Cavaliers not rusty blowing by Celtics
James and crew lead from the start in Game 1 victory
BOSTON — LeBron James had 38 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics, 117104, Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Kevin Love added a playoff career-high 32 points and had 12 rebounds to help the Cavaliers improve to 9-0 in the first three rounds of the playoffs. They opened 10-0 last season en route to their first NBA title.
Game 2 is Friday night in Boston.
James scored at will in the first half and the Cavaliers built a 26-point lead. Love opened up the floor for James, burying outside jumpers and forcing Boston to leave defenders one-onone with James.
Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder led the Celtics with 21 points each. Isaiah Thomas had 17 points. Boston missed 11 of its first 14 shots.
Love averaged a quiet 13.8 points in the first two rounds, then broke out against a Boston team that knocked him out of the 2015 playoffs when he became tangled with Kelly Olynyk and dislocated his shoulder.
The shoulder was working just fine Wednesday, and he scored in the paint and from the outside.
Things got a little testy in the third quarter when Boston’s Marcus Smart and Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson got nose-to-nose and had to be separated by referees. Some jawing continued briefly before James stepped in to pull Thompson away.
Smart and Thompson were called for double technical on the play, but got tangled again a few minutes later. The Celtics found some energy after the incident, closing the third on an 11-3 run to pull to 92-75.
It didn’t last long, though, as the Cavaliers quickly got the lead back up to 20.
James picked apart every defender that the Celtics threw at him in the first half.
He backed down defenders to set up 15-foot fade away jumpers. Other times, he simply took defenders off the dribble or sliced through double-teams on the way to layups.