Everything you need to know about the Celtics’ 102-88 win over the Cavs in quickie form.
HEADLINES
Defense shines: The Cavs looked old and tired for this matchup on the second half of a back-to-back, but the Celtics' defense still played at another level for most of the night. Boston limited the Cavs to a season-low 88 points on 34.8 percent shooting from the field and also held the Cavs to just 25 percent shooting from 3-point range, making one of the league’s best offenses look very vulnerable without Isaiah Thomas.
Bench backcourt steps up: During a fairly ordinary night for Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, it was the young guns that stepped up their play. Terry Rozier scored a team-high 20 points off the bench in just 20 minutes while Marcus Smart added 15 points off the pine. Both guys preyed on a lackluster Cavs defense all night and used their aggression to build an edge early that the Celtics rode to the finish line.
TURNING POINT
The Celtics seized command of this game after halftime with a 15-5 run behind some hot shooting by Jayson Tatum. The rookie forward scored nine of his 15 points in the frame which helped turned an eight-point halftime lead into a sizable double-digit advantage for Boston. The Cavs never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way, throwing in the towel midway through the fourth quarter.
TWO UP
Terry Rozier: The 23-year-old only played 20 minutes but he was the best player on the court during that span. The athletic guard wreaked havoc against mismatches (Jeff Green) to get great looks all over the court against a tired Cavs squad and even executed a 2-for-1 (a problem for him in years past). He scored 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while also stuffing the stat sheet (4 rebounds, 3 assists) across the board. It wasn’t a career-high point total for him, but I would argue that this was one of the best games of his career overall.
Marcus Smart:
The fourth-year guard shot the Celtics into a deep hole during the regular season opener against the Cavs but his aggressiveness paid off in the rematch. The Cavs were playing lazy defense all night and Smart attacked them relentlessly (tying a team-high with 14 shot attempts). He knocked down six of them, including three from beyond the arc to score 15 points. Add in his steady defense to the mix and he teamed up with Rozier to have a banner night for the C’s reserve backcourt.
TWO DOWN
Semi Ojeleye’s jump shot:
Four wide-open looks from 3-point range for the small forward and four misses. He did a nice job defensively in a return from a back injury, but his 3-point shooting percentage is down to 29 percent on the year. The Celtics need him to do better than that with all the open looks he’s getting. Otherwise, opposing defenses are coming to leave him open up and pack the paint more.
Jae Crowder:
You could put almost half the Cavs' roster in this spot, but we’ll settle with the former Celtic. He played just seven minutes in the first half. He looks like he’s playing hurt. Either way, he have the Cavs next-to-nothing tonight. Just two points in 22 minutes on 1-of-9 shooting. Lots of bricks on open jumpers and lackluster defense and effort all over the place. He looks like he’s lost his mojo in Cleveland. Either that, or he needs to get healthy.
TOP PLAY
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
Jeff Green will always be Jeff Green no matter what uniforms he wears:
He may not be convincing teams to pay him big money anymore, but he looked like the same Jeff Green that Celtics fans loved to hate by the end of his tenure in Boston on Wednesday night: ill-advised jumpers, inconsistent shooting and half-hearted defense. He’s a useful player in a bench role during the regular season but when the postseason rolls around, he’s not a guy you want to rely on against premier opponents. We saw why tonight.
The Celtics look like they belong on same court as Cavs:
It was the second half of a back-to-back for Cleveland without Isaiah Thomas, so this win comes with a bit of an asterisk. With that said, the tide has turned quite a bit from last season. The Celtics look like the more athletic group overall and have the stronger defensive mentality. LeBron James played phenomenal basketball for the opening two quarters and he still couldn’t keep the deficit much under double digits. The athleticism edge is pointed towards the Celtics in this matchup and that has not been the case for any LeBron vs. Celtics team in a long time.
