Final: Cavs 102, Celtics 95

The Cavs outclassed the Celtics regulars for the better part of the first three quarters on Tuesday night, rolling to a 102-95 victory at the TD Garden while Kyrie Irving (rest) watched from the sidelines. The hosts looked out of sync on both ends of the floor while the regulars played heavy minutes in the first half, going scoreless from 3-point range (0-of-12) and piling up 16 first half fouls that led to 18 Cavs free throws. 

Kevin Love led the way for the visitors with 17 points in 17 minutes. Marcus Smart had a team-high 15 points off the bench, while Marcus Morris added 14 points.

Third Quarter Notes

• Celtics give the starters (minus Rozier) the second half off, going with Smart, Rozier, Morris, Yabusele and Baynes against the Cavs second unit to start the third quarter.


• Aron Baynes immediately provides a nice impact on the defensive end, contesting shots at the rim well and gobbling up defensive rebounds. He also took a charge from Kyle Korver.


• Smart and Morris break the ice from 3-point range early in the frame, but the offense continues to labor as a whole.


• Morris and Smart are the king of bad shots but they have found the bottom of the net with them in the third quarter, slowly but surely trimming the Cavs deficit.


• Clarkson continues to be a problem for the C's, at least during the regular season. He's been abusing the C's bigs on switches.


• Yabusele showing some nice hustle on the defensive end but has been an on factor in his 10 minutes.

• Hayward starting to attack more, drawing a couple fouls with contact around the paint. It’s a slow progress but he’s not shying away from traffic, which is a promising sign.


• Marcus Smart with a couple foolish turnovers to go with a nasty left dunk.


• C’s haven’t hit a 3-pointer over the first 18 minutes and the offense is pretty ugly because of it.


• Tristan Thompson wreaking plenty of havoc with his offensive rebounding and his rolling off of picks. Similar to the postseason the last few years.


• Daniel Theis is getting beaten a lot on upfakes. Like Hayward, it’s taking some time for him to shake the rust off after his lengthy absence.


• Cavs looking surprisingly liberated without LeBron. Hood and Clarkson have mixed in some good aggression while the ball movement has been very solid.


• C’s have started the game 0-of-10 from 3-point range. Cavs soundly beating them in every phase of the game early in the preseason opener. Cedi Osman (9 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) leading the way, pushing the lead up to 19 (52-33) at one point. 


• C's pile up 16 fouls and go 0-of-12 from downtown in first half. It was uglier than it looks. Cavs lead 59-40 at half.

• The Celtics small ball lineup struggles early defending Kevin Love with Al Horford forced with Tristan Thompson. He gets easy looks in the post against Hayward and Tatum.


• Cavs start the game with an 11-2 run against a lackluster C’s team in transition.


• Hayward really struggling to keep quicker players in front of him on the defensive end so far. He’s not the reason for the team’s defensive woes, but he hasn’t been an asset on that end.


• Hayward also misfired on a couple open looks.


• Rozier has been out of control on a pair of drives.


• Baynes is first man off the bench in place of Hayward and immediately makes his impact felt on defensive end with a couple of boards and strong contests at the rim.


• Cavs have burned C’s defensively a couple times on sets, with focus on Korver, Sexton snuck in backdoor on one. Uncharacteris


• Offense was really reeling through the first quarter, with no real rhythm throughout the 12 minutes.


• Hayward got some more opportunities as a featured piece with the second unit but he still doesn’t have his feet under him. It’s probably going to take a few weeks.


• C’s shot 30 percent in the first quarter overall, 0-of-7 from 3, while Jordan Clarkson roasted some defenders in isolation situations, taking advantage of mismatches coming out of the weave.

• Cavs will debut their preseason at the Garden, suiting up for the first time in four years without LeBron James in the fold. The team will emphasis a far younger roster without the All-Star, starting the likes of Nance Jr., Osman and Hood in the new starting five.


• Irving will be the only Celtic sitting tonight for rest purposes. With four rest days upcoming, look for a healthier dose of minutes for the regulars.


• Brad Stevens reflected before the game on the aftermath of the Eastern Conference Finals from last spring and how the C's coaching staff responded this summer: "Well, we needed to get a lot better in every which way. So we spent a lot of time right after the season dissecting what made us good but also why we came up a little bit short. Obviously, knowing that we were going to have a few more guys that were already on our roster but available to play, being able to figure out how to best go about our emphases, especially on the offensive end. One of the things that we tried to do in this early part of the season is make sure that we’re trying to play in simplest forms but moving the ball. So we spent a lot more time on our offensive execution. And, every year, we do several retreats or several get-togethers with other coaches from all over. Anybody, anybody. And it’s really fun for me to learn from them. I talked last week, we had multiple coaches here last week, if they can trust what we’re doing, that’s welcome, because we all need to improve."