The Cavs outclassed by the Celtics, fall 109-98
CLEVELAND — All was not well for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon. They couldn’t make shots, struggled to hang with the Boston Celtics’ stars on the perimeter and were outplayed all afternoon. All of this led to a 109-98 loss to the Eastern Conference class, which wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.
Although things ended badly, the game started well for the Cavs. Evan Mobley took advantage of the mismatches early by scoring nine of the team’s first 13 points. This led to Cleveland taking a brief five-point lead early in the game. It was the best.
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Boston controlled the rest of the quarter thanks to a strong opening by Jayson Tatum. He scored 12 points on 4-6 first-round shooting, giving his team a nine-point lead after one.
Things went from bad to worse in the second.
The Cavaliers failed to buy a field goal in the second quarter. Boston cut off lanes to the basket and turned them into a jump-shooting team, which proved to be the right strategy this afternoon. The Cavs failed to make any of their 14 three-point attempts in the quarter and went just 4-25 from the field overall. This led to them scoring just 10 points in the quarter.
Boston didn’t take advantage of this as much as they should have. They scored just 21 points, going 5-20 from the field (20%). But the 20-point advantage they gained in the second half was enough to achieve victory without stress.
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The Cavs manage to make the game more respectable in the second half. They cut Boston’s lead to eight midway through the fourth quarter, but it never looked like they had a chance to actually win the game.
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The Cavaliers were led by Donovan Mitchell. He scored 30 points on 9-18 shooting with five assists in his return to the lineup after missing four games with a groin injury.
Mobley added 24 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
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James Harden struggled to find his opportunities. He didn’t have his most efficient night from the field, going 6-16, and wasn’t able to make up for it by getting to the free throw line. He finished the day with 19 points and 10 assists.
The Celtics were led by Jaylen Brown’s 23 points and eight assists. Tatum provided 20 points in his second game back from injury.
Payton Pritchard provided 18 points, each of which seemed to come every time the Cavs began to turn the game around. He has a knack for making back-breaking shots against the Cavs.
This was a disappointing loss for a Cleveland team that had really established some good momentum over the last few weeks. They had big wins over the other top teams in the conference, the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons, in the James Harden era. The Celtics might be a different story. Even though the Cavs haven’t played at their skill level, the Celtics present a lot of problems to the Cavs with their wings and spacing offense.
The Cavs will return to action on Monday night when they host the Philadelphia 76ers. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.