POST GAME CLEVELAND

GAME STATS

SCORE – CELTICS 93 / CLEV 92
REBOUNDS - CELTICS 37 /CLEV 46 .....Offensive - CELTICS 2 /CLEV 9......Defensive - CELTICS 35/CLEV 37
POINTS IN THE PAINT - CELTICS 40 /CLEV 38
FAST BREAK POINTS - CELTICS 13 / CLEV 18
FG - CELTICS - 34/76 ( 44.7 %) CLEV 38/86 ( 44.2 %)
3PM - CELTICS - 5/14 ( 35.7 %) CLEV 7/17 ( 41.2 %)
FTM - CELTICS - 20/28 (71.4 %) CLEV 9/14 (64.3 %)
TO - CELTICS 15 / CLEV 18
ASSISTS - CELTICS 27 /CLEV 26
STL - CELTICS 10 / CLEV 10
BLK - CELTICS 4 / CLEV 6
PF - CELTICS 15 / CLEV 22
BENCH POINTS - CELTICS 22 / CLEV 39
TOTAL TEAM TURNOVERS (Points off turnovers) – CELTICS 16 (16) /CLEV 19 (23)

NEXT GAME FRIDAY - HOME - ATLANTA - 7:30PM - CSNE/NBA LEAGUE PASS

POST GAME RECAP

ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: Celtics 93, Cavaliers 92

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 93-92 on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Jeff Green scored 21 points and converted a layup at the buzzer as the Celtics rallied from 14 down in the second half to steal a win in Cleveland and snap their five-game losing streak. Brandon Bass scored a season-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while and Paul Pierce finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists (helping to negate seven careless turnovers). Jordan Crawford added 12 points off the bench, providing a second-half spark to aid the comeback effort. Wayne Ellington scored a team-high 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting for the Cavaliers, who put six players in double figures, including CJ Miles and Marreese Speights with 13 points apiece off the bench.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics were down 10 with under six minutes to go, but an 11-2 run that culminated with an old-fashioned three-point play by Green had the Celtics within a point at 90-89. Boston missed two chances to pull ahead -- Green getting mugged near the basket with 55 ticks to go, which infuriated the Celtics' sideline -- and CJ Miles made a pair of free throws at the other end to push the lead to three. Unfazed, Pierce hit a jumper in the lane and Boston got a defensive stop giving them a chance to pull ahead with 9.2 seconds to play. The first opportunity got knocked out of bounds, but a review of the clock gave timeout-less Boston a chance to draw up another play with 2.1 seconds to go and Green attacked through traffic for the win.

12 UP, 12 DOWN
Despite leading by as much as 12 in the first half, Boston soon found itself down 12 shortly after the intermission. Jordan Crawford provided a late third-quarter spark as Boston made it a one-possession game, but Cleveland's first three makes of the fourth quarter were all from beyond the 3-point stripe and back-to-back buckets by Marreese Speights had the Cavaliers up 86-72 with 8:08 to play. The Celtics wouldn't roll over, however.

WHAT IT MEANS
While a team with championship aspirations shouldn't get too hyped about winning against a Cleveland team playing without its three best players, this was a much-needed victory for Boston -- and the way it played out should do wonders for a Celtics team in need of a confidence jolt. How appropriate that the winner was delivered by Green, who had heart surgery in Cleveland 14 months ago and had his surgeon sitting courtside (stopping on his way back to the locker room to chat him up). The Celtics get a bonus as the Milwaukee Bucks, losers of four straight after falling in Philadelphia on Wednesday, are now 2½ games back in the race to avoid the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. Boston is off Thursday before hosting the Hawks on Friday, then it's a visit to the Knicks on Easter Sunday.
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CSNE

Green hits buzzer-beater to defeat Cavaliers, 93-92

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

CLEVELAND — If you're going to go down, you might as well make it interesting, right?

For the umpteenth time this season, the Boston Celtics played well in spurts and woeful in others.

But the Celtics would not be denied this time as Jeff Green scored on a driving lay-up with no time remaining as the C's escaped with a 93-92 win.

The ending was in stark contrast to a game that for far too long played out like so many of the C's recent losses.

In the span of about 90 seconds in the third quarter, Boston called a pair of time-outs.

Out of those time-outs, the C's turned the ball over both times.

Boston had plenty of opportunities in the fourth quarter to make the Cavs squirm a bit. But if it wasn't Avery Bradley missing an open jumper, it was Paul Pierce failing to connect on a pull-up in the lane.

However, the Celtics got a pair of free throws from Pierce and a three-point play from Green that cut Cleveland's lead to 90-89 with less than two minutes to play.

From there, the comeback was on as the C's snapped a five-game losing streak while extending Cleveland's losing ways to six in a row.

After a series of missed opportunities by both teams, C.J. Miles was fouled around the basket by Pierce with 39 seconds to play.

Miles made both free throws to put the Cavs ahead by three.

The C's seemed to have finally had their chance to put some pressure on Cleveland to execute when Pierce was fouled with 2:16 to play and the Celtic trailed 90-84 at the time.

For so much of the night, this was not all that different than many of Boston's recent losses, a game filled with miscue after miscue that were of the self-inflicted variety.

There were a number of moments when the game's momentum titled a bit, but none stick out more than the second quarter after the C's took a 36-26 lead.

Boston was seemingly on the verge of digging the Cavs an even bigger ditch when a full court pass by Paul Pierce sailed into the mitts of Wayne Ellington.

Moments later, the C's lead was down to eight points.

And then six.

And then four ... then two.

Just when it seemed that the C's were seemingly one or two possessions away from pulling away, instead they found themselves in fight that Cleveland was more than ready for.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers talked before the game about how Byron Scott-coached teams play hard.

Lately, the same can not be said about the Celtics who play hard in stretches but seldom long enough to take control of games.

After five lead changes in the first two minutes of the third, the Cavs ran off 13 straight to take control.

Boston cut Cleveland's double-digit lead to as little as five points in the third before the Cavs held on for a 73-67 lead after three quarters.

112288

Beating the CAVS is not that significant in and of itself. They are not that formidable especially minus Kyrie Irving. However what was noteworthy was that Jeff Green was the go-to person for last shot time. This should prove that the answer to last second wins is not always Pierce's hero ball approach. Congrats & Thanks to Jeff!

MD!

Just wondering since Doc calls the last plays, why it is call "hero ball"?
While I am very happy for Jeff and the C's,I don't think teams will continue to allow layups at the end of the game either. Usually they get fouled with nothing called. Jeff better develop a mid range jumper, then we will see if thats a better option.

Hi,
My impression of the game was - Celtics decided to pull Miami. Remember, the last Mia-Cle game. Of course it wasn't 27-point deficit but...
In any case, win is a win is a win.

AK

I didn't see the game, but I listened to it on the radio (Sean Grande and Cornbread Maxwell). Here's a recap of what I heard all game long:

1. "You mess with the game and the game messes with you".

2. "Paul Pierce is flirting with a quadruple double; points, assists, rebounds and turnovers" - in the 2nd quarter. For what it's worth, they agree with me when I say that Pierce has been having more brain-dead games.

3. Green was "passive" all game long, until the final play or two. By that they meant his game was all jumpers and no drives.

4. There was the stretch, I think at the end of the 1st half, where Crawford lost the ball, stole the ball back and hit a jumper. Grande was saying that was Jordan Crawford in a 2 minute snapshot. A lot of good, a lot of bad.

5. Avery Bradley is really struggling on both sides of the ball. Grande mentioned that his fg% has now dropped below 40%.

That's most of what I heard, mostly repeated.

Credit to Bass for being the high scorer.

They are playing without Kyrie Irving, and we know what a handful he is, but we're without two starters too. They mentioned in the Knick game that we had 108 games lost due to player injuries. I guess we're up to 112 (Rondo, KG, Lee, Sully) now, huh? And that doesn't count the lost games if we hadn't traded Collins and Barbosa, who is out for the season, for an active player. Hard to feel sorry for Cleveland. We've said all along health is the most important thing for this team. This game proves it. We struggled to beat one of the worst teams in the league who was down a superstar because we were short too.

Let me also point out that we had 28 ftas vs 14 for them. That's 20ftm for us vs 9 for them. Those damn refs hate us...Not that I don't think that refs have personal grudges against specific players and coaches who have made their jobs harder over the years, but I think the problem is more about inconsistency and calling fouls based upon what they think must have happened and not what they actually saw.


bob


.

tardust wrote:Just wondering since Doc calls the last plays, why it is call "hero ball"?

It shouldnt be. Plays at the end of games are determined by who is the best scorer on the court (usually Pierce) and who has the best match up (last night, that was Green) Final shots of the quarter, half, game are almost always isolation or two man pick and roll type of plays.

Just because it looks like "hero ball" doesnt mean it is. Hero ball is a term used to describe a team (like the Knicks) where most of their offense over the course of 48 minutes, entails 4 guys standing around while JR Smith or Carmello try to take their man one on one.

Cavs played a little shorthanded also. Minus their 3 top per game scorers(Irving,Varejao,Waiters) and top rebounder Varejao.

Swish

Here's the game winner. I just saw it for the first time. Kudos to JET for setting an EXCELLENT screen on Green's man to break him free at the top of the key for the game-winning drive. No screen, no win. Well done, Jason Terry.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6hB_4DTyb74



bob


.

Jeff Green's cardiac surgeon, who attended the game.




Thanks.

bob


.

As I said on the Game-on Thread, the nicest moment of the night came when Jeff Green embraced his surgeon. Outstanding!

If KG's being out is a lemon, then Doc's making lemonade. Not by the win; they just as easily could have lost. But by using these games for late-season experiments. Last night, he started what I call a "tall ball" lineup: Wilcox, Green, Bass, Pierce (at SG) and Bradley (not part of the tall ball mis). They went out to a pretty good lead, which I hope will give Doc reason to consider tall ball more often.

Moreover, Doc had Green playing the 4 and Bass playing the 3. (Doc mentioned it after the game; I didn't notice it during the game.) This season, between them, Green
(playing some 3 and some 4) and Bass (playing mostly the 4) have averaged a combined 20.0 points per game. Is it a coincidence that, while switching positions for at least part of the game, they scored a combined 43 points?

Maybe I was imagining things, but I'm pretty sure I saw Bass outmuscling guys in taking the ball to the hoop. And I believe that playing what were surely more minutes at the 4 than usual took Green closer to the basket, and he gathered 7 rebounds compared with his season's average of 3.7 boards.

Speaking of rebounds, Paul Pierce was less encumbered by opposing 2s than he usually is by opposing 3s, and he gathered 10 rebounds compared with his season's average of 6.4. However playing the 2 at least part of time may have contributed to Paul's running up 8 assists, although playing against smaller but quicker opponents probably contributed heavily to his 7 turnovers.

I liked the fact that Doc gave Crawford as many as 26 minutes, and Jordan once again was a key catalyst in the comeback. I believe the, with every game he plays for the Celtics, he's becoming more selective in his shooting and more discriminating in setting up teammates with pretty good passes. At present, he's virtually tied with Green for third place among Celtics regulars in points per 36 minutes. And I think he's proving to be an adequate help defender.

I realize that these analyses are clouded by the fact that Bass, Pierce and Green all played more than one position last night. But it seems as though the following conclusions are warranted:

• The jury's out as to whether Paul at the 2 is more productive than destructive.

• However, I think "tall ball" holds enough promise for Doc to give it increased consideration in certain game situations.

• Playing Bass against smaller 3s can provide an added strength advantage in going to the hole.

• Giving Green additional minutes at the 4 can give him an agility advantage on offense and can take him closer to the hoop for rebounding purposes.

• Crawford is a perfect proponent of volume basketball. That may be good or bad, depending on game situations and the makeup of Celtics' and opponents' combinations on the floor. But he is a definite offensive catalyst, and I often like seeing him on the floor rather than either Jason Te(who was supposed to be that kind of catalyst) or the current (struggling) iteration of Avery Bradley. I'm anxious to see more of what Crawford and Lee might accomplish together.

I won't comment otherwise on Bradley, as I've been doing enough of that lately. I'm trying to stick pretty much to glimmers rather than an exhaustive analysis of both positive and negative aspects of games. And I'm hoping Avery will get back on track soon.

Go Celtics!

Sam