Blown Out at Q, Celtics Never Mounted Big Rally

By Peter F. Stringer
Celtics.com
May 10, 2008

CLEVELAND, OH - Schizophrenia is not to be taken lightly.

Maybe it's the food on the plane. Maybe somebody's short-sheeting the beds at the team hotel. Maybe they've been getting some bad peanut butter in those pregame sandwiches -- although I can vouch for the quality of Ray Allen's; I saw it get made and it looked tasty.

Whatever the case, the Celtics who went 31-10 on the road in the regular season wouldn't play like this. So what gives now in their 0-for-four on the road in the NBA Playoffs slump? TNT says it's "Win or Go Home." For the C's, it's more like Win…Or Go on the Road and Lose.

Whatever the reason, the Celtics' defense hasn't traveled with the team, and they suffered a 108-84 defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena Saturday night.

They can't be proud of getting waxed in Cleveland and putting up little resistance, but they can still take solace in a 2-1 series edge. The Cavaliers, their backs facing decidedly wall-ward, bought themselves some breathing room while choking off any oxygen the Boston offense breathed in the first two wins at the Garden.

Any claustrophobia felt by the Cavs on the parquet in the first two games was also roundly dismissed; the Celtics' typically air-tight defense sprang leaks early.

The Celtics shot just 40% from the field while allowing 53% shooting from the Cavs. Old friends Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West (Um, didn't we send you guys to Seattle this summer? Who said you could get traded back to our conference?) combined for 37 points and West stuffed the stat sheet with seven assists and five rebounds. The Cavs moved the ball well, as a team registering 29 assists on their 37 field goals, while the Celtics' stagnant offense had just 18 helpers and point guard Rajon Rondo couldn't find a dime.

"We got great shots to start the game, but when we started missing them, and instead of being the solid defensive team we've been, we got down because our offense was down," Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said at the podium in his postgame press conference, trying to answer the same questions that don't have answers, you know, the ones about the Celtics Jekyll and Hyde home/road performance. "That took a bit out of us and they made shots."

Perhaps more alarming than the box score was the second-half rally that never materialized. Despite absorbing the Cavs' initial first quarter 32-13 uppercut, and then a second quarter body blow that found them down 26 points, they never really connected on a counterpunch.

"We just couldn't come up with the big play whether it was an offensive rebound, giving up a three pointer or turning the ball over," a deflated Paul Pierce said after the Game 3 loss. "We couldn't get the stops when we needed it the most. That's not the team that we've been all year."

That's not to say they didn't take some swings. You don't have to watch much NBA basketball to know that teams who get down by 20 points typically are good for one big run to make it a ballgame. So even if your hometown team is up by 26, they'll probably get comfortable, start getting careless, the ball takes a few bounces and you could go to the beer line and come back with a ballgame on your hands.

The C's started chipping away and had it down to 17 at the half. That was a nice start, but typically you want to have it under 10 points heading into the fourth quarter if you really want a shot at getting the win. Midway through the third quarter, it looked like the Celtics were mounting that comeback.

"When you have a team like the Celtics you know that run is going to happen. You just have to keep doing the things that got you that lead," Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said. "We went through a stretch where we weren't moving the basketball and they were getting turnovers and converting those turnovers.

"If you bring [the ball] to a standstill or keep it on one side of the floor for too long they're going to make you pay."

If the Celtics made the Cavaliers pay, then said debt never truly got settled. The Celtics cut the lead to 12 points with just over three minutes to go in the third quarter thanks to a pair of steals and four free throws from Paul Pierce, but LeBron James came up with a steal, free throws and a three and the rally was quelled.

"When it was 12 we couldn't get over the hump. They kept answering with some crucial baskets," Kendrick Perkins said of the loss. "They came out like it was their last game."

Backup point guard Sam Cassell, a veteran of 125 playoff games including tonight, made it sound pretty simple as well.

"We couldn't put together consecutive stops like we usually do and they took advantage of it," Cassell said. Boston trailed by 16 heading into the fourth and never made it interesting in the final stanza.

The Celtics were really only blown out once in the regular season (heck, even last year's 24-win juggernaut was rarely blown out, a credit to Rivers and his staff) back on March 14 when the Utah Jazz crushed them at the Garden. Since then, the C's have made a game of it. But so far this postseason, the C's are 0-4 on the road, and the numbers are ugly when you look at the stats.

Six minutes into the game, the Celtics surrendered a 14-0 run and found themselves down 14-4. By the end of the first, the Cavs had a 19-point lead. Three minutes later it was a 26-point ballgame and the Celtics were buried and resigned to thinking about Game 4.

Dismantled in Game 3, they'll practice tomorrow at the Q and begin the reconstruction effort.

"We'll look at the tape and clean things up defensively so they can't come out and shoot 50% across the board. We didn't do a good job for our big men or covering them when they went to help. It's the little stuff, but it's big for our defense and we'll adjust for Game 4."

The Celtics never did make the Cavs pay in Game 3, but they'd like nothing more than to steal Game 4 and head back home up 3-1.