The playoffs are about seven weeks away, but we got a glimpse of what they might look like on Friday night at the Garden.
The Celtics and Cavaliers look destined to face one another. They’ve now played each other four times, and each team can look at those four games and put a pretty nice list of evidence together to support their case for superiority. The Celtics had two big leads at the start of each half on Friday night and they were tied with a few minutes left in the game. The Cavs overcame both those deficits and closed the game out.
Maybe if circumstances were different the outcome would have changed, but each team can say that about this entire series.
“Two really good teams, well-coached, deep roster, know how to play, compete,” Jayson Tatum said after the loss. “I think all four matchups have been really fun and high level. And as a fan, you enjoy watching it. As a competitor, you enjoy being a part of those. And whatever happens down the line, if we see them again, I’m certain it’ll be more of the same high level basketball.”
The Cavs are well aware that Boston was missing Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, but they also know Boston’s two best players were still on the floor. Those two players fueled a 25-3 start to the game, but the Cavs were able to slow it down, get some buckets, and slowly walk the lead down to something manageable.
“Everything that could have went possibly wrong went wrong,” Donovan Mitchell said. “Once we got to the end of the first, we've given up 38 point quarters before, we've been down 12 in the first quarter before. So you really don't think about the 25 to three thing at the end of it. Just being consistent throughout, even when we got the lead to still being consistent. That's the biggest challenge … How do you respond? And we did.”
The Celtics struggled with their responses. Part of it was Jaylen Brown’s foul trouble. Part of it was lineups that normally wouldn’t be on the floor in certain times. But even with all the built-in excuses, the Celtics understood they still had this game within their grasp.
"There's a bunch of things that we could have done, but we didn't,” Brown said. “We'll look at it and we'll be ready. If we play them in a series, we're a pretty versatile team, so we'll be able to give different looks … as we potentially see them down the line, we'll have some good information."
There are always surprises in the playoffs, but this week has shown that it would take a pretty big one to derail what seems to be an inevitable rematch between these two teams. The Cavs are a virtual lock for the top seed with a magic number of 16 to clinch. The Celtics look to have a solid grasp on the second seed, and every team below these two has flaws that can be exploited by the top two. Anything can happen between now and the Eastern Conference Finals, but let’s just say I’ll be preemptively booking my hotel rooms there pretty soon.
This matchup seems to bring the best out of each team. Tatum and Brown have never had this kind of night together. Mitchell is the Celtics-killer of all Celtics-killers. No lead is safe, no matter where it is or who has it.
“This is what we play for,” Mitchell said.. “No championship was won tonight. … We got punched in the mouth. What are going to do about it? How are we going to respond? And that's been my biggest message that like I said that about every game. And tonight was another example, just with a larger audience."
A pretty large audience tuned in to watch this one, and for good reason. These two teams continue to prove they are the two best in the conference. The Cavs have the best record, but the championship banner for last season hangs at TD Garden. The Cavs want what Boston has, and the Celtics want to hang another one.
After the game, the Celtics licked their wounds but also carried themselves as confident champions who understand what’s at stake. The Cavs carried themselves like a team trying to prove a point.
“I think in that locker room … I just feel like we're as good as these guys,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We can hang with these guys, keep at it, stay with it. So yeah, this gives us a little more confidence, but there's context around that, right? We know they're missing two guys, humble in victory. That's for sure, especially against this team."
The Cavs probably needed the dose of confidence. A loss the Celtics missing two starters would have had people lumping them in with the Knicks. Instead, the Cavs are coming out of this feeling like they can come into Boston, handle the crowd, and handle the Celtics. They managed to do it Friday night. It looks like they’ll get a chance to prove it wasn’t a fluke in a couple of months.