Cavs Complete Monster Blowout in Boston
With 3:11 left in the first quarter, and the Cavs leading by 11, LeBron notched one of his signature chase-down blocks on Avery Bradley.
Not that long ago, Cavs fans watched as their place atop the Eastern Conference standings slipped away while the Celtics made a late season push to supplant them. It was a tough second half of the season for the defending champions. Plagued by injuries and lineup troubles, Cleveland caved in the worst way. Going into the postseason no one knew what to expect. Many predicted a Cavs flop. Instead what has transpired for this Cleveland team is nothing short of incredible.
Cavs Find Their Stroke
On Friday night at the Boston Garden the Cavaliers posted a historic first half, amounting a sick 72-31 point lead. That constituted the largest first half lead in NBA history. In the first half alone, LeBron James and Kevin Love combined for 40 points. James scored or assisted on 38 points, while Boston’s top scorers Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford were held to 2 points. It was nothing short of embarrassing for a Boston team that surprised the league with their late season play. But this was surprising in a wholly different way.
By the end of the game, the green face paint was dripping. Celtics fans were yawning, some of them crying. Their hero, Isaiah Thomas, was nowhere to be seen after leaving the game in the second half with a strained right hip. And the scoreboard read a whopping 130-86. Simply put, the Cavaliers blistered the Celtics. In doing so, they set a franchise record for total points, and earned their 13th consecutive playoff win, tying another league record.
The crazy part is, LeBron is convinced his team can do better.
“I believe we’ve got another level, as well,” he said in the post-game press conference. “As well as we played tonight, we’ve got a couple of things we can do better. There’s no complacency for us now. But we like where we’re headed.”
Not So Regular Now
After the game, rookie Jaylen Brown — who said beforehand that LeBron was just a ‘regular guy’ — put it simply.
“We got our asses kicked.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said it better, “They looked like a JV team.”
That they did. James — who was anything but regular in this one — finished with 30 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks, shooting 4-6 from three, and 66% from the field. Love finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds. And Kyrie Irving added 23. Even with the starters sitting out the fourth quarter, the Cavs scored 27 to give them that franchise-record 130 point total — the most in a Cleveland playoff game.
But, says coach Tyronn Lue, the Cavs have no intention of slowing down.
“It’s one game. I don’t care if you win by 200 points,” he said post-game. “We’re going back home, we’re not going to get comfortable. We understand that this is a good team. They’re not No. 1 in the East for no reason.”
Game 3 is Sunday night.
Cleveland will have a chance to bring the brooms out at home. It would be their third consecutive sweep in the postseason. So much for Boston’s home court advantage. With the loss of Thomas, the prognosis looks bleak for Beantown. They will face an uphill battle to say the least, come Sunday night. Meanwhile, the Cavs are suddenly looking like the team to beat in the playoffs.
For the Record
With his performance Friday night, James became the first player to score at least 30 points in eight straight playoff games since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1970. He played just 33 minutes — a low for the playoffs and only the second time he played fewer than 40 in this postseason.
