The Boston Celtics (31-10) set the hoped-for statement against Cleveland Cavaliers (25-13) and won with 102:88. The hosts also had a clear advantage at the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cavaliers played without Isaiah Thomas, who is not supposed to play back-to-back after his hip injury, but the former Celtic was in the hall and was greeted by the Boston audience. Standing ovations were also given to Jae Crowder, who had changed the team in the same trade. From the tip-off it was over with the friendly gestures.
At first, both teams had a bit of a hard time hitting their throws, but Celtics were the first to get a little bit better on the ground and gain a 9-point lead. Only LeBron James (8 points in the first quarter) achieved something before Tristan Thompson brought a small savings from the bank. However, Terry Rozier immediately countered with 7 points in series and gave Celtics the 32:21 lead after 12 minutes.
In the second round, the cavs thawed out a little bit, mainly thanks to Kyle Korver’s four thirds. But the fact that the gap did not melt was also due to Daniel Theis, who scored two threesomes in his first two minutes on the court. Shortly before the break, Al Horford provided the highlight of the first half with a crashing dark. After a J. R. Smith-Smith-Dreier shortly before the siren it went with 55:47 Boston into the break.
Back-to-back trio from Horford and Jayson Tatum quickly brought the Celtics a 14-point lead, and in the middle of the third quarter it was 20 points at a time – the cavs simply didn’t want to work for minutes. But then the Celtics also started with a series of tickets and left the door open for the Cavs. 81:68 it was after three quarters.
Once again the Cavs missed the start and were trailing by 19 points after just over two minutes. In the course of this, Cleveland also announced that Kevin Love would not return because of ankle problems, the Big Man had been struggling the whole game (2 points, 1/11 FG). The Cavs tried it again, but two Rozier trio at 5:33 minutes on the clock increased to 98:77 and after that the will of the Cavaliers, who had played against Portland the day before, was finally broken. The fact that the Celtics had previously had three days without a match proved to be a clear advantage.
Boston’s top scorer at the end was Rozier with 20 points, five more Celtics landed in Double Figures, with Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart scoring 15 points each. Theis stayed at 6 points in just under four and a half minutes. James was top scorer of the Cavs, but 16 of his 19 points were scored in the first half. On top of that the King came on 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Korver finished the game with 15 points.
Celtics remain on number one of the Eastern Conference after victory, Cleveland remains third behind the Raptors.
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Terry Rozier. On a weak scoring day at Irving, Celtics needed points from other sources and the most productive of them was the backup guard – in 19:39 minutes, Rozier scored highly efficient (8/12 FG) and played good defense. His two threesomes in the last quarter also ensured the final decision.
Jae Crowder. Crowder certainly had a different idea of returning to the old place of activity. The forward met only two of his twelve litters, but he took 9 rebounds. However, it was no coincidence that he had the worst plus/minus rating of -15 in the Cavs. He also had defensive problems with the length of Tatum.
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Due to the small starting lineup of the cavs, Brad Stevens adapted his starting five and let Marcus Morris start instead of Aron Baynes, so that he could take care of the reserve center Tristan Thompson. Minutes for Theis were – as in the first duel against the Cavs – not really planned. When Baynes broke in the second quarter, Theis came to a few minutes, but despite two threesomes he had to go straight back to the bank when Baynes gave his OK. But you couldn’t blame Stevens: The Australian worked so hard on Thompson that he couldn’t develop his usual rebound dominance against Celtics as he often did.