Celtics Drop Cavaliers in Preseason Finale

Back in 2004, these two teams faced off in an exhibition contest in Columbus and sparks flew – with Paul Pierce spitting in the direction of the Cavaliers bench followed by a postgame scrape in the tunnel.

With the regular season just six days away, the two Eastern Conference enemies faced off again at a packed Value City Arena, and while it didn’t get as ugly as that night five years ago, there was a nastiness not often seen in the preseason.

Things got contentious again on Wednesday night – with Shelden Williams and Mo Williams getting into it as the buzzer sounded to end the first half. No punches were thrown and each player received a technical foul, but the stage is definitely set for the eagerly-anticipated opener on Tuesday night at The Q.

As for the results of the game, itself: that’s probably something the Cavaliers would rather leave in the state capital.

The Cavaliers came into Tuesday’s exhibition almost at full strength, while the Celtics were without Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Unlike the shorthanded Mavericks the night before, Boston gave the Cavaliers fits – handing the Wine and Gold the 96-82 loss.

Mike Brown had pulled most of his starters late in the third quarter, but Boston had already built a big lead. With both teams coming off a back-to-back and wrapping up their respective preseasons, the Celtics were the aggressors for most of the evening.

“We have to do a better a better job on the defensive end of the floor in terms of our physical presence, the way (Boston) did tonight,” said Brown, adding, “It was great tonight because it showed me, our team and everybody else that we have a lot of work to do.”

Boston led by 10 after one quarter and pushed their first-half lead to 13 before Shaquille O’Neal took over for Cleveland. Shaq scored on a sweet baseline spin move, got an and-1 on a dunk over Rasheed Wallace and fed LeBron James for a reverse baseline dunk to cut the C’s lead to three, 49-46. But Boston bounced back before half and led by a dozen at the break.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but overall I think we’ll be fine as long as we get better every day,” offered O’Neal. “Next Tuesday, it’ll be the real deal and we’ll be ready.”

The Celtics started the second half with an 8-2 run, and the Cavaliers were never quite able to catch up, evening their record for the preseason at 4-4 with the loss.

LeBron – who was named an honorary Buckeye by Coach Thad Motta before the game – led the Cavaliers with 18 points, going 6-for-15 from the floor with four boards, four assists and a massive blocked shot on Rajon Rondo – sending the Boston guard’s offering four rows into the seats.

“(Boston)’s a good team,” said James. “You always want to play better, but in the end, it’s a preseason game and you don’t want to look too far into it. We know we can get better and we have time to get better.”

Shaq followed up with 16 points – nine of which he tallied in the second quarter – on 7-for-13 shooting, adding five boards and a blocked shot of his own.

Anderson Varejao rounded out the Cavaliers starters in double-figures with 10 points to go with a team-high seven boards in Wednesday’s loss. The Wild Thing concluded the preseason shooting a team-best 67 percent (16-24) and averaged 8.2 points and 6.0 boards in 20.2 minutes per contest.

The Celtics shot an even 50 percent from the floor and almost the same from long distance. Boston also went 75 percent from the stripe, compared with 57 percent shooting for the Wine and Gold. Cleveland also doubled-up in the turnover category, committing 16 miscues to Boston’s eight.

The Cavaliers never quite got untracked during the exhibition season after running off their first three wins. Struck with the flu and nagging injuries, Mike Brown’s squad never got a good, consistent rhythm from game to game. Thankfully – to quote LeBron following the loss – the “dreadful” preseason is over and the 2009-10 campaign begins in earnest on Tuesday night in Cleveland.