Post Game - Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers - Tuesay, May 07, 2024 - Game 1 Eastern Semifinals (W 1-0)

Well slap me down and call me be-otch! I am without criticism! Here's what I saw.

1. JB makes his first two FT's!! That was pretty much all I needed to see. Everything that happened after that was a direct result of that early new positive from a season long, early playoff negative for JB.

2. No KP? No problem. We were a little sloppy in 3-ville from the start/early on which is a slight reflection of a missing KP, but we got it together.

3. Just too much everybody. Let's face it. CLE has DM. And that's about it. Even bringing back Allen isn't going to help CLE. Peyton Pritchard closed the door at the end of the 2nd with his dagger 3 knockout blow. The 2nd half was just time. Game was over at halftime.

4. I love Derrick White. Right now, if this was the Finals and we won it last night, Derrick White would get the MVP. Any challenges not named JB? DW is HUGE CLUTCH!! And he's such a humble guy. I'd love it if he were the honorary valedictorian graduate of Larry Bird's School of Trash Talking, but he's just so dang humble and non-assuming that it has to irk the crapola out of the competition because he's just the opposite of what you would expect him to be the way he plays.

5. Bloodbath on the rebounds. Jeez!! 58/42/13 vs. 38/31/7. That is AWFUL if you are CLE. Would Allen and KP have made a difference had they BOTH been playing? (Yes, emphasis since the announcers mentioned and showed Allen a gazillion times vs. the 2 times they mentioned KP. I'll have to watch the game again and do my stat check, but I'm sure it's as lopsided as it ever is in these situations.) I'll be generous and call that a wash at best.

6. "No" Tatum, as far as what we are accustomed to seeing form him? No problem. His time will come. We may need him this series but probably not. Save yourself some energy. Defer. Most importantly, don't get injured! You'll be needed in the next two rounds and you can make your mark.

7. Not a lot of defense needed by us last night. It wasn't the smothering, totally disruptive defense we are temporarily seeing out West, but take note Boston. We make it that far and that's what's coming. We did make them take horrible 3-point shots. That's what Joe was emphasizing in the TO's.

My two phrases I'll keep saying until the ECF or Finals still hold true. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. And 2nd Verse Same As The 1st. I need to see more of the same, if not better. We can still close down DM and ratchet up the defense. Let's hope last night was a warm-up act for what is to come from us.

That's enough.

db

P.S. Here's a radical thought. Why not start the following NBA Season with last year's playoffs? That is, don't play the playoffs until the fall. Give everyone a chance to have surgery, heal themselves from the regular season, save the whales, whatever. That way every team would be at full strength and we wouldn't have to listen to this crapola every year about if so-and-so wasn't injured, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, it would mess up all the trading and darn near everything, but teams would adjust. They always do.
I'm just tired of injuries dictating the playoffs after a grueling 82-game season. Whatever. Dumb idea.

Darius Garland predicted before the game they were going to "shock the world". Yep, keep feeding us bulletin board material.

Donovan Mitchell was having his way but so did Jaylen. 33 vs 32, that's really all we needed. We just needed to stay close to their top scorer and then our depth would beat them. They have an excellent back court with Mitchell, Garland and LeVert but are thin at big, especially with Allen out, and at wing. We are not thin pretty much anywhere. If there were any questions about our depth at big with Z out they were answered last night.

What I liked is that we won every quarter. Down 5 after one, after being down by 10 at one point, they thought they were in good shape. Down only 10 at the half, still doable. Down 15 after 3, with that soul-sucking 3 from the back court by Payton at the buzzer? A deep hole, but a solid run to start the 4th and it's still a game, but you cannot lose the 4th quarter TOO. I like the fact that we never let them breathe. We never let them think that they had a chance of coming all the way back after halftime. The lead got no lower than 11 in the 3rd and then ballooned up to 20 less than 2 minutes into the 4th.

Derrick White has to be renewed this summer. I mean, man, he is a killa. 25 points on 9-16, 7-12 from 3. 5 assists and zero turnovers. Outstanding defense, as usual. When he's looking to score we are almost impossible to stop because you cannot just forget about the Js and Z. Our 4th scoring option was 3rd high game scorer last night.


Cleveland Bench = 15 points in a total 71 player minutes
Payton Pritchard = 16 points in 24 minutes


I'm going to miss Luke next year. His play this year, and especially his play in the playoffs, is going to earn him a bigger paycheck than we can offer him. He was great last night, moving up to 2nd big with Z's absence. 10 rebounds, including 6 of my beloved offensive rebounds in 21 minutes, a +12 plus/minus. That's a legit NBA back up big boxscore and there's always a need somewhere for one of those.

Despite Z being out, thereby opening up minutes for X he only got 7 minutes. That's odd, to me. Q played 3 minutes of garbage time, got 2 rebounds, which is more efficient than X's 3 rebounds in 7. This isn't a big deal, I just find it interesting that the player that Brad went out and got specifically for depth at big if Al or Porzingis are out barely played when one of those two were out. Granted Al and Luke were playing very well but, still.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
Sam Hauser entered the night leading the NBA Playoffs in Net Rating. This after leading the NBA in the regular season. Tuesday in Game 1, not only did he not score in 17 minutes, he only took one shot... ...and was a game high +22. Sam Hauser...Advanced Stat Master.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
TEAM A .780 win% 1st in Offense 1st in 3's 2nd in Defense 1st in Net Rating 1st in scoring margin TEAM B .833 win% 2nd in Offense 1st in 3's 3rd in Defense 1st in Net Rating 2nd in scoring margin TEAM A: Celtics in the regular season TEAM B: Celtics in the playoffs

When you consider our regular season had a healthy percentage of Detroits and other bottom feeders and we're only playing playoff-qualified teams in the playoffs (obviously!) this is pretty impressive through 6 games.


They need to win one in Boston. It didn't have to be this one, they could have shocked the world like Garland predicted, but it didn't need to be this one. If they win Game 2 they will have accomplished their mission here. On the other hand, if we win Game 2 also they are in BIG trouble.


Bob


.

I'm posting this to highlight two plays.  On the first play in this video Pritchard takes Garland to the rim and just shrugs him off for the layup.  A muscle play.

The second is at the 2:00 mark.  That's where he drives on 6'6" Caris LeVert.  There's contact near the arc and the much bigger LeVert goes flying.

I love how much dawg is in Pritch da god.





Bob


.

Great performance. Celtics played solid D the entire game. Cavs got hot late first quarter, but after that Celts totally shut them down. Mitchell had to make three or four high degree of difficulty shots just to keep the Cavs within sniffing distance. As soon as he took a breather we blew the game open.

Kudos to Jaylen for a terrific effort. Nailing those four first quarter FTs was pretty important. I think it just lifted his confidence so high that he couldn't be stopped. I'm guessing he put in some time on the off days working on his FTs.

D White was also tremendous. He just continues to make shots and play great defense.

I thought JT was also outstanding. His shooting was off, so what did he do? He played great defense, grabbed 11 huge rebounds, dished out 5 assists, blocked 3 shots and set effective screens.

Luke Kornet and PP were also excellent. When Luke plays like this, we don't even miss KP. PP finally found his stroke in the third quarter and his threes helped blow the game open.

However, its only one game. Cleveland is more dangerous than Miami. Garland and Levert can get hot. Mitchell is definitely the real deal and Mobley found his groove in the fourth quarter. The key is playing solid D again for 48 minutes. Hopefully JT will find his offense next game. It is imperative we protect home court. This next game is key.

55 rebounds, 13 of them offensive boards.

Kornet grabbed 6 offensive boards!

Best stats of the game IMO.

Anyone want to buy some Game 7 tix vs. the Cavs super cheap???

Great players find ways to help their team win.  

Although the Celtics won by 25 going away, they left a lot of scoring opportunities on the table and although they held the Cavs to 41% shooting and 26% from deep, there is another level or 2 that can be achieved at the defensive end.

Bernie Jr pleaded with his team to run the Celtics off the 3 point line.  That cannot work effectively when the Celtics move the ball and attack their opponents at all 3 levels.

I wanted to see how Boston would play without KP in the lineup.  Not  a problem with  Allen missing another game.  AH was solid but the eye opener has to be Luke Kornet and his play in the post.  He had 10 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 assists in 21 productive minutes on the floor.   Tillman gave us 3 rebounds and 2 points in 7 minutes of playing time as CJ was masterful in utilizing his bigs.

We got 2 outstanding performances last night.  Jaylen Brown played bully ball while making shots from everywhere and Derrick White continues his impersonation of a laser guided missile launcher while destroying the Cavs defense.  He went 7/12 from deep  and all of them were dead center.

PP came alive on offense but he can shoot better.  Hauser went scoreless in 17 minutes.  And Jrue Holiday was more proactive on offense while scoring 14 points and he had 6 rebounds.

Last but not least we have Jayson Tatum.  He is still in a funk offensively.  He went 0-5 from deep and 7-19.  The good news is that he eliminated the hitch action from his free throw shooting and went 4-4.  He also led the team in rebounding again with 11 and he had 5 assists, 3 blocks and only 1 TOV.  He scored 18 points.  

I mentioned this before and I will mention this suggestion again.  The Celtics can assist JT in getting non-ISO scoring opportunities.  CJ should draw up a few actions designed to get JT the ball in more catch and shoot situations.  

Overall this was an above average opening game win.  My hope is that their game 2 loss at home vs the Heat will shake loose any notion that this will be an easy series. The best way for them to avoid a game 2 letdown is to establish a dominating defensive mindset  at the very start of the game.