Last night, the Cleveland Cavaliers squared off against the Boston Celtics inside TD Garden, which resulted in a 114-91 runaway victory for the road-bound defending champs.
If you’re the Celtics, you have several glaring concerns about the outcome of last night’s game. Through the first quarter, Boston actually held a one-point advantage (20-19). However, with Isaiah Thomas on the bench for the start of the second period of play, the Cavs began to pull away. At the halftime horn, Cleveland led Boston by a fairly wide margin, 57-42.
In the end, the Celtics were unable to recover from their early deficit. Poor three-point shooting (7-of-33), shoddy defense, and a less-than-impressive mark from the free-throw line (18-of-29) proved to be their demise. Celtics guard Avery Bradley accredited LeBron James’ performance as one of the determining factors in Cleveland’s win.
“LeBron picked us apart,” Bradley stated after last night’s game.
James, who downplayed the win during his post-game media availabilty, finished last night’s game with 36 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a +32 rating in his 39 minutes of playing time.
“They ran the same play at least 10 times in a row and he either scored or made a play for a teammate,” a frustrated Bradley said of James. “We have to do a better job of containing him, trying to force him to take contested 2s.”
“He saw something that we couldn’t figure out,” Bradley continued. “That’s why he’s LeBron James. He saw that he wanted to get Isaiah (Thomas) in pick-and-roll. He knew what guy he wanted to get in pick-and-roll so he could expose our defense. As a team, you have to cover each other, you have to talk, and you have to have each other’s back. And we didn’t do that tonight.”
Boston’s smaller size seemed to play a role in last night’s game. In fact, there were times when it looked like they had no answer for the 6’8″, 260 pound freight train that is known as LeBron James. Marcus Smart couldn’t guard him, neither could Kelly Olynyk. Each time there was an opportunity for a switch, mismatch, or pick-and-roll, James jumped at the chance.
“LeBron did a great job of getting us in the pick-and-roll and picking us apart,” Bradley said. “We have to be wide, we have to talk, we have to make sure we’re helping each other out. We can’t just put a guy on an island with LeBron James, he’s a very good player. We have to do a better job of helping each other and contain him.”
“I think it’s hard (to decide between guarding the shooters and helping on James),” Bradley continued. “It was almost – with Tristan Thompson out, it was harder for us to guard them because we had no one that could help as much. And we knew that going into the game. But it’s just our job to make sure that we’re talking a little bit more and helping each other out.”
Whether the Cavs want to admit it or not, last night’s game sure looked like a statement win. With just four contests remaining in the regular season, the defending champs are now leading the Eastern Conference standings by one full game over the boys from Beantown.