CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One of the most familiar coaching commands in basketball is "trust your teammates," which is not as easy as it sounds since many players' attitude is not so much "can do" as "can do anything I want to."

Even the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan took years to learn he did not have to take every last shot, nor earn every last headline.

Kobe Bryant, once hailed as the "next Jordan," never fully assimilated the lesson.

Irving and Love

Yet how much more difficult is this subordination of self when, rather than passing up a shot, the player is guaranteed not to get one because he is out of the game?

Four bench players -- Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, Deron Williams and Iman Shumpert -- teamed with LeBron James in the Cleveland Cavaliers' record 25-point comeback in the third game of their 2017 NBA Playoffs first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers.

The biggest part, at least in the long run, was on the bench, not on the floor.

Kyrie Irving, of the NBA championship shot-making Irvings last season, and Kevin Love, of the NBA championship stop-making Loves, were fully engaged in the substitutes' rally.

Love had been a solid contributor in the third quarter, with five points and four rebounds as the Cavs reduced the 25-point deficit to a manageable seven at the start of the final period.

Irving was in the midst of a miserable game, in which he was minus-15 in the plus/minus stats.

Neither left the bench in the fourth quarter.

Yet when Frye buried a corner 3-pointer to seal the victory for all practical purposes, there was Love, bursting off the bench, his broad smile as warm as a nice day.

Irving had been wiping his face with a cloth, but he too jumped up and whipped it around, looking like a fan waving a rally towel.

At game's end, every Cavalier star, starter and substitute, celebrated joyfully near the tunnel to their locker room.

All for one

Both Love and Irving were able to sublimate their egos and support their teammates.

It says much that there were no recriminations after coach Tyronn Lue made the switch.

That says much for Lue's leadership and his communication skills.

It was also a stinging rebuke to stories that alleged Lue asked for their permission to bench them.

"I told them, 'Here's what we're going to do,'" said Lue.

The players accepted it.

Ya gotta believe in something

It's not always that way.

Scottie Pippen refused to re-enter the last seconds of a playoff game against the New York Knicks during Jordan's first retirement because the play would be run for Toni Kukoc and not him.

World B. Free, when the 76ers were pushed one game from elimination in a series they lost as heavy favorites to Washington in 1978, said, "Don't blame me. I got my 20."

In a regular season game, George McGinnis, told he would be benched for the second half for a red-hot back-up, said to his coach in front of his teammates, "Why? Don't you believe in me?"

Irving and Love believed in their teammates. It made all the difference.