James receives help in victory

From combined dispatches

Cavaliers 108, Celtics 84

CLEVELAND — The shots didn’t drop again for LeBron James, and it hardly mattered. The rest of the Cleveland players made most of theirs.

James scored 21 points on another off-shooting night, but Delonte West scored 21, Joe Smith had 17 and the Cavaliers raced to a large, early lead in Game 3 in a victory last night over road-challenged Boston to pull within 2-1 in their playoff series.

West, who spent three seasons wearing Celtic green and white, carried the scoring load for the Cavaliers, who are attempting to become the 14th team in NBA history to come back from an 0-2 deficit and win a best-of-seven series.

They’ve had practice at it.

Last year, the Cavaliers lost the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals to Detroit before beating the Pistons four in a row to advance to the finals for the first time. After dropping Games 1 and 2 in Boston, Cleveland needed James (8-for-42 in the losses) to shoot his way out of a slump.

James was only 5-for-16 from the floor, but his teammates stepped it up, going a combined 32-for-54 (59 percent) to tighten the second-round series.

Pistons 90, Magic 89

ORLANDO, Fla. — Richard Hamilton scored 32 points and Hedo Turkoglu missed a layup with time running out as Detroit beat Orlando to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Tayshaun Prince scored 17 for Detroit, including an 11-foot runner for the go-ahead basket with 8.9 seconds left. Rasheed Wallace had 16 points and eight rebounds. Antonio McDyess had eight points and 14 rebounds.

Orlando squandered a 15-point lead in the third quarter. After Prince’s basket, Turkoglu’s layup from the left side of the lane was no good and didn’t draw a foul, and Dwight Howard’s putback was also off the mark.

The Pistons, the first team to win on the road in the second round, can clinch the series when they return to Detroit on Tuesday.

The Pistons won despite playing without All-Star point guard Chauncey Billups, who was held out after straining his hamstring in Thursday’s game.