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LeBron, Cavs hand Celtics 'embarrassing' Game 3 loss 124 - 95
May 7, 2010
For the first two games in this series, the Boston Celtics were playing as well as they possibly could while the Cleveland Cavaliers meandered about, nowhere near their maximum capacity. And yet the Cavaliers still won a game and almost recovered from a 20-point second-half deficit in another. Friday, we saw what happens when Cleveland plays to its ability and Boston does anything less: the worst home playoff loss in Celtics history, 124-95. "It's embarrassing," Paul Pierce said, "when you lose at home like that." With their recovery from a Game 2 letdown and subsequent evisceration of the Celtics, the Cavaliers have regained home-court advantage, every simile for momentum and now lead the series 2-1. "In Game 2, we just didn't play well in every aspect of the game," Antawn Jamison said. "We knew what happened [then] was behind us." In fairness, the Cavaliers played well beyond their ability, putting up obscene offensive numbers such as 142 points per 100 possessions and nearly 60 percent shooting. But that efficiency was a byproduct of Cleveland's aggressiveness out of the chute, a change of face in a series that had seen Boston lead after the first quarter in both instances. An attitude that started with LeBron James (38 points, eight rebounds, seven assists). "You knew it coming into the game," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We told our guys, 'You knew he was going to grab the ball and he was going to attack all game, especially early, to get his guys involved.' And he did it." "It was great to see LeBron set the tone from the jump ball and everybody else followed," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said.
In the first quarter, James had 21 points on 10 shots with five free-throw attempts. By halftime, he had 28 of his team's 65 -- only needing two threes -- and amazingly, the Celtics had just five defensive rebounds, the smallest after the first half since Kevin Garnett has been in Boston. While this was more of an account of how often Cleveland was scoring than how Boston was rebounding, the Cavaliers still grabbed seven offensive boards. In other words, the Cavaliers missed 15 shots in the first half and gained an extra possession after seven of those, leaving Boston just eight opportunities to get into their offense without taking the ball out of bounds. While Boston's scoring total was manageable in a low-possession game, the Cavaliers allowed nothing approaching comfort by making the Celtics change what they needed to succeed. After Rajon Rondo looked like the best player in the series through two games, the Cavaliers put Anthony Parker on him from the start, hindering Rondo in the backcourt, pressuring him into uncomfortable passes and generally ignoring him when the ball wasn't in his hands. The resulting situation was one where Rondo was scoring -- 12 points on 13 shots in the first half -- because he had to score, and shoot from the perimeter, for Boston to survive rather than one where he could score because the opportunities were present.
"We did a good job making him shoot jumpshots tonight," J.J. Hickson said. "He wants to get in the lane and make plays. We made it uncomfortable for him." And the opportunities for Rondo weren't present because his teammates either weren't drawing the defense by producing or weren't on the court long enough to produce at all. Paul Pierce, largely absent for most of the series, shot 3-for-10 in the first half and was stopped at the top of the key by outsized players like Mo Williams. Some early whistles discouraged Boston's big men from setting their usual brand of moving screens, making it more difficult for Ray Allen (1-for-5 in the half) to get open coming off the baseline. But worst of all, after two games spent abusing Jamison in the post, Garnett took just two shots in the first seven minutes before picking up his second foul and taking a seat. "Offensively we didn't have a lot of movement," Rivers said, "didn't go to Kevin enough. We've got to make a concerted effort to continue to go to Kevin, and we didn't do that."
So, with no driving lanes available to Rondo and no post-presence to feed the ball to, Boston scored four points in the paint in the first quarter, fell behind by 19 and watched helplessly as the Cavaliers picked apart their world-class defense. Sure, it was impressive that Cleveland came out with a taste for blood in the second half, kept the crowd to fidgeting and booing and had Rivers waving the white flag midway through the fourth quarter, but how much of a chance did Boston, ever inconsistent, have after being down 22 at the half? Well, the Celtics have not come back from a 20-points deficit in the second-half in 2010. Not at home. Not in the playoffs. And certainly not against the Cavaliers.