Final: Cavs 123, Celtics 116 - Cavs wear down Celtics after early Boston lead

BOSTON CELTICS (43-16) vs. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (48-10)

TD Garden, 7:30 p.m. - NBC Sports Boston, ESPN

Line: Celtics -1.5

INJURIES

Boston: Kristaps Porzingis (OUT, illness), Jrue Holiday (OUT, finger)

Cleveland: None

THINGS I’M LOOKING FOR

1. Finding a way: Not Holiday and no Porzingis makes this game much more difficult for Boston. It doesn’t make it impossible, though. The point of attack defense has to be stronger and Al Horford and Luke Kornet have to step up their rim protection. Kornet especially will need to step up. 

2. De’Andre Hunter: They got him specifically for this matchup, so let’s see how he’s deployed and how the Celtics try to shake free of that matchup. It’s going to be interesting because this is the only game left between these two teams before a potential playoff matchup, so I don't know how much they're going to show each other. 

3. Hitting jump shots: The spacing won’t be the same, especially with Kornet on the floor. Cleveland’s rim protection will be better, so the Celtics will have to knock down a lot of jumpers to score. 

This will actually be good practice for Boston. They’ll have a fairly recent game without Porzingis to see what works and what doesn’t just in case he misses some or all of a series against the Cavs. At the very least, they can maybe figure out some tricks to use in that kind of scenario.  

Follow along with my thoughts as the game goes on. They’ll show up below and in the comments section, so hop in and share your opinion as well.