Looking back on the season Cavaliers-Celtics series reveals plenty of thrilling, competitive basketball, difficult absences to draw from in each game and a 2-2 season series tie that played nearly even (460-459 CLE) on the scoreboard collectively. Cleveland effectively secured the east’s top seed in Friday’s 123-116 win, ahead of Boston by 7.5 games now, while the Celtics controlled their two healthiest meetings with the Cavs and nearly won the other two down multiple starters.
The main takeaway becomes that this hypothetical east finals series would be close night-to-night. Joe Mazzulla stressed that last season’s second round series between the two teams didn’t fully show Cleveland’s capabilities due to Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen’s absences. They all returned this year, and with additional wing depth added at the deadline in De’Andre Hunter, Kenny Atkinson’s group looked flexible, explosive and capable of executing a difficult defensive game plan that absorbed droves of threes and allowed an all-time Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum game (83 pts) while staying home on the Celtics’ other threats.
Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday missed the game — but the Cavs proved that any swing in health or productivity across either lineup could swing a spring series in either direction. It’s that close of a matchup.
- Let’s start with the 25-3 opening Celtics run. With the best TD Garden crowd of the year rocking and crisp passes flying across the perimeter in transition, the Cavs looked overwhelmed. Atkinson explicitly said pre-game that he expected Boston to play even with Porziņģis out and the Celtics instead started Sam Hauser alongside Al Horford. Mazzulla wanted zone-busters on the floor most of the night, and the Cavs’ large starting lineup with Max Strus and the two centers looked unprepared to combat that spacing.
- Ty Jerome and Hunter took Mitchell and Evan Mobley off the floor and matched Boston’s smaller look. Jerome scored eight points in less than two minutes to cut the lead from 17 to nine after Mazzulla briefly tried Drew Peterson, Torrey Craig and Luke Kornet in a deeper bench lineup. Peterson’s night lasted 90 seconds, Craig’s didn’t last much longer and Kornet struggled in his return from missing two games for personal reasons. A rough night for Boston’s bench followed games at Toronto and Detroit where depth appearances outside of the usual rotation didn’t stand out in either.
- Cleveland went to its zone looks and some blitzes, Brown noticed, though the Cavs’ switching ability slowed the Celtics’ role players and allowed Cleveland to win the three-point attempt battle (40-39). They drew Tatum into the mid-range, and he hit them in droves, Atkinson calling the performance one of the best shot-making efforts he’d seen in the league. The Cavs limited Boston’s three-point offense for the first time this year, and it only came after halftime, 26 Celtics threes coming in the first half before 13 in the second. Cleveland played an even game on the offensive boards (14-14), shot more free throws (19-16) and committed fewer turnovers (7-11).
- Hauser played 37 minutes in his spot start after returning to the injury report with his back ailment earlier this week, playing more limited time at Detroit. His performance and presence swung the game on both ends, finishing 2-for-8 from the field while attacked often by the Cavs. Cleveland’s ball-handlers also did a good job getting underneath Kornet’s arms and drawing contact into their shots. Payton Pritchard, who scored 24 points in the Cavs’ comeback win in December, finished with a negative +/- in three out of their four games this season, falling to -36 in Friday’s game with only four shot attempts. A travel call on his pass out of a shot attempt visibly frustrated him midway through the game. Those three struggling in this matchup would become a real factor.
- While Boston tightened its rotation after early bench minutes fared poorly, the Cavs embraced shuffling their various wings in and out of the game. For the first time in the four-game slate, Max Strus, Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro and Sam Merrill all were available alongside Hunter in his debut against Boston. Buyout addition Javonte Green and rookie Jaylon Tyson didn’t play, additional options if the Cavs need them. Add in Jerome, more of a guard hybrid, and Cleveland generated eight made threes from their bench wings on 13 attempts. The array of skillsets among those players give the Cavs enormous flexibility, even if none amount to Brown and Tatum’s level.
- The Celtics’ defensive game plan revolved around putting the ball in Darius Garland’s hands on his way to 9-for-23 shooting by positioning Hauser on him. Boston tried to attack Garland on offense with both Tatum and Brown, the latter faring better while Garland held his own on Tatum, limiting him to 10-for-26 shooting across the four games. He’s a target, and while competitive defensively, had no chance late against Brown. The Cavs closed with him, and Garland hit a long two that iced the game late, but each game will raise a dilemma for Atkinson over whether he wants to close big, potentially without Garland, or take a big off the floor to bring an additional wing into the game later.
- Mitchell is a one-man comeback. In December, his 20 fourth quarter points flipped the game. In the third quarter on Friday, he scored 14 points in seven minutes to pull the Cavs within one point. Mitchell’s 41 points on Saturday made him the all-time leading scorer in terms of points per game against the Celtics (30.8), surpassing Michael Jordan. No lead feels safe with him on the floor.
- Mobley’s fourth quarter will go down as the game’s biggest revelation if he carries forward into more success against the Celtics, perhaps the team he’s struggled most against in his budding star career. He scored 11 points in the fourth and grabbed four offensive rebounds, taking advantage of the three-minute stint to begin the quarter with Tatum off the floor. Cleveland won that stretch, 9-3, took a 104-101 lead and scored on three straight possessions after Tatum returned to go ahead by five points. After Brown twice tied the game later in the fourth, Mitchell went on his own 5-0 run to effectively put the game away. Derrick White took a hard foul from Strus moments later that left him shaken up.
- The Cavs closed with five lineups over the final 5:26, including more than three minutes without a center. Allen did not play over the final 14 minutes.
- In a loss, Tatum had his vintage game of the season — 46 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists and visible fire on one play as Jerome hounded him and Hunter met him at the rim unsuccessfully. Tatum powered through both, bumped Hunter and flexed. Atkinson praised him after the game, calling his performance one of the best shot-making nights he’d seen in his career: “J.T. does it on the defensive end too. You can’t pick on him. He holds his own. We have to appreciate greatness. The fans could see it tonight. The crowd. It was some performance by him.”
- Brown blamed a fourth foul call on him in the third quarter for throwing off his and the team’s rhythm, while accusing the Cavs of flopping. He missed the final 7:08 of the third, then played the full fourth where he shot 4-for-9 with 10 points. The Cavs closed the fourth 22-11 with Brown off the floor.
- Mazzulla said Holiday is day-to-day with his right mallet finger ailment, based on his pain tolerance. That points toward Holiday avoiding surgery, a potential outcome to that injury. Porziņģis dealt with an illness for the third straight game.
- The Cavs were available in full. Boston’s first win came in November with Strus, Wade, Okoro and Caris LeVert (since traded to ATL) out. The Cavs won in December with Brown and White missing for Boston. Wade and Strus also missed that game, while Wade and Okoro were out for the Cavs’ home loss to the Celtics in early February.
- Cleveland outscored Boston, 120-91, after falling behind 25-3. It marked the first time this season that the Celtics lost with a 20-point lead. Brown and Tatum scored 30 points each,