BSJ Game Report: Celtics 113, Cavs 98 - Al Horford delivers, Celtics get to third-straight conference finals

Everything you need to know about the Celtics Game 5 win over the Cavaliers, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out hitting 3-pointers, but turnovers and fouls kept the Cavs close. Marcus Morris’ seven points in relief of Isaac Okoro also helped tie the game at 28 after one. Al Horford’s energy was off the charts in the second, and that helped fuel a six-point halftime lead. The Celtics pushed the lead to 12 but the Cavs answered behind 13 third-quarter points from Evan Mobley to keep the Cavs within seven. They got it down to three, but the Celtics exploded for a 15-4 run to make it a 14-point game and close it out from there. 

Box Score

HEADLINES 

- Frustrating, but over: The Celtics had a lot of chances to cash in on momentum and open up a bigger lead earlier, but they had a couple of long scoreless stretches where they just fell flat. The offense got too stagnant, too often, but it came through when it was needed. The series is over, and the Celtics are on to the Eastern Conference Finals. 

- Al Horford’s big game: Horford was all over the place. He finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and three blocks. He was also a team-best +26, which really showed itself in all the hustle plays he made. 

"He was unreal. Both sides of the ball,” Derrick White said. “Every little play he made for us. Obviously brought the energy, the excitement. He got the crowd going. He was just unreal today for every minute he was out there."

He had nine rebounds in the fourth quarter alone, four of them on the offensive end.

- Time to rest: Game 1 of the ECF will either be Sunday or Tuesday. If the Knicks and Nuggets win in six, then the schedule lines up for Sunday and Tuesday in Boston, then a few days off, and then Game 3 next Saturday in either New York or Indy. If either the Knicks or Nuggets go to a Game 7, Game 1 will be Tuesday and they’ll play the same every-other-day schedule as this series. Either way, Boston get some time off while the rest of the league figures itself out. 

TURNING POINT

Boston went on 15-4 fourth-quarter run to break open what had been a three-point game. Funny enough, Boston closed the second quarter on a 15-4 run as well, so I guess you can pick which one you liked best.

THINGS I LIKED

- Al Horford: So much more on Horford separately, but I can’t stress enough how important he was on both ends of the floor in this game.

“I think you could of kind of like sense that, maybe we weren't to the level of energy that we needed to be,” White said. “Whatever the team needs, Al Horford will do it.”

- Jayson Tatum: One assist shy of a triple-double and he only took 16 shots on his way to 25 points. Both he and Jaylen Brown moved the ball very well, executing down the stretch. 

- Jrue Holiday: He was having a quiet offensive night, but then he busted free for 11 fourth-quarter points, ducking behind the defense for two late layups to cap the night. 

- Derrick White: He hit some timely shots on his way to an 18-point, six-assist, five-rebound night. His 3-pointer in the fourth quarter after a tough, high pass from Brown was right at the beginning of Boston’s big run to pull away. That was a monster shot. 

- Payton Pritchard: 11 points off the bench, which they needed. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Another shaky beginning: I don’t want to dwell too much on it because, theoretically, they aren’t going to be playing down to better competition. The problem is when they face bad teams. Maybe this is like road games with the 2008 team, which they didn’t win until the Conference Finals. 

- Marcus Morris going off: Where the hell did this come from? We can very easily argue that this would have been a normal blowout if Morris had remembered who he was and not shot 10-13 overall and 5-6 from 3. He hit some huge shots to keep this game close. If those had been normal misses, Boston could have been out and running early and extending their leads. 

- Luke Kornet: Rough night for him. He got picked on defensively. 

- Pick-and-roll defense: Many of Evan Mobley’s 33 points could have been prevented. 

HIGHLIGHTS

- Jaylen Brown deserves a lot of credit

The box score will tell you Brown was mostly quiet tonight. He was so much more, playing very well defensively and racking up seven assists. 

But I’m actually most impressed with his nine shots, because he didn’t try to do too much in a closeout game. He saw what the game needed and how it was going for other guys on the floor and he slid right into a complementary offensive role. 

“If you want to win, you have to do whatever it takes,” Joe Mazzulla said. “You have to be open-minded and have the humility to understand it’s going to look different every night. Jaylen only took nine shots tonight, but he was, I thought, tremendous defensively. He was locked in on his communication. I could hear him, he had some crashers on offensive rebounds, and when he did get the ball, he made the right play.” 

This is real growth for him. It would have been very easy for him to just try to pick on matchups all night and try to do a lot of the heavy lifting himself. He’s really buying into the strengths of this team. 

And it’s also proof that growth can come at any time of the season or postseason. There's always an opportunity to do the right thing and play the right way. This has been Brown’s best season as a Celtic, and he keeps adding impressive elements to the resume. 

- Let’s give the Celtics credit for what they accomplished

The last couple of games had frustrating moments, but once again, it’s important to distinguish between frustrating moments and frustrating losses. The latter is something we’ve seen a bunch of in recent years, but really not much of this year. 

It took Boston 10 games to get to the ECF, which is tough to do no matter how you slice it. When things weren’t going great, they stuck with it. 

“Everybody wants to win until it’s really time to win,” Mazzulla said. “Because then you have to nut up and do a bunch of shit you don’t want to do. So the guys, credit to them, they consistently do that and we just have to keep that up. Every game is going to be different, every series is going to be different, regardless of who we play is going to be different. Sometimes it’s different matchups, different lineups. Just gotta do it. And the guys did it. So credit to them. “

Next up: The Celtics await the winner of the Knicks-Pacers series. Game 1 will either be Sunday or Tuesday, depending on how long that series goes