return to join them in a quest for a second straight title, and a third in four seasons.

Friday’s schedule and results: