addByline("Peter Stringer", "Celtics.com", "peterstringer");
CLEVELAND – Twenty-point comebacks are always inspiring, but they’re only birthed by devastating deficits.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, their comeback fell short Thursday night in Cleveland, and Brad Stevens isn’t impressed by anything resembling a fourth-quarter moral victory given how poorly his team played during the previous three stanzas.
Asked how much stock he put in the fact that his team rallied to make it a game, Stevens cut off the question before it could even be completed by stating a resolute, “None.”
It was the kind of comeback Doc Rivers used to call “fool’s gold” due to the fact that at the end of the day, the Celtics still lost, and even if they had managed to win, it wouldn’t have been because they deserved a victory.
“In the fourth quarter, our guys did a great job of coming back, but I thought we were disappointing in the first three,” Stevens said of the 124-118 loss at Quicken Loans Arena. “If [the Cavs] have 100 after three quarters, you don’t have a real chance to beat them.”
It was 101-83 at the end of the third quarter, and the Celtics had spent the first 36 minutes not being “connected” on defense, according to Stevens. After all, when you give up 32, 34 and 35 points, respectively, during each of the first three quarters, your defense isn’t offering much in the way of resistance. LeBron James (23 points), Kyrie Irving (32) and Kevin Love (30) did most of the damage for the Cavaliers throughout the night.
The C’s finally turned things around with some inspired play from their bench. When a reporter singled out the fourth-quarter efforts of Marcus Smart and Tyler Zeller, Stevens added a few names to the list.
“I thought Jerebko and (Jaylen) Brown were really good, and Jae (Crowder) played with that group, which was a bigger lineup,” Stevens said.
Avery Bradley also took note of what allowed the Celtics to make things interesting down the stretch.
“We had plenty of opportunities to get the lead, and all (of the) credit to our bench guys. Those guys went in there and were doing our defensive principles,” Bradley said. “They were making shots and they got us back into the game.”
Bradley finished with 23 points on 21 shots, but hit just three of his 10 attempts from beyond the arc. He also struggled at times after jamming his left thumb, the collateral damage from attempting to dunk against James, who’s never seen a dunk in the lane he didn’t want to challenge.
Crowder, who had a chance to give the Celtics the lead with a 3-pointer with 8.5 seconds to play, said that the Celtics “simplified it on the defensive end and made (Cleveland) go through us” as they mounted their comeback.
As for his shot that could have potentially completed Boston’s revival, it felt good coming off Crowder’s hands. It just didn’t feel the same when it was time to go through the rim.