C’s not in same league
Mistakes, champion Cavs spell doom
You have to appreciate the way the Cavaliers did their part for the American economy last night. With an 8:30 p.m. start, worker productivity could have suffered today.
But LeBron James and the Cleveland LeBrons put the country, and the Celtics, to bed early.
James had 38 points, Kevin Love made six 3-pointers and added 32, and the Cavs led by as many as 28. They tucked the C’s in, 117-104, a final spread that doesn’t nearly begin to indicate the disparity between these clubs on this evening and maybe even in this series.
To those who believed that catching the Clevelanders rested but rusty last night might have been the best chance to sneak out a win, the 1-0 Eastern Conference finals deficit could seem insurmountable. (Then again, to those who calculate the odds of such things, this was virtually finished at 0-0.)
That the Celtics contributed to their own demise, doing to themselves what the Cavaliers did not, just made the margin more egregious. The C’s missed layups. They missed open 3-pointers. They therefore missed out on any chance of making this competitive in the slightest degree.
“It was big,” Isaiah Thomas said. “I mean, we got the shots we wanted on the offensive end almost all of the first half. We just couldn’t capitalize, and I think that was a big reason why our defense was let down as well. It’s tough to continue to keep playing hard, even though we need to, when you don’t see shots fall. And we can’t let that happen again, but I think that was a big reason why we had a letdown in that first half.”
Harder to digest is that the out-skilled Celtics also got outworked.
“I feel like they came out playing harder than us,” Avery Bradley said.
The Cavs simply ran their offense through whatever resistance the Celts mustered. Cleveland landed haymaker after uppercut.
“With a team like that, the defending champs, you can’t let them hit first,” Thomas said. “We’ll make sure it’s different in Game 2.”
But they could seemingly do nothing to stop the carnage in this one. It was fairly reminiscent of the scene from the epic film “Slap Shot” when Killer Carlson is getting his face rearranged and the referee winces and says, “Too much too soon.”
The Celts are here on this advanced playoff stage ahead of schedule. Their head of basketball operations and coach have acknowledged they need to get a lot better, and against the defending NBA champions, that spells trouble.
But hey, the C’s did have a 19-15 lead after one quarter — on LeBron. The problem is the other Cavs had 15 of their own. And unlike the Wizards in the previous round, Cleveland wasn’t of a mind to give back what it had taken.
James’ first shot was a missed 3-pointer. Then he went to the hoop and scored on his next seven attempts. He had 23 and Cleveland led 61-39 at the break.
“I thought he did a great job of setting the tone early,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said.
And that tone was a discordant note ringing through the Celtics’ ears.
“He made it clear — it was very clear — that he was trying to get to the rim on us no matter who was on him,” Brad Stevens said.
LeBron was nice enough to keep even the fans revved.
With 6:29 left in the second quarter, Thomas was fouled near the free throw line and, disgusted, continued in and threw the ball so hard off the backboard it bounded out to the C’s bench. James stepped in and complained to the closest official that a technical foul should be called.
His side was leading 41- 25 at the time, and while you might have to admire him being so consistently engaged, it wasn’t a good look to those who had come hoping the Celts could pull a Cavalier out of their hat. It was over early. The best night among the locals was a tie between rookie Jaylen Brown, who had 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and a team-high nine rebounds in 20 minutes, and the people who paid to watch. The crowd stayed in the game even when the Celtics left it.
So well-versed in perspective were the customers they seemed prepared to offer support even as they knew it was futile against a team that hasn’t lost in these playoffs and wasn’t interested in doing so here.
The vibe from the stands was very much along the lines of, “For those about to get smoked, we salute you.”