CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell has been a nightmare for the Boston Celtics to guard in their second-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 3 was no different. Mitchell scored 27 points in the first half against a switching defense to keep Cleveland in the game.

Mitchell has carried a heavy burden for a Cavaliers offense that lacks firepower, and Celtics guard Jrue Holiday wanted to add to that burden Saturday night on the other end of the floor.

Holiday had his best scoring game of the postseason, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the Celtics’ 106-93 victory.

“I just thought about being aggressive,” Holiday said. “We know Donovan’s going to be aggressive on one side of the ball, but we can make him run on the other side if he’s guarding me. There’s a lot of times where I might defer or do something (else), and I just thought maybe attacking him might get him even more exhausted by the third or fourth quarter.”

The move paid dividends for Boston in crunch time. While the Cavs made a run in the second half after Boston built a 23-point lead, getting as close as nine, they could not get over the hump, mostly because Mitchell wasn’t providing any offense. He played a game-high 43 minutes but scored just three of his 33 points in the fourth quarter. It was evident that the aggressive version of Mitchell who carried the Cavs in the first half couldn’t sustain that effort with the added defensive work he was putting in.

“I felt like he was a little gassed,” Holiday said. “It’s hard what he’s doing. What he’s doing is elite to put up that many points that efficiently, and we’re making it tough on him. If it’s not me, then it’s (Derrick White). If it’s not D-White, it’s (Jaylen Brown). And then we’ve got Al (Horford) protecting the paint and (Jayson Tatum) protecting the paint. So it’s definitely a team effort, but I think to do it how he’s doing it, it’s hard.”

The Cleveland offense (18th in efficiency) has been a weak spot all season and struggles to score when Mitchell isn’t at his best. Putting a target on Mitchell’s defensive earned Holiday praise from his teammates.

“Jrue is a dog,” Brown said. “Can’t speak highly enough about Jrue, just how he came and dominated on both sides of the ball. Just made timely baskets. That’s the Jrue Holiday that we know and love and played against. Tonight was just a masterclass from Jrue. What a game from him.”

THE CELTICS HELD a nine-point lead at halftime of Game 3, but Tatum was not satisfied.

Horford told Abby Chin of NBC Sports Boston that Tatum challenged the Celtics’ starting five to come out more assertive in the second half. They responded with a 14-0 run to push the lead to 23.

“Just challenge everybody, myself, the starters, we’ve had a tendency in the past to relax coming out of the halftime,” Tatum said. “We’re usually winning coming out at halftime. So I just challenged the group: Can we come out like our back is against the wall? Can we make them call the first timeout? Can we come on like we’re down nine? We responded and we started the third quarter very well.”

Tatum took the lead at both ends of the floor, posting game-highs in points (33), rebounds (13) and assists (6). With timely help defense and improved focus on his own matchups, Tatum set the tone.

“JT’s always going to be JT on the offensive end, but I think defensively, he did a great job,” Holiday said. “Got some key stops, some nice blocks, some big rebounds. I know that we trust him so much on the offensive end, but defensively is really where I’m so impressed by him, cause I don’t think he gets enough credit on the defensive end.”

The Celtics’ offense struggled for large parts of the second half but did enough in that third-quarter surge to give the team the cushion it needed.

“We just need everybody to be on the same page and everybody to come out with the right effort,” Brown said. “That’s 85 percent of the battle right there. We come out, we play hard, and then we’re on the same page and the rest will take care of itself. We got enough talent in the locker room to beat teams. But if we’re not on the same page and we’re not playing hard, those are when we get ourselves in trouble.”