BSJ Game Report: Cavs 114, Celtics 113 (OT) - Brown drops 30, but C's fall just short

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

Both teams traded dominating quarters with the Cavs dominating the first behind Darius Garland, Boston rolling in the second thanks to Jaylen Brown, and a solid team effort in the third quarter by Cleveland. Boston looked to continue the trend, opening the fourth on a 14-0 run, but this time there was an answer, turning this game into a dogfight down the stretch. Jayson Tatum had a huge dunk and blocked shot to force OT, but Brown missed a buzzer beater and the C’s lose to the Cavs again.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Tough loss to a good team: Let’s just start with this. The Cavs are good and they're going to do good things against any time. The Celtics are also good, and each team took turns showing how good they can be. It’s easy to come out of this loss feeling frustrated about losing, but I don’t look at this game as something egregious. The Cavs were just better. 

That said, they can play better defense: Both teams looked worn out by the overtime, but the Cavs made more of the right plays. The Celtics fell asleep on too many cuts in this game that allowed the Cavs to come back and win. Also, I’m not going to say this was anything like the last game where Caris LeVert crashed untouched to get two key offensive rebounds, but him swooping in to get this one with 27 seconds left was just a killer. 

Tatum did the turn and look that I highlighted… LeVert made his move after that but the big, long bounce was a weird one and he ripped the ball away from Al Horford. That one was some bad luck and … of course … it was LeVert there again. 

TURNING POINT

It’s hard to pick a particular turning point in a back-and-forth finish where leads were traded from the middle of the fourth quarter- on. So I’ll go with Donovan Mitchell’s run of four-straight buckets in the late fourth to push Cleveland’s lead as high as six with 1:30 to go. If he didn’t go on that superstar run, this game might have been Boston’s in regulation. 

FIVE UP 

Jaylen Brown: He hit a cold stretch later in the game to depress his shooting numbers, but he was a huge reason why the Celtics were able to build big leads. He finished with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal, but he did shooting 38.5%. 

Malcolm Brogdon: This is just going to be typical for Brogdon. Big boost off the bench, and a big part of the second quarter rally. 15 points on 54.5% shooting. He’s doing exactly what Boston needs. 

Grant Williams: The numbers don’t tell the whole story with Williams, who played some superb defense switching onto guards and had a phenomenal stretch where he kept the possession alive twice but nothing came of it. He hit a couple of big 3-pointers and he rebounded well. 

Jayson Tatum: He didn’t shoot well and the 6 turnovers were bad. Three of them were steals when he got himself into trouble, but he reined it in in the second half with only 2: A tough pass to a cutter where the timing was off, and a travel which has been a point of emphasis with officials so far this season. That aside, he had the monster dunk to force overtime, and then a blocked shot on Mitchell to preserve the tie. It was his fourth block of the night. He also had 12 rebounds and 6 assists so he wasn’t just standing around. 

Marcus Smart: He sneaks into the up for matching Mitchell’s run in the fourth quarter and keeping the Celtics alive. He had some crafty plays, including baiting Jarrett Allen and the ref into a charge call in overtime. However, he did try the “shoot because I feel contact” thing to try to draw a foul on the next play and it was just not the right time to do that and it cost Boston a possession. That could have been a chance to score and take the lead and force the Cavs to try to win at the buzzer. 

TWO DOWN 

Sam Hauser: I’ll get more into his time in a second, but he was targeted a lot on defense in his 10 minutes. He actually played some decent defense but not nearly enough of it. 

Luke Kornet: It was pretty clear that he was overmatched in this one. He was a -8 in 2:30 on the floor. Yikes. 

TOP PLAYS

TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Sam Hauser needs to shoot

He’s not on the floor to lock anyone down, as we saw pretty clearly. So if he’s on the floor, he has to get some shots to be worth playing.

I’m not saying the Celtics should force feed him the ball, but I am saying they should be a little more aware that he’s on the floor and try to make it so he has a chance to be effective. 

If he’s going to play and only get one shot in 10 minutes, then that feels like 10 wasted minutes. 

- The 4-3 start is fine

The East is very clearly going to be very tough. Every team is going to have its rough stretches, and that includes the 7-0 Milwaukee Bucks. 

I know, all three of those games were winnable, but that's part of the process of a new season. The fact that these are winnable games is part of what makes this fine, because I think they’ll figure out how to win them. 

“If you want to get to where you want to get to, we have to go through games like this,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We have to, including myself, we have to learn how to win these games. We have to learn how to execute. And like I said, our guys played hard. Both teams played really hard. It came down to just a couple plays.”

This is the situation Boston is in. The Mazzulla learning curve is part of the overall team learning curve, and without Robert Williams, that's going to mean hoping some guys can make contributions that won’t be needed later in the season. 

In the meantime, it’s about cleaning stuff up that goes wrong, and they did that in this game. The rebounding wasn’t as big an issue, despite the one that got away. They were better at that. The need to get better at other things, too.

The good thing is it’s November 2, and no one has ever hung a banner before Thanksgiving. 

There is plenty to fix, and I think it’s mostly fixable.