2023-24 Playoff Series #2 | Game #2 | Cavs @ Celtics | May 9, 2024

[Wham with the Right Hand]

We are playing with house money and free spirits. Boston has so much more to prove and they just got destroyed at home and now have to come deal with us for 2 games on our home court. I don’t want to get too excited but shit could get very interesting.

Pressure is on them all the way.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Compounding the issue is Morris and Niang plus LeVert, Strus, and Garland. That lineup was a -11 in 4+ minutes. All other Cavs lineups for the first half was a +11.

When I saw that unit on the floor I went, "There goes our lead". Sure enough the six-point lead the Cavs had at the end of the first quarter was gone in less than two minutes.

Hopefully Wade will be back Saturday to take Niang's spot. Even if he doesn't take any shots his defense will be ten times better. Dean could probably do better than Morris, too.

We might have beat them even worse if Mobley didn't get in foul trouble in the 3rd quarter when the Cavs were rolling.

 

[bushwick_bill]

 

[Lee]

White was 7-for-12 on 3's in Game 1 but the Cavs pressured him into going 1-for-8 tonight. For the rest of the series I think he'll be between those extremes.

Holiday had 4 points in 35 minutes. I was wondering if his age would be a factor. He'll be 34 in a month. And Horford had 11 points and 2 rebounds in 29 minutes. He'll be 38 in less than a month.

That little squat Pritchard had 13 points and 4 assists in 20 minutes, including an offensive rebound and cutback. I can't believe they let that little turd do that.

At one point with Mobley out they had Morris playing center. I wonder if they'll try that with Dean Wade. Put him in the corner on offense and let him defend Tatum.

I said before the series stopping white is the key.

 

[Pierre Pan]

It has rained beers on me a few times in the Bronx during Yankees Indians games...

This is awesome...

Last time I was at Yankee Stadium I got super lucky and there were a bunch of Cleveland fans around me; we exploded for like 19 or 20 runs that night; lots to cheer. I’ve never encountered trouble at MSG either, to be honest.

 

[Pierre Pan]

Nice Article from The Athletic:

Thursday's NBA playoff takeaways: Cleveland, Dallas even up series as lineup changes loom — The Athletic

By Joe Vardon, Jay King, Jared Weiss, Anthony Slater and Tim Cato

apple.news

In Boston, Donovan Mitchell paced the Cavaliers in a full-team effort, with Evan Mobley setting playoff career highs with 21 points and five assists to go with his 10 rebounds. Isaac Okoro’s 12 points were also a playoff career high, as were Darius Garland’s seven rebounds.

For the Celtics, a night of horrid shooting did them in at home, hitting just 8 of 35 3-pointers.

It was the Cavaliers’ first road playoff win since Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, which was also played in Boston. The Celtics, however, fall to 14-14 at home in the playoffs over the last three seasons.


Cleveland capitalizes on Boston’s weaknesses


This is the team’s first road playoff win under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, but beyond that, this is the first time the Cavs even cracked 100 points on the road in the postseason in six years.

Instead of nickel and diming it any further (yeah, this is the best the Cavs have shot from 3, or overall, in a road playoff game in a long time), let’s just say it: best playoff game under Bickerstaff, period.

There was strict adherence to Bickerstaff’s game plan this time. The Celtics don’t have rim protectors and basically dare you to score inside of 3, and the Cavs took them up on it, especially early. Of the 60 points Cleveland scored in the paint overall, 36 came in the first half.

See, the Cavs hadn’t had a single game the entire postseason — we’re in the second round, mind you — where they’d shot it well, at all. If the deeper shots aren’t falling, at some point, the Cavs were bound to try with the closer ones first. It worked brilliantly. By the game’s end, the Cavs had not only taken advantage of what Boston was giving, but also decimated the Celtics on 3s (13 makes to Boston’s 8).

Mitchell scored 16 of his 29 points in the third quarter — when Cleveland took control of the game for good. Mitchell would have played the entire second half had the Cavs not blown the game to smithereens in the fourth and the Celtics inserted their punt team with about five minutes left.

Bickerstaff had also said Cleveland needed to be better at limiting the Celtics’ 3-point attempts; a considerable task given that Boston is the league’s top 3-point shooting team in terms of attempts, makes, and is second in percentage. But the Cavs succeeded there too. The Celtics were just 8-of-35 from beyond the arc.

The Cavs did a better job making life harder on Jaylen Brown (7-of-17) and Jayson Tatum, despite his 25 points, is struggling to shoot in this series (8-of-17 in Game 2). — Joe Vardon, senior NBA writer


Jayson Tatum shut down, again


The Celtics simply looked cooked in Game 2 in every facet of the game. The Jays could not create reliable offense, nobody could cover Mitchell successfully and Cleveland shot lights out from just about every section of the floor. As they head to Cleveland tied 1-1, the Celtics need to turn this into another Game 2 wake-up call, just as they did against Miami.
Brown wanted the Mitchell matchup, but he got left in the dust several times. Even when the Celtics tried to trap him in the fourth quarter, he found a way around it to set up Max Strus for an open 3. The irony is that Cleveland shot nearly 50 percent from deep, but Strus was 2-for-7 himself. With the way Mitchell is playing right now and Garland finding his stroke again, Strus could keep Cleveland in this series if his touch returns.

But Strus’ defense has been front and center this whole series. Once again, Tatum tried to score on him in the midrange and failed repeatedly. Boston will have to find a way to get Strus switched off of Tatum, because the Celtics star has no rhythm getting into his pull ups and floaters right now. — Jared Weiss, Celtics beat writer


Was this just a Boston outlier?

The Cavaliers offense struggled through the first eight games of the playoffs. They entered Thursday night ranked 15th out of 16 playoff teams in offensive rating. The only team worse, the New Orleans Pelicans, lost in a first-round sweep. Give the Orlando Magic credit for some of Cleveland’s woes, but scoring had not come easy to the Cavaliers lately.

The Celtics allowed them to shoot 54.7 percent from the field, including 46.4 percent on 3-point attempts. Cleveland owned the paint with 36 points from inside it during the first half, then lit up Boston from outside with seven third-quarter 3-pointers. Mitchell, who controlled the second half with 25 of his 29 points in it, ended that quarter with a stepback 3-pointer over a close Tatum contest.

The Cleveland supporting cast, so quiet in Game 1, pitched in plenty in Game 2. Mobley looked more for his own offense while notching 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. He, Mitchell, Garland, Okoro, Strus and Caris LeVert gave the Cavaliers six players in double figures. Tristan Thompson didn’t even play in the first half, but outworked the Celtics on the glass during his second-half stint.

Was this just an outlier? Will the Celtics defense be able to hold down the Cavaliers moving forward? Or did the Cavaliers figure out some things and gain enough confidence to be more threatening over the rest of the series?

The Celtics need to take something away. They can’t let the Cavaliers be efficient from all over the court with everyone involved. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer

 

[Pierre Pan]

 

[cabs]

A blow out win just as we all predicted

 

[MrX]

Celtics poor shooting from 3 maybe more then just a bad night. Espn

Boston was just 8-for-35 from 3-point range -- though Second Spectrum tracking data showed that 77.1% of those triples were heavily contested shots, the highest percentage in any game the Celtics have played with Joe Mazzulla as coach over the past two seasons.

 

[Thelastcavsfan]

want to thank Orlando. They made this team tough.

 

[Dr. Claw]

All I asked for.
Come back, fight back.

I do not know what it's going to take for JBB to DNP-CD Niang. The minute he was put in a line up trying to add "spacing", the Cavs lost their 9 point lead. Morris/TT if you sub one of Okoro/Max and Evan, please. Niang can not go to help defense and then try to close out these Celtics shooters. Morris probably can't either but he is more reliable for scoring (the other thing Niang is supposed to do).

Niang should only be on the floor when it's Cigar Crew (thankfully the Cavs played well enough to get to that point in the 4th).

BTW, Tristan Thompson? Worth the investment. He still can rebound in both ways. Did a great job those few minutes he was in.

HOW 'BOUT THAT EVAN MOBLEY?????!!!!!

 

[dirtywax]

Wow. Probably most surprising win of season. Great supporting games by Mobley and Caris. Very pleasant to watch.

 

[avs2000]

Of course, all that ESPN talks about is what went wrong with the Celtics. How is this company not bankrupt yet? Oh yeah, Disney owns them. Their shitty website is design by crack addict. Slow servers, slow everything.

Other than watching a game I just avoid the network. Talking heads are useless

 

[DocSaric]

That stretch where Mobley took over the game needs talked about. Who was that guy?! There have been blips where it looks like he flips a switch and stops deferring - looks elite! Then he takes a backseat to Mitch and Garland. It’s frustrating. Need him to go “alpha” Mobley more. Had some Duncan vibes. Fun to watch.

 

[Arketebel]

So LeVert needs to hear chatter to perform? Weak.