Boston Dominates, Wins 89-73
Aaron Gettings
Post a Comment
We can chalk the Celtics decisive victory up to two very important factors: Defense (of course) and our bench; mainly, Posey, Powe, Cassell and PJ.
The game began like a nightmare. Boston's offense mimicked the complete lack of flow from game 1. The Cavs were triple-teaming KG on the block, not allowing him any good looks. Not only was Ray Allen missing his field goals, he was missing free-throws as well. Worst of all, the Cavs head coach Mike Brown, decided (intelligently) that he was going to let Big Z anchor the Cleveland offense. Zydrunas scored the Cavs first 8 points (not missing a shot), Cleveland jumped out to a 12 point lead and it had all the makings for a looooong night in Beantown.
That's when Doc went to his bench, and the tide turned for good. Posey did all the same, great Posey things he did in Game 1, Cassell kept his finger off the trigger and focused on getting his team good looks and hitting his open shots, Powe was a monster under the rim, and even PJ Brown got in on the action. With the energy group on the floor, Boston quickly turned the deficit upside down, putting the Celtics on top (where they'd stay for good). At the end of the half, the bench had outscored our starters 26-18 -- Powe had 9 points (and 6 boards), and we went into the half up 44-36.
Quarter number 3 began with a bang. Ray Allen scored the first basket of the half on an easy lay-in (off an offensive rebound from a previous missed shot attempt), and Boston quickly rattled off 6 straight points (including 2 more from Ray on a pair of free-throws) before Mike Brown called a timeout. It didn't matter. 
Boston didn't lose an ounce of momentum and they completely steamrolled the Cavs in the quarter. Not sure what happened to Ray Allen during halftime, but he came out playing masterfully. Not only did he score 11 points in the 3rd (after being held scoreless for 72 minutes of basketball), but he orchestrated quite a few easy baskets for Boston. Doc finally used Ray appropriately, getting him the ball off of screens. Cleveland would double-team Ray as soon as he received the pass, and he'd hit the open Celtic. Cleveland had no counter.
Boston's defense was astounding once again. The Cavs began the game hitting 11 of their first 22 shots. Out of their next 22, they only made 3. One of the announcer made the comment that, "It is almost like there are 6 Celtics on the floor". Not only did they keep LeBron in check, but nobody in red could establish anything. Boston snatched 11 steals and held Cleveland to just 36% from the field. However, the best defense was saved for James. After shooting 2-18 on Tuesday, James only converted 6 of 24 tonight (including 4 bricks from downtown). He finished with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 more turnovers (to add to the 10 from game 1). While the Cavs did a better job of getting LeBron in a position to score, the Celtics defense wouldn't allow it. Hustling back on transition, what looked like easy baskets by James turned into missed layups (or no shot attempts at all) as LeBron was met by 2, 3 or sometimes 4 white jerseys between him and the rim. I could gush about the Celtics defense for 10,000 words and I wouldn't be doing them enough justice.
MVC: Paul Pierce. In the first quarter, Paul was the only Celtic doing anything productive on offense (scoring 7 points, after his anemic game 1). He finished the game with 19 points (on 7-13 shooting), with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals (and no turnovers). Despite leaving the game for a bit with an injured thumb (he appeared to bend his thumbnail back at the start of the 2nd), his D on LeBron was top-notch again. He's not intimidated by LeBron, and more importantly, he's up to the challenge of guarding him. Congrats to Paul as well for winning All-NBA 3rd team honors (Garnett made 1st team, not surprisingly), although Pierce definitely should've been 2nd team of Dirk. Just a great day for Paul Pierce and his fans.
A couple things to touch on before we sign off here. First, LeBron James' crying, overreacting and over-acting on the court. Just 2 days ago I got into a debate on the CelticsBlog forums about LeBron and whether he's a "crybaby". Oddly enough, I took the stance of defending King James. The discussion started over his over-acting on the flagrant that was called on Cassell during game 1. My stance was that his reaction (while absurd) worked, he got the flagrant call and the opportunity to get some extra points out of the situation. Did I necessarily agree with it? No, but I didn't think we should attack LeBron over it, as he was just trying to put his team in the best p
osition to win. My stance was, and still is, that it is the ref's faults for being so easily swayed and the NBA's fault for doing nothing about all the flopping, whining and acting on the court. Well, tonight LBJ took it to a whole other level. First, he got a call on Posey when they both went for the ball along the sideline and LeBron literally propelled himself backwards as if he was shoved (even though Posey didn't touch him). Worse, the ref was RIGHT THERE. Incredible. Second, and far worse in my opinion, was the call THAT HE GOT when he was driving down the middle and Pierce grabbed him, preventing him from attempting the layup. LeBron wanted it to be a shooting foul -- it was called a blocking foul. It truly could've gone either way. LeBron had not, by any means, began an attempt to shoot or to get into a position to shoot. But, it was obvious that that was what he was going to do once he took the next step... Pierce, wisely, stopped him before he got the chance. Anyway, LeBron spend the next 5 minutes complaining directly to the refs. He got in their huddle while the refs were debating, and he carried his whining all the way through while he inbounded the ball -- he literally stood there while he held the ball to inbound it, yelling at the ref. Is there another player in the league who can show up an official for MINUTES in a row and not get a technical? I still can't blame it on LeBron, but the league needs to do something about this. It really turns off the casual fan and makes the league look tainted.
Alright, I'll end my anti-acting rant now. Boston played amazing defense, once again. They kept LeBron in
check, and minus the opening minutes outburst by Zydrunas, didn't let another Cav get anything going. They had more energy, more desire, and the deeper team. Our bench bailed us out, KG owned the paint (partially due to the fact that Ben Wallace left early with "dizziness" and didn't return), and KG's wingmen stepped it up. I'd like to see if Boston can keep this momentum up and win a game on the road.
Lastly, let's calm down with the chants of "over-rated" and thinking that we somehow own LeBron. I brought this up briefly after Tuesday's game, but last season Detroit had similar success at home against LeBron in the first two games... only to see him go off and single-handedly win 4 straight games (and the series). He's still an unstoppable player, and although we've been able to keep him in check for 8 quarters, we can't realistically expect to keep it up. LeBron is going to get his points... if he has to hog the ball to do it, he's going to. My concern is how we'll match points with him down the stretch on the road if we get into a dogfight. Up 2-0 feels good... but it felt great against the Hawks and we know how that turned out. Beyond all that, though, just a great game by the entire Celtics team and coaching staff.
Oh, and during the pre-game show Stephen A. Smith was talking about Tyson Chandler and said that he's, "long, lanky, and has long arms". Just thought you'd enjoy that. GO CELTICS!!!
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments