Recap: Cavs 114, Celtics 91(Or, They Flipped The Switch)
2017-04-06
The Cavs finally did it. They flipped the switch. In a game that could very well determine the number one seed, Cleveland showed they were the top team in the East.
Defensively, the Cavs fought through any screens the Celtics attempted, and they managed to make rotation after rotation to ensure any guy in green taking a 3-pointer had a Cavalier headed their way with their hands up. Cleveland held Boston to just 40.7% from the floor and 21.2% from behind the arc. They out rebounded them 58-31. In Boston’s highest scoring quarter, they put up just 25. That happened in the 4th when the game was already done.
LeBron James was the true hero tonight though. He showed that he is other-worldly, no matter his mindset. Just a little over a day ago, when the media asked him about this game’s significance, the King mentioned how it was was just like any other regular season one.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been to six straight Finals, man, I’m the last person to ask about a regular season game.”
Apparently the media in the room forgot to capture the sarcastic Borat-esque “NOT” that I’m nearly certain James interjected after that statement, given his performance Wednesday.
The King played 39 flawless minutes. He went 14-22 for 36 points to go with ten boards and six assists. In the second quarter, after the Cavs put up just 19 in the first, he went 7-9 for 15 points. He also had three assists and two blocks. Cleveland outscored the Celtics 38-22 in the second frame. James wasn’t alone offensively, but no one else had a game changing night. In fact, the team went just 11-36 from 3-point land.
Kevin Love had 15 points on just 33% shooting, but rebounded like his life depended on it getting 16 boards. Kyrie Irving had 19 points (7-18) and six assists. Isaiah Thomas helped the Celtics look semi-respectable with 26 points and six assists.
First Quarter
Both teams came out of the gate firing bricks, and it stayed that way the whole quarter. The Cavs were 2-10 and the Celtics were 1-5 in the first four minutes. Yet, the Cavs felt like they were in control. Instead of dwelling on the fact that they couldn’t hit anything (7-27), they rebounded like crazy. They had eight offensive boards and 11 defensive. The Celtics had just eight defensive boards and three offensive ones.
It also helped that Cleveland remained engaged even when beat. After J.R. Smith got back-cut by Avery Bradley at the 7:54 mark, Smith turned on the jets and glassed Bradley. A little later Thomas blew by Irving to the right, but Channing Frye stepped up just enough for Irving to come from behind for some eradication of the weak stuff.
Kyrie says, "Nah."
✋🏾 https://t.co/obGzD3CuXP— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 6, 2017
The Cavs would have had a lead heading into the second even though they went just 1-11 from downtown, but Thomas scored seven straight in the final minutes blowing by Shumpert and Irving. Celtics up, 20-19.
Second Quarter
Richard Jefferson started the quarter with a King assisted slam. About a minute later LeBron sliced through the paint to jam it when Kelly Olynyk decided to help cover Deron Williams. Brad Stevens had to call a rage timeout because his team literally watched the King dunk the ball.
👑 coming through | #CavsCeltics pic.twitter.com/OUFD3QArRY
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 6, 2017
The timeout was too little too late, though. LeBron returned from the break more refreshed and and even more ready to destroy. When the Celtics tried to double James, he found RJ underneath the hoop. When Marcus Smart ended up on him because the Celtics were switching on screens, James simply got post position and used his shoulder of unequivocal greatness to back him down for an easy score. When RJ stole the ball, LeBron got the ball and quickly ran down court for a transition bucket. When Jae Crowder matched up on him, James simply jetted past Crowder.
The King’s 15 points came with ease. He only took shots at the rim.
The King also had some monster blocks. He smashed a Smart attempt to pieces so emphatically that the ball spawned some Cavs fans for him to high five when he went to retrieve it from the stands. That block came right after LeBron slammed it on the other end.
.@KingJames x #LeBlock x #Respect 🤜🏾 https://t.co/8CdlR4PS0P
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 6, 2017
LeBron’s energy led the Cavs on a 22-4 during the first half of the quarter. And, even after that, James’ energy still led to great things, like this season highlight. James blocked Isaiah while standing still. Love then recovered the ball and flipped it to Irving who then hit Smith for a slam in transition.
Squad on the MOVE!#DefendtheLand https://t.co/y0e6CekPhl
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 6, 2017
Ultimately, the refs felt bad for the Celtics after the Cavs run and played heavy with the whistle. The Celtics went to the line seven times during the second part of the quarter and drained six. With 14 seconds till half-time, Isaiah blew by Shumpert and kept him on his back, sorta. He drained the layup and got the foul call. Except, Shump was a full two steps behind the play and didn’t touch him. Still, the Cavs entered the locker room up big, 57-42.
Third Quarter
The Celtics weren’t able to mount a comeback or even a feel good run in the third, as the Cavs continued to lock it down defensively holding them to just 23 points. There were multiple back breaking plays by the Cavs. With eight left, Irving missed a 3-pointer. Channing Frye soared in for the put-back slam that put the Cavs up 18.
"Put them in the deep fryer."@CavsFredMcLeod@cavs in control in the 3rd quarter
STREAM: https://t.co/6W1ASqEQSd pic.twitter.com/Og1h9zB83s— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) April 6, 2017
With 4:28 left, LeBron drained an extra long 3-pointer on a second chance play to put the Cavs up 25. And, Kyle Korver put the Cavs up 29 with 1:29 to go after getting to the corner in transition for a 3-pointer.
Fourth Quarter
The Cavs entered the fourth up 90-66, but Tyronn Lue was extra cautious. After resting the King near the end of the third, aside from the very last possession, he threw him on the floor with the super scrubs: Shump, Williams, RJ, and Korver. The Cavs ran the predictable Le-Iso offense. On first try, it netted RJ an open 3-pointer.
LeBron then began trying to attack mismatches with some success. He had ten points in the quarter and two assists. He had two +1s after just blowing by Crowder.
Love checked into the game with 9:12 to go after Lue watched LBJ struggle to rebound as the tallest Cav on the floor. Irving checked back in shortly after that. Up 18 with four left, Lue pulled the starters after the King called a timeout.
Gripes
- In the first quarter, J.R. Smith got beat on a back cut four separate times. He blocked Avery Bradley on one of them. Smith just needs to remain focused. It was nice to see him run the floor and get two easy buckets, even though he went just 2-7 from 3.
- Shumpert just isn’t a smart player. He routinely let Thomas blow by him and he would often try to play him to the left or right side rather than committing to just staying in front of him. Shump went 1-3 from deep and had two turnovers. One of which was literally a charge where he lowered his shoulder and leveled a guy.
- I haven’t mentioned refs once this season. I’m usually pretty lax about reffing because I don’t think it really changes the outcomes of games. I still feel that way, but tonight the refs were really awful. The Celtics had 29 free throws. Isaiah Thomas had eight of his own. When the Cavs were getting up by double digits, the refs continually bailed the Celtics out with touch calls or non-existent calls near the rim. Fortunately, Boston made just 18 of their attempts. Cleveland had just 18 attempts.
Hypes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEpcuGAx_lk
- The Cavs’ defense held together the entire game despite the 3-ball not falling and the Celtics getting favorable calls. IT penetrated with ease at times, but the Cavs back line provided sound backup; they recovered like experts when the ball was kicked out. Cleveland varied their scheme sometimes sending bigs up to the level of screens, but even on those plays they worked to recover quickly and efficiently, so the Celtics couldn’t exploit mismatches.
- Offensively, the Cavs started out slowly because they probably shot the first available jumper too often. However, once the second quarter came, LeBron changed that. He punished the Celtics by lowering his shoulder and scoring. He also exploited switches perfectly when they happened. Rather than settling for long 3s, he quickly made his way to the post to school fools like Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown. Late in the game, the King hunted for switches too much, but the game was already decided. He was 7-7 from the free throw line and led the team in plus-minus at + 32.
- Deron Williams was 0-5, but he had five assists, four of which came in the second quarter.
- Love held his own down low and gave Horford a hard time. He backed him down when he had good position deep, and he blew by him when caught the ball further out . He also held Horford to just seven boards and 12 points.
- Cleveland had just four turnovers through the first 36 minutes, while the Celtics had nine. The Cavs had 19 fast break points compared to the Celtics’ 11. When Cleveland doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot, they have a much easier time winning games.
- That’s the one thing I hope the Cavs learned from this game. Their offense wasn’t amazing, but they still won and it only took one of the big three having a great night. The Cavs controlled the stuff they could: taking care of rock, playing defense, boxing out, and running. Those things are effort based. Hopefully, this marks the start of the no-nonsense Cavs.
- They host Atlanta on Friday.
It’s honestly nonsense how often Lebron gets hacked, smacked, bumped, and scratched without a foul call. Watching his highlights from the Boston game he probably misses out on at least 12 free throws (which unfortunately means a measly 7 more points)
Boston lost again. Cavs can lock up the one seed by beating Atlanta Friday and Sunday, then take the week off to rest.
Let’s hope they do that a week off to rest should really help all the Cavs vets.
Warms my heart to see the Hawks beat the Celtics….
FeelsGood
Also, hoping to avoid Miami first round. Between Miami, Chicago, Indiana, would mostly favor facing Chicago.
Hope Atlanta wins tonight. If they do, Cavs have the chance to shut everything down after Sunday night and get a full week of rest.
Omg Dennis Rodman…so funny. Michael Jordan took two years off in the middle of his career to try baseball. How is that not taking a break?
And as Kerr said, Rodman missed 15 games a year due to suspension. All this ‘rest’ outrage is blather. They should play a much shorter season, but it won’t happen because everyone is bananas about the money.
I’m glad we are done with the Celtics until next year. They play so dirty.
Me too. I was getting antsy with the starters in with 5:00 left.
Nice job guy. It’s amazing how this team has to turn on themselves to get it together, but this marks three years in a row now that it’s happened and they’ve come together through it.
If the Celtics lose to the Hawks, the #1 seed is pretty much a wrap.
Who scares you more, Toronto or Washington?
If Lowry is close to 100% (and he sure looked it last night), Raptors. If not, Bullets.
Yeah. I agree.
Neither.
Raptors. Lowry, DeRozan, Ibaka, Jonas. Plus throw in Carroll, Joseph, Patterson, & Tucker & you have 9 dependable guys.
Washington. They just match up better with Toronto for whatever reason.
Toronto, they have more bodies to throw at Lebron. Probably four different guys to junk it up with ‘Bron.
Washington has no one.
Plus Lowry’s jumper is more reliable than Wall’s. Prevent Wall’s penetration, kill Washington’s offense.
Great game. The Cavs and the fans (and the rest of the East) needed that. Pecking ordered set.
One thing that I had in mind last night as I watched the game was how dumb of me to think that a team, who’s best player is a 5’9″, 160lbs PG, can compete against a team, who’s best player is not only the best player in the game but also can play all 5 positions and is 6’9″ and 230lbs.
For some reason I thought I needed to worry.
LeBron is more like 260.
Good recap. The second quarter Lebron was unreal. The ease with which he scored was downright absurd. Always makes me wish he stayed in the post more when he shows that skill set, he’s unstoppable down low and the best in the world at hitting the open shooter when he’s double teamed. Cols, you keep going on about being right, that’s misleading. You stated this game didn’t matter, that if the Cavs lost it wasn’t a big deal. You hedged your bets, some of us knew this game mattered, thankfully the Cavs agreed.
Tim
I still maintain it didn’t matter. I mean if they lost do you really think the Celtics stand a chance in the playoffs?
It mattered. The Spartans shined their helmets to present a wall of invincible and attacked with the sun at their backs to intimidate the enemy with the glare of their glistening death dance. The East believed the Cavs were beatable, now they do not.
You mean with their oiled up hairless chests? http://crazygain.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/300-abs.jpg
So hot
Why oh why do I listen to the bill simmons podcast? Today, even after the megabeatdownwithout Thompson on a back to back, he states with zero evidence that the Cavs have no flexibility and that the Cavs and Toronto are even for winning the eastern conference.
What a loon. Why/?QW#r9AW#$$et
Simmons is always so objective. A real paragon of modern journalism.
Wanna here a joke? Modern journalism
Postmodern journalism, even!
He’s almost as myopic as you.
Cavs lose: Cols “will make the Finals”
Cavs win: Cols “will make the Finals”
Not myopic. The opposite.
Myopic: a lack of foresight or discernment : a narrow view of something
Foresight. How about knowing the team is going to the Finals while you were melting down all March?
Thanks for proving my point
Player A: 29.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 11.2 apg, 441% shooting, 34.5% from three
Player B: 31.8 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 10.4 apg, 42.6% shooting, 34.7% from three
Player LBJ: 26.3 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 8.7 apg, 54.5% shooting, 36.2% from three
LBJ is head and shoulders more efficient and a better overall player than those other jokers. MVP
MVP is just a media hype award. MVP is not a “best player” award. Everyone knows LeBron is the best player in the world. If he switched with Westbrook and just worked for triple doubles, does anyone have any doubt that he’d average a triple double more efficiently than Westbrook? But he’s not going to try to do that. LeBron has won his 4 MVPs, and I can’t imagine he wins another one because he is more concerned with the playoffs and winning rings than regular season production. He’s in chill mode 98% of the regular season (the 2% remaining… Read more »
Agree Lebron has been best basketball player in the world for a while now. However, he is not having best regular season and his team is #4 in wins. If he wants and plays like he wants, he will win MVP every year, may be except last year when Curry had one of a kind regular season, that would have been hard to match.
Jordan was MVP almost every season he played. This is nothing new.
Player D : 25 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 6.6 apg, 0.2 47%/41%/90% 1.8 stls 2.4 turnovers in just 33.5 minutes best player on a team that just won 13 straight games…
Player E: 25.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.6 apg, 48%/37%/88% 1.8 stls 1.7 tos, in just 33.6 minutes, best defender in NBA…
Less efficient, less points, less rebounds, less assists. Those guys have thankfully fallen out of the conversation.
Media voter fatigue with the NBA is a joke. LeBron should have won the year Rose did, but they went a different direction over The Decision.
It’s kind of funny that Shaq and Kobe each won one, and Nash in a steroids offense has two. I’d probably go with Kawhi.
Per minute numbers matter.
As do free throws!
Player E should win being only all star in the team and being best 2 way player in the league with 60+ wins.
Player A has a strong case too being lone all star and 15+ win improvement over last year and actually making his team a contender.
The best two way player in the league is LeBron. As we saw last night.
Kawahi does it for whole year and Lebron doesn’t care enough about reg season to do it for whole year. At their best, Kawahi better on ball defender and Lebron better at everything else.
I would agree with this. LeBron doesn’t have the same on-ball defense that he did in his first go round as a Cav.
Not in the regular season.
Uh no. Defense is effort. He can be good in spurts, but he’s regularly bad.
Deron Williams is at 36% from three and 45% overall. Dude has been a great addition.
Any news on Thompson?
The great thing about this Celtics team is we don’t have to worry about Horford at all come playoff time, because he is the worst post-season performer of this generation.
Man LeBron is good. You could tell he wanted this one. Fun game to watch. Let’s finish out the season strong. The final game against the Raptors should be a good one if it matters.
Great recap to a complete Cavs victory, DW. Despite a certain someone saying the Cavs would be in chill mode and didn’t care about the number one seed… they certainly played like the opposite. They were focused and locked in, especially defensively from the start, and clearly wanted to not only win the game, but send a message to Boston…
Despite everyone on this board saying the Cavs were doomed, they are still somehow first in the east despite having like 4 games with a healthy roster.
How’s that?
I think you’re confused about the definition of words like “everyone” and “doomed”
Maybe I suck.
No one thinks you suck… but it wouldn’t hurt to turn down the obnoxiousness levels…
OK
I wouldn’t say “no one…”
Glad you pointed out this hypocrisy, EG. A certain someone had himself covered both ways. If the Cavs had continued on their defensive malaise and lost to Boston, the narrative would have been “…..see I said the Cavs will be in chill mode and didn’t care about the number one seed.” In winning, a certain someone can say he is the only person on CtB to “have the pulse of this team.” SMH.
Message sent to Boston and the rest of the East, that’s for sure.
Lebron pretty clearly wanted it from the opening tip…
+1
“…emphatically that the ball spawned some Cavs fans for him to high five when he went to retrieve it from the stands. ”
“…used his shoulder of unequivocal greatness to back him down for an ”
Funny.
Also, Jae Crowder showed why he sucks last night. Couldn’t shoot or come close to slowing down Leb. I’m so glad Griffin isn’t dumb enough to trade Kevin Love for Boston trash.
I thought Shumpy played pretty well. Boston has one win against us this year, by 4 on their court when we were without Love and JR.
You mean other than the times when he tried to dribble the ball?
Yeah.
Kyrie looks out of rhythm lately. Maybe it has to do with LeBron dominating like a demigod. He is a man amongst boys right now.
Nice write up. LeBron was other-worldly given he had played 52 minutes and 37 minutes in the previous two games.
We should have pulled the trigger on a Shump deal before the deadline… He’s looking pretty useless…
If Rubio for Shump was a real thing and they didn’t do it…
Yaaaa… that’s hard to think about. Especially since DWill isn’t exactly shooting well right now. Basically just as good a facilitator but a much, much better defender. I just hope it wasn’t an actual offer…
I don’t think Thibs is that dumb.
We will never know, but I’ve always wondered what Thibs was willing to give up for Shump. I sure agree it probably wasn’t Rubio straight up. We’ve read that some of the Cavs had “gone their own way” during the extended losing period according to Jason Lloyd and others. I imagine one of those guys is Shump as he isn’t playing with much joy and doesn’t seem to celebrate on the bench as much as his other teammates. Still holding out the small hope that at least the Shump we saw in the first 30-35 games returns
Boy, think of Rubio on the second unit…
I think the Rubio for Shump talk was entirely baseless. Why in the world would they trade Rubio for Shump? Other teams watch him play, too.
Really solid game from the Cavs yesterday. I personally don’t like the way Derron Williams and Shump have been playing lately, both players need to find their confidence soon. Especially Derron so that he can get Kyrie some breathing room for the first 2 rounds at least.
So tired of Thomas getting calls on every layup if anyone is within 3 feet of him, whether they touch the Precious or not. His bloated free throw stats this year are a hilarious gift. That Celtics team was ridiculously cocky (even for them) after the last few weeks, and it was nice to see the Cavs embarrass them from start to finish on their court.
The foul call he got when he just launched himself into LeBron’s body in the third quarter was just ridiculous. Imagine if Kyrie could get those same calls?
WOOHOO! That one felt good!
And we can all relax…
Good write up. Cavs offense was pretty amazing. They could’ve put up 140 points it felt like.