What a statement from the Boston Celtics! In game 1, the Cleveland Cavaliers are shown at times and shot out of the hall with 108:83 (BOXSCORE). The LeBron James team is particularly disastrous in the first half.
A few hours before the start of the game the Celtics had already announced that they would change their starting five – for Aron Baynes Marcus Morris moved into the starting five, who had previously claimed to be “probably the best LeBron defender apart from Kawhi Leonard”. The Cavs, on the other hand, remained in the five that had proved their worth in the round against Toronto.
However, this did not continue at first. Although Morris had two fouls in less than three minutes, the Celtics started much better – after 7:7, the hosts made an impressive 17:0 run in which they kept finding the gaps in the Cavs defense and above all attacking the board. Al Horford dominated with 11 points in seven minutes, while Cleveland shot ticket for ticket. When the Big Man went to the bank, Jaylen Brown took over with 13 points – everything went well! Boston led after the first quarter with 36:18.
At the beginning of the second quarter the Celtics of the offensive rhythm went a little out of control, they had problems with rebound machine Tristan Thompson, who injected some much needed energy into the Cavs. Cleveland scored 15 points, but then it was Jayson Tatum who, with 5 points in a row, immediately increased his lead to 20 points – Ty Lue took the next time-out, but it didn’t help. The Celtics played as unleashed and a Horford triple to the 25-point lead (!) finally escalated the TD Garden. The halftime break started with 61:35.
Cleveland improved offensively from the cabin, Kyle Korver and George Hill put two triples in the basket for the first time, but defensively it remained weak what they offered. Nevertheless, Cleveland could shorten on the shoulders of James and Love, also because Boston lost the rhythm in front. Thanks to a wild shot from Jeff Green with the buzzer, Cleveland reached 64:78 before the last quarter.
However, the Celtics had no desire for a comeback of the Cavs: The fourth quarter was opened with a 7:0 run in 1:09 minutes. Cleveland tried to counter, but the Celtics had their flow back – a crazy runner by Terry Rozier raised the lead back to 28 points, then Lue also emptied his bank and opened a pretty long garbage time.
Topscorer of the game was Brown with 23 points and 8 rebounds, Morris played a strong double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Horford scored 20 points (8/10 FG), 6 assists and 2 blocks, Tatum contributed 16 points. The Cavaliers’ best scorer was Love with 17 points (5/14 FG), James got 15 (5/16), 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 7 turnovers.
Game 2 of the series will also take place on Wednesday night in Boston (live on DAZN).
Boston Celtics v Cleveland Cavaliers 108:83, Series 1:0 (BOXSCORE)
It wasn’t easy to choose one player for the Celtics because the whole team played great. But the sensational efficiency was once again the decisive factor for the Big Man in the end. Horford conducted the game at times, remained offensively almost without mistakes and held the strong Celtics defense together – it was a classic Horford game in these playoffs. Brown, Morris and Tatum are also mentioned here.
Yes, the King flirted again with a triple-double – nevertheless this was a very weak match compared to his standards. James never got offensively access and made 7 more turnovers than in all previous games of this postseason. He had by far the worst plus/minus value of his team (-32!) – you don’t see that often at LeBron either. However, apart from a few bankers, almost all the Cavs could have been here.
While Toronto had major problems with the Cavs’ Korver/Love duo, the Celtics attacked their weaknesses consistently: switches were often provoked in which Love had to cover a much faster defender, or Horford went into the post against him, which was also rarely good for Cleveland. Also defensively Boston was well prepared for the mutual blocking of Love and Korver, because the Celtics had from 1 to 5 switchable players on the court. Love almost never got the mismatches with which he had made the Raptors white-blooded, and if he did, the double team came in no time at all.