Key: Seeing Green
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On Wednesday night, the Cavaliers wrap up the home portion of the 2020-21 regular season when they welcome the Celtics to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavaliers dropped their 11th straight on Monday night, falling to the Pacers in a close contest that came down to two bugaboos that have haunted them all season: a sluggish third quarter and the inability to close out games down the stretch. Indiana held Cleveland to 17 points in the third and closed the contest on a 20-11 run to sweep the three-game season series.
The Celtics come into tonight’s contest in the midst of a three-game funk – and on the heels of terrible news in the form of a season-ending injury to All-Star swingman Jaylen Brown. Boston has dropped three straight, including back-to-back defeats to the Heat, with Miami shooting a combined 58 percent from the floor as they surged past the C’s and into the coveted 6th seed in the East.
The Cavs and Celtics have split the season series to date – with Boston blasting the Wine & Gold in late January at home before taking a seven-point loss at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse this past St. Patrick’s Day.
Key: Facing Forward
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Before Jaylen Brown’s unfortunate injury, the Celtics – who’ve been oddly inconsistent all season – could at least know they were heading into the postseason with arguably the league’s best one-two punch at the wing. Now, Jayson Tatum is on his own.
Fortunately for Brad Stevens, the former Duke star has been up to the task.
Improving steadily better in each of his first four years in the Association, Tatum has taken his brilliance to an entirely new level since the All-Star Break – posting games of 44, 53 and 60 points just since the beginning of April, averaging 30.7ppg over his last 16 outings.
Tatum was out for the first meeting of the year against Cleveland, but led the Celtics with 29 points in their March 17 loss at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and is averaging 30.3 points per in his last three games against the Cavs.
He’ll spend a good portion of Wednesday night locked up with Isaac Okoro, who’s coming off his first career double-double and has been outstanding down the stretch of his rookie season.
On Monday night against Indiana, the No. 5 overall pick in this most recent Draft had one of his best all-around games of the season – finishing with 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting, adding a career-high 10 boards to go with four assists and a steal.
The 20-year-old Atlanta native has now scored in double-figures in nine of his last 10 games, averaging 15.4 points on 43 percent shooting from the floor over that stretch.
Key: Bull Work
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Death, Taxes and Collin Sexton putting up 20 points a night. Book it now.
With his third NBA season coming to a close, the Young Bull has proven that he can – as J.B. Bickerstaff says: “roll out of bed and get you 20” – topping that mark in 18 of his last 19 games, averaging 25.2 points on 47 percent shooting over that stretch.
In Monday night’s loss to Indy, Sexton led the Cavaliers with 25 points despite struggling after intermission, going 7-for-26 from the floor and 10-of-12 from the stripe, adding five boards and a team-best eight assists.
Sexton led the Wine & Gold with 29 points in their March 17 win in Cleveland and went off for a then-career-high 41 the last time Boston came to town. In the five games Sexton has faced Boston here in town, Sexton has averaged 28.4 points per.
Tonight, the Bull will have to deal with a red-hot Kemba Walker, who’s topped the 30-point mark in three of his last four outings, including a 36-point outburst in last night’s loss to Miami – averaging 29.8 points per over that stretch.
Walker missed the March 17 contest in Cleveland, but finished with 21 points and three steals in Boston’s blowout win back in late January.