The Bruins didn’t seem like the team with the most to gain until it was too late Sunday night.

Roberto Luongo came off the bench to shut down Boston in the third period Jake Matthews Jersey , and the Florida Panthers dashed the Bruins’ hopes of getting the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 4-2 win.

The Bruins trailed Tampa Bay by a point heading into the regular-season finale but couldn’t top a Panthers team that was eliminated from postseason contention Saturday.

”You would have hoped the urgency would have been there with an opportunity to win the division,” Bruins forward David Backes said. ”We had it in the third, but needed it right from the get go.”

Boston will host the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round beginning Thursday night. The Leafs were 3-1 against the Bruins in the regular season.

Florida starter James Reimer left in the third with an injury, and Luongo came in and stopped eight shots over the last 8:07. The pair combined to make 41 saves.

Henrik Borgstrom, Frank Vatrano, Maxim Mamin and Evgenii Dadonov scored for Florida.

Backes and David Pastrnak had a goal each for Boston, with Pastrnak cutting it to 3-2 shortly before Reimer was hurt. Tuukka Rask made 22 saves.

”We didn’t deserve to win and that’s the reality,” Rask said. ”I think it’s mental Anthony Averett Jersey , just not being sharp enough at the drop of the puck.”

After beating the Bruins for the second time in three games, Florida is headed home despite an impressive 25-8-2 run to end the season, including winning their last five.

”It’s disappointing. We were really hoping that we’d get a little help from some other teams and maybe get in,” Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck said. ”I think there’s a lot of teams that didn’t want to play us if we did make it in.”

Trailing 3-1 heading into the third, Boston made a furious surge, outshooting Florida 26-6 but only scoring once.

Pastrnak scored a power-play goal at 9:54 of the third. Pastrnak led the Bruins with 35 goals and had a career-high 80 points.

”It has been a tough schedule for us but that’s not an excuse,” Pastrnak said. ”The last few weeks have not been our best.”

Dadonov put the game away when he scored an insurance goal with 1:49 remaining.

”Would have been easy for them to come and in and shut it down but it’s a competitive league,” Bruins forward Brad Marchand said.

Boston had been unbeaten in regulation over its last 11 home games and had beaten Florida in 12 of 13 overall.

Boston lost in the first round last year to Ottawa in six games after failing to make the playoffs the two previous seasons.

NOTES: Marchand failed to score in the Bruins’ final six games Kenny Stills Jersey , and David Krejci has one goal in 16 games. … Borgstrom scored his first career goal. … Florida D Keith Yandle tied his career high with his 48th assist.

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CLEVELAND — LeBron James has been Mr. Everything for the Cleveland Cavaliers for much of the 2018 postseason.

Yet, coach Tyronn Lue said Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals — won 116-86 by the Cavs — was James’ best “in a long time.”

Because James really defended.

“As far as helping, closing out to Jaylen Brown’s chest, making him put it on the floor,” Lue explained. “Closing out to (Marcus) Morris. Closing out to (Marcus) Smart, so he did a really good job of just setting the tone of multiple effort and that was good for us.”

James scored 27 points to go with 12 assists on 8-of-12 shooting. But, according to ESPN’s research, Saturday was his best game on defense this postseason.

The Cavs put him on Brown — the Celtics‘ best player in the first two games of this series — and Brown didn’t even score until there was 8:20 left in the second quarter.

The Celtics shot 2 of 10 and committed four turnovers when their ballhandler was guarded by James. Brown was 3-of-8 shooting for 10 points.

“Just tried to put myself in position to help our team Russell Okung Jersey ,” James said. “I think tonight as a group, even when things broke down, we just covered for one another.”

The Celtics lead this series 2-1, and Game 4 is Monday in Cleveland. Boston has never blown a 2-0 lead in 37 tries. But they were startled by how well the Cavs played Saturday and how poorly things went for them.

Cleveland had a 2018 playoffs-high six players score in double figures and connected on 17 3s.

Morris, who forced James into 5-of-16 shooting in Game 1 and scored 21 points himself, struggled in Game 3.

“Personally, I think I did a (poor) job defensively with LeBron,” Morris said. “He was too comfortable when I was guarding him. I made myself very vulnerable on screens and wasn’t disciplined. We can’t have that in a game of this magnitude Jahleel Addae Jersey , and it showed.”

The Cavs gave Al Horford little room to move and it stifled the Celtics’ offense. Boston coach Brad Stevens said the Celtics would have to consider lineup changes “because of the way (Cleveland is) playing.” Tristan Thompson is guarding Horford and Kevin Love is on Morris. The Celtics want to force Love to guard Horford.

“I just didn’t think our offense in general was very good,” Stevens said. “Our defense wasn’t much better. We got thoroughly outplayed on both ends. Obviously we’re going to need to play through him more than that.”

George Hill scored eight points in the first two games of the series, and exploded for 11 in the first quarter of Game 3. JR Smith shot 0-for-7 for no points in Game 2, and recovered with 11 points in Game 3. Kyle Korver connected on all four 3s and finished with 14 points.

The Celtics have been bad on the road all postseason and fell to 1-5 with Saturday’s loss. But never in these playoffs had they been clobbered quite like the clobbering the Cavs laid upon them.

Yet, the Celtics could move to within a game of closing out the Cavs and stopping James’ consecutive NBA Finals streak at seven with a win in Game 4.

“This is the way we have to play,” Lue said. “I think bringing the physicality to start.”
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