Healthy Celtics easily defeat shorthanded Cavaliers 112-105

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - On Sunday the Cleveland Cavaliers (40-10, 24-4 home) set several franchise records in their 144-101 win over the reeling Dallas Mavericks. On Tuesday night, in a nationally televised game the Cavs welcomed the Boston Celtics (36-15, -6 road) to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The two teams had split the first two meetings this season as the Celtics won the first meeting in Boston 120-117, handing the Cavs their first loss of the season on November 19th. The Cavs prevailed in the second meeting on December 1st at RMFH 115-111. Tuesday night was a battle early the Cavs who were shorthanded without two of their better defenders Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade fell behind by as much as 20 in the first half and pulled back to within four points late against the healthy Celtics but could not complete the comeback as the Celtics prevailed 112-105.

The game was a battle right from the beginning with the two teams tied 4-4 with 8:25 left in the quarter. Mitchell put the Cavs ahead 6-4 with 7:14 left when he drove the paint and slammed the ball home. The game continued to be a low scoring defensive battle. The Celtics took a 7-6 lead when Jaylen Brown hit a shot and was fouled by Max Strus. The Celtics took an 18-111 lead with 2:52 left on a three by Derrick White. The Cavs cut it to 18-13 when Mitchell hit a jumper in the paint with 2:41 left. The Celtics regained a seven point lead with 1:57 left when he was fouled by Mitchell in the paint and hit both free throws. With :50.3 left the Celtics were taking control of the game and had a 25-13 lead after Al Horford scored in the paint. As the quarter ended the Celtics had a 28-15. Brown led all scorers with 12 points after one quarter. Mitchell was pacing the Cavs with nine points. Neither team shot well, the Celtics shot 35% (10 of 29) while the Cavs shot a miserable 23% (6 of 26). Boston also outrebounded the Cavs 19-17 in the first 12 minutes.

53 seconds into the second quarter the Celtics took a 33-15 lead when Jayson Tatum hit a three point basket. The lead was then 20 points just 14 seconds later when Tatum was fouled by Georges Niang and he hit both free throws. The game might have been a defensive battle early, but it quickly turned into a blow out by Boston. The Continued to struggle shooting from the field and the Celtics were not. The Cavs did get the Celtics lead to 13 with 4:43 left when Mitchell hit two free throws, but Boston went right back down and hit a three to take a 48-32 lead with 4:28 left in the opening half. With 2:33 left in the half the Cavs cut the Celtics lead to 50-38 when Sam Merrill scored by hitting a three. At that point Merrill had played eight minutes and had nine points. With 1:04 left in the half the Cavs cut the Boston lead to 52-42, then with :40.1 left after a Celtics turnover Jarrett Allen slammed home a dunk. The quarter ended with the Celtics ahead 54-44 heading to the halftime break. Brown continued to lead all scorers with 16 first half points. Mitchell paced the Cavs with 13. Both teams were not setting the world on fire with their shooting. The Celtics shot 35% (20 of 57) and the Cavs were even worse shooting only 30% (15 of 50). Shooting from behind the three-point line was even worse as the Celtics shot 29% (8 of 27) and the Cavs shot a pathetic 17% (3 of 18). The Celtics just edged the Cavs on the boards in the first half 34-33. The Celtics bench has outscored the Cavs bench 21-14 in the opening half.

The Cavs quickly cut the Celtics lead to 54-47 just 24 seconds into the third quarter when Mitchell hit a three. The Celtics responded, building the lead back to 12 points at 61-49 with 10:11 left in the third quarter. With the Celtics up 66-55 and 7:00 left in the third quarter Niang was called for a personal foul, his third when he made contact with Brown. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson challenged the call. The call was overturned, and Brown was called for his fourth foul and the Cavs got possession. Just four seconds later after Browns went to the bench, he used some word enhancers and was accessed a technical foul. Garland converted the free throw, and the Celtics lead was trimmed to 66-56 with 6:56 left on the clock. With 6:17 left Strus cut the Celtics lead to 66-58. Then with 5:42 left Allen pulled down his 16th rebound of the game and put it back in the basket to cut the Boston lead to 66-60. Boston called an immediate timeout. The Celtics responded with a 14-7 run to take an 80-67 lead with 2:23 left in the third quarter. Atkinson took a timeout in an attempt to halt the Boston momentum. Mitchell cut the lead back to 10 points with a three with 2:05 left in the quarter. With 1:03 left Tatum took advantage of his matchup on Merrill and gave Boston an 85-70 lead. Mitchell was leading all scorers through three quarters with 24 points. Brown was still pacing the Celtics with 21 points through three.

With 10:45 left in the fourth it became apparent that the Cavs were not going to be able to mount a comeback as the Celtics were up 92-78. With 9:31 Derrick White hit a three to give Boston a 95-80 lead. The Cavs scored the next four points on an Evan Mobley free throw and a three pointer by Merrill to cut the Celtics lead to 95-84 with 8:12 remaining in regulation. The Celtics took a timeout. With 6:52 left Kristaps Porzingis turned the ball over and Garland hit Allen under the basket. He hit the shot, was fouled to complete the three-point play and the Celtics lead was down to 97-88. Then after another Cavs stop with 6:20 left Niang was fouled, he hit both free throws and the Celtics lead was 97-90. The Cavs made another stop and Mitchell hit a jumper, cutting the Boston lead to 97-92. After Boston scored Mitchell scored in the paint and was fouled. He hit the free throw, and the Boston lead was cut to 99-95 with 5:30 remaining. The Celtics scored the next five points to take a 104-95 lead with 3:29 left in the final quarter. With 2:43 left the White drained a three, giving the Celtics a 107-97 lead and sealing the Cavs’ fate. Garland made it interesting with :51.0 left when he hit a three point basket and was fouled. He hit the free throw and cut the Celtics lead to 109-104. But a bad pass by Mobley was intercepted by the Celtics with :23.0 left on the clock ending all hopes of a miracle comeback as Boston took the lead in the season series 2-1 with a 112-105 win.

The Cavs will now try to get back on track as they travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons (25-25, 12-12 home) at Little Caesars Arena at 7 pm. This will be the third meeting between the two clubs. The Cavs took the first two games, both were at RMFH..