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LeBron James shows why he's the 'best in the game at facilitating' in Game 3 win over Boston Celtics

James dished out 12 assists in the Cavs' 116-86 Game 3 victory.
Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

CLEVELAND -- Totaling 27 points on just 12 shot attempts, LeBron James put together one of his most efficient scoring performances of the 2018 postseason on Saturday night.

Only it wasn't how James scored, but rather how he set up his teammates to do the same, which stood out most in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 116-86 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

"He's the best in the game at facilitating," Cavs forward Kevin Love said of James, who recorded 12 assists against the Celtics on Saturday night. "You see 12 assists tonight but even in games where we struggle to have ball movement, when we struggle to get the ball side-to-side, which is something we looked at in Games 1 and 2, he's still able to get it done."

James' stat line in the Cavs' win -- which cut the Celtics' lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 -- would have been impressive enough, but the highlights were even better.

On one play early in the second quarter, the 4-time MVP drew a double team off a screen by Larry Nance Jr., before hitting the high-flying forward for an easy dunk.

A quarter later, James drew another double team -- this one from Celtics big men Aron Baynes and Marcus Morris -- only to slip an underhanded dish between the two defenders to center Tristan Thompson, who finished the play with a dunk of his own.

James then capped his impressive passing performance early in the fourth quarter when Nance once again freed himself up with a screen, which James took advantage of by driving to his right before lobbing up an alley-oop to his left.

"There's only one person that can make passes going to his left like that in the league," Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said after the game.

Asked to rank the three aforementioned passes in order of impressiveness, James declined to do so -- although he did provide a glimpse into the photographic memory he's now become known for in postgame press conference.

What the 6-foot-8 forward was willing to do was share where his passing prowess fits into his offensive arsenal, which played a key role in the Cavs jumping out to a 20-4 lead and never looking back on Saturday night.

"I think my passing's right up there with every aspect of my game," said James, who ranks third all-time in postseason assists. "It was something I kind of just knew I had when I first started playing the game of basketball. Being able to see things develop before they actually develop. And then it was on me to put the ball on time and on target to my teammates, ever since I was a kid."

James did plenty of just that on Saturday, just as he has throughout the postseason. Through 16 games, the Akron native has averaged 9.2 assists per game in these playoffs, trailing just New Orleans Pelicans point guard Rajon Rondo and Washington Wizards star John Wall, each of whom appeared in at least seven fewer games than James already has, before seeing their respective teams eliminated.

Obviously, the idea of James -- who entered the NBA as a point guard -- being a tremendous passer is nothing new. One, however, could argue that it's now more important than ever.

Surrounded by what is arguably his weakest supporting cast in quite some time, it's no secret James is in desperate need of help. He got plenty of it on Saturday -- even if he had to help manufacture it himself.

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