My first thought was being proud of the Cavs for battling the Celtics down to the wire on their home floor with Mobley out. With three minutes to go the Cavs were down by five points and it was anybody's game. But I expected the Cavs to melt down and Tatum and Brown to take over and that's exactly what happened.
The outcome was never really in doubt. You knew that if it were close at the end the Celtics would simply rise up and blow out the Cavs, much like Michael Jordan always finished off the Price/Daugherty/Nance/Harper team.
With two-and-a-half minutes to go and the Cavs down five, the Celtics missed a jumper, but Brown got the offensive board and passed to Holiday for a bucket. LeVert stepped out of bounds for a turnover. Tatum got free for a dunk. Garland missed a layup. Tatum makes another uncontested dunk and now it's an 11-point lead with 1:28 to play. Ballgame.
In just 1:04 the Celtics went on a 6-0 run to finish off the Cavs. Once they realized the game was almost over and the Cavs were still within striking distance they dropped the hammer.
Part of me says that if we had Mobley to defend Tatum he wouldn't have got 27 points. That the difference between Mobley and Wade is more than the 9 points we lost by. I certainly think the score would have been closer if Mobley had played, but until the Cavs actually beat the Celtics in a close game I'll continue to believe that Tatum, Brown, Holiday, and Horford will always find a way to win at the end.
LeVert came off the bench to score 26 points in 35 minutes. Every now and then he has a game like that. It kept us fairly close most of the night, just like the 42% shooting from the 3-point line kept us close on Tuesday. But staying close to Boston until the middle or late 4th quarter just makes the game entertaining. The Cavs still have to get over the hump to win.
Last year the Cavs beat Boston in overtime an amazing three times. They need to get back to that this year. Maybe getting Mobley back is all they need. But with the opportunity to steal a win right in front of them, they stepped out of bounds, missed a layup, failed to get a defensive rebound, and let Tatum walk down the lane unopposed for two monster dunks. Total collapse on both ends of the floor.