4-5-17 at Celtics

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Breaking Down The 'W' - April 5, 2017

Cavs.com

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Wrap-Up -- On Tuesday night against Orlando, the Cavaliers blew things open in the third quarter. On Wednesday night – in a much bigger matchup against Boston – it was the second, outscoring the Celtics by 16 points in the period and never looking back.

In a game billed as a heavyweight bout between the East’s top two squads, it was the Wine and Gold who delivered the early TKO – improving to 3-1 against Boston this season and reclaiming the top spot in the Conference with a dominating 114-91 win on Wednesday night at the TD Garden.

The Celtics took a one-point lead after one quarter, but that was as good as it would get Brad Stevens’ squad – who trailed by as many as 29 before both benches were emptied late in the fourth period.

Boston had won nine of their previous 11 heading into Wednesday’s contest and were poised to prove a point against the reigning Champs. But the Cavaliers – who came in winners of three straight – showed them they’re still the East’s alpha dogs, taking their fifth win the last seven meetings against the Celts.

LeBron James continued to torment the Celtics – leading both squads with 36 points on 14-for-22 shooting, adding 10 boards, six assists and a pair of blocked shots.

Kyrie Irving followed up with 19 points on 7-for-18 shooting, adding five boards and a pair of steals.

Kyrie’s Celtics counterpart and fellow All-Star, Isaiah Thomas, had topped the 30-mark in all three previous meetings with Cleveland this year, but the Cavs’ combination of Irving, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert kept him from affecting Wednesday night’s game – notching a quiet 26 points on 9-for-19 shooting.

Kevin Love stayed on a roll as well, tallying his 38th double-double of the season – leading both squads with 16 points to go with 12 points and an assist.

J.R. Smith notched his fifth straight game in double-figures – finishing with 12 points and a pair of steals.

Channing Frye got the start at center for an injured Tristan Thompson – who suffered a sprained right thumb in Tuesday’s game and was forced to miss Wednesday’s matchup, snapping his franchise-record consecutive games-played streak at 447. Frye filled in admirably, finishing 10 points, eight boards and a pair of steals.

All five Cavs starters score in double figures as the Wine and Gold win their fourth straight.

The Cavaliers beat Boston on the break, in the paint and on second-chance scoring while dominating the Celtics on the boards, 51-38, and missing just a single free throw (17-of-18) on the night.

Defensively, Cleveland held the C’s to just 41 percent shooting, including 21 percent (7-for-33) from beyond the arc.

Turning Point -- After a sluggish first quarter for both squads, the Wine and Gold simply caught fire in the second – and they wasted no time heating up.

Richard Jefferson scored on a dunk to give Cleveland the lead back and LeBron opened the floodgates opened from there – scoring 12 points in less than five minutes of work and keying a 22-4 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 17-point Cavaliers’ edge.

The Celtics would cut Cleveland’s lead to nine with just under three minutes to play before half, but the Cavs closed the second quarter on a 12-6 run to snuff the comeback.

By the Numbers – .941 … Cavaliers’ winning percentage against the Atlantic Division this season – going 16-1 against the Nets, Knicks, Celtics, Raptors and Sixers – beating them by an average of almost 11 points per (115.5 – 104.7) with their lone loss coming on March 1 in Boston.

Quotable – Kevin Love, on Cleveland’s big win in Boston …

”You saw it in the 3rd quarter last night, we played really good basketball and I think tonight we put together a good string of basketball for just about 48 minutes and it felt like us. It had been a while since we have put together a game like that and we needed that. It’s a great environment, the fans are great here, they get on top of you and they are well coached and have great personnel. Tonight was big for us.”

Up Next -- After demolishing the Celtics on Wednesday night in Boston, the Cavaliers are less than a week away from wrapping up the 2016-17 regular season. On Friday night, they welcome the Hawks to The Q before getting back on the road for a quick back-to-back – taking on those same Hawks on Sunday night in Atlanta followed by a trip to South Beach to face the Heat on Monday. Cleveland closes out the campaign when the Raptors roll in for Fan Appreciation Night next Wednesday night at The Q.

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Cavs Smash Celtics, Reclaim East's Top Spot

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#CavsCeltics Game Photos - April 5, 2017

clejgabriele

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When your teams play 'til June – like all of LeBron James’ teams have for the past six seasons – there aren’t many big regular season games. But tonight’s matchup in Boston – for the top spot in the East with less than a week remaining – is one of them.

The team the Cavaliers vanquished in four First Round Playoff games two years ago has developed into their top contender in the East – and both squads stand at 50-27 with four games to go after tonight.

As good as they’ve both been individually this year, the Cavaliers own the season edge, 2-1, and have taken four of the last six over the Celtics – averaging 117.8 points in the previous four. In fact, Cleveland’s four-point loss in Boston back on March 1 was its only loss against an Atlantic Division team all season – going 15-1 this year against that five-team grouping, topping them by an average of 10 points per (115.6-105.6).

On Tuesday night, the Cavaliers played easily their best quarter of basketball since getting healthy, scoring 43 points in the third quarter and pulling away for their 17th straight win over Orlando.

The Celtics haven’t played since Sunday, dropping the Knicks by 16 at the Garden for their ninth win in the last 11 games.

Throughout this season – and most of the last five – through winning and losing streaks, with players injured or simply taking the night off, one player that was an absolute lock every night was Tristan Thompson.

This season, the workload has gotten even greater for the undersized center as injuries to any potential backups have left him basically alone to man the middle. On Tuesday night, the injury bug finally caught up to the blue-collar big, whose streak of 447 straight games – one that began on February 10, 2012 – comes to an end after spraining his right thumb in the third quarter.

Thompson’s streak was the longest current run in the NBA (with Corey Brewer taking the top spot at 272) and the longest in Cavs history. He’ll also miss Friday night’s contest in Atlanta and his status will be updated after that.

With Tristan out, odds are that Channing Frye gets the start. But it’s a contingency that’ll be a first for any Cleveland coach since Byron Scott.

Whoever gets the start in the middle will mix with nine-year vet Al Horford – Boston’s third-leading scorer, rebounding leader and statistically, the best passing center (5.0 apg) in the league this season.

When the Cavaliers and Sacramento Kings (or Phoenix Suns) would hook up for their bi-annual meeting, it was almost a novelty that the top pick in the 2011 Draft (Kyrie Irving) would do battle with that Draft’s last pick (Isaiah Thomas). Thomas would go at Irving hard when he had the chance, but he wasn’t even the starter with either squad.

These days, that matchup has taken on new meaning. These days, they’re each All-Stars in the same Conference that they’ve led their teams to the top of. One has been one of the most prolific clutch shooters of the past half-dozen season. The other, this season’s top scorer in the East.

Thomas scored 19 points in just 23 minutes against New York on Sunday, snapping a string of 30-point games at four. This year, the diminutive star from Washington has scored more than 30 points on 29 occasions – including all three meetings with Cleveland – topping the 40-point mark four times and going for 52 in a late-December win over Miami.

Kyrie has had his share of big games this season – notching 11 games of 30+, including three 40-plus outings. But Irving has simply been consistently great all season – tallying at least 20 in 25 of his last 26 games, including a 24-point outing in Tuesday night’s win.

In three games against Boston this year, Kyrie’s averaging 27.7 points on 57 percent shooting to go with 6.3 assists and 1.3 steals.

As the Cavaliers have battled injuries all season long, there haven’t been many occasions in which all three of their shooting guards were simultaneously healthy. It’s better late than never – and the Wine and Gold finally have their full complement of 2-guards ready to roll.

After clawing his way through the first 10 games of his return to the lineup, J.R. Smith has re-discovered his stroke over the last four contests – canning at least four triples in each, averaging 15.8 points on .576 shooting (19-for-33) from long-range.

In terms of three-point shooting, the East’s top marksman returned to the lineup – with Kyle Korver making his first appearance since March 25 and shooting like he hadn’t missed a beat – netting 11 points in 12 minutes of work, going 4-of-6 from the floor, 3-of-5 from deep in the win.

With Smith and Korver doing their thing, Iman Shumpert can re-focus on the defensive end – and he’ll be huge on Wednesday night, with the Cavaliers likely looking to follow their formula from the 2015 First Round series, using Shump’s size and quickness against Isaiah Thomas.

In terms of all-around defenders, they don’t get much nastier than Avery Bradley, who’s scheduled to return from a stomach ailment that sidelined him for the past two games. Bradley is Boston’s second-leading scorer and rebounder and he’s got some history against the Cavaliers.

The rest of Boston’s backcourt – including rugged combo-guard Marcus Smart and impressive rookie Jaylen Brown – can be a hard day’s night as well.

Wednesday night will mark the 46th career meeting for LeBron James and the team that’s more or less been his Eastern Conference nemesis dating back to his early days as a teenager with the Wine and Gold.

In the previous 45 contests, the King has averaged 29.5 points – his highest scoring average against any NBA franchise.

In his three meetings against Boston this season, LeBron has doubled-up in each – including a triple-double in Cleveland’s March 1 loss, finishing with 28 points, 13 boards and 10 assists.

James is coming off back-to-back triple-doubles (the third time he’s done that this season) – one in a monster 41-point performance against the Pacers and a more subdued 18-11-11 effort in Tuesday night’s win over Orlando.

Of course, LeBron also made more history along the way – passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with his 788th straight game scoring double-figure points. (An impressive feat, no matter what Coach Tyronn Lue insists.)

Normally, James would be locking horns with Boston’s Jae Crowder. But the versatile fifth-year man from Marquette has been nursing a sore right elbow and is still listed as day-to-day.

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KeyBank Five Keys: Cavaliers at Celtics

clejsykes

After a perfect 3-0 homestand, the Cavaliers are back on the road tonight when they square off against the Boston Celtics. Tipoff from TD Garden is at 8:00 p.m. (ET).

After last night’s 122-102 win over the Orlando Magic, Cleveland hit the 50-win mark for the 10th time in franchise history. It was also their 17th straight victory over the Magic, which is the NBA’s longest active win streak over a single opponent.

CAVS TO DON NAVY JERSEYS.
        From where to catch all the action to Wednesday's game notes, Cavs.com has you covered.

In addition, the Cavs matched Boston's 50-27 record making tonight's game a battle to see who will be atop the Eastern Conference standings.

The Cavs have won four of the last six contests against the Celtics and lead the season series 2-1 which is important for tie-breaker purposes. Overall, the Wine and Gold are 15-1 against the Atlantic Division this season (3-0 vs. TOR, 3-0 vs. PHI, 4-0 vs. NYK, 2-1 vs. BOS, 3-0 vs. BKN), which includes a 7-1 mark on the road. Cleveland’s average margin of victory is +10.0 against the Atlantic Division this season (115.6-105.6).

As Cleveland looks to extend their winning streak to four games, they will need continued efficiency at both ends of the floor.

With 122 points last night, the Cavs have now scored 120 points or more in 22 games this season (21-1 record). That’s more than twice as many 120-point games the Cavs had last season (nine).

Defensively, Cleveland is a perfect 10-0 on the season when they hold an opponent to less than .400 from the field. The Cavs held Orlando to .384 (33-86) shooting and limited them to an opponent season-low 24 points in the paint.

Defending the paint becomes more of a challenge against the Celtics as the Cavaliers will be without their man in the middle, Tristan Thompson. Thompson did not travel with the team to Boston on Tuesday night in order to have additional evaluation and imaging done at Cleveland Clinic Wednesday morning. The results have confirmed a sprained right thumb. He will miss Wednesday’s game after playing 447 consecutive games, which was the longest active games played streak in the NBA and the longest streak in Cavaliers history.

Boston enters Wednesday's showdown having won six of their last seven games due in large part to their All-Star point guard, Isaiah Thomas. The 5th year pro from Washington is posting career-high numbers in both points (29.1) and assists (5.9) this season.

Programming Note: On Wednesday, FOX Sports Ohio is airing the Cavs – Celtics game (8:00 p.m.) and the Reds – Phillies game (7:00 p.m.). To view TV listings, CLICK HERE.

For live in-game updates, follow @cavs, @CavsJoeG, @CavsFredMcLeod, @MrCavalier34, @CavsJMike and @chones22 on Twitter.

Status Update: (Cavs) - Tristan Thompson, (Sprained Right Thumb, Out)

Status Update: (Celtics) - Jae Crowder, (Sore Left Elbow, Probable),Avery Bradley, (Gastroenteritis, Probable)

As mentioned, the Cavaliers have taken four of the last six meetings between the Conference foes.

Over the last four games against Boston, Cleveland is averaging 117.8 points and 25.0 assists. The Cavs have scored at least 120 points in three of those
four contests. They have also held the edge in second chance points (15.5-11.3), fast break points (15.3-9.8) and rebounds per game (44.0-38.0).

Wednesday's matchup is the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this regular season.

After Wednesday's game, Cleveland comes home for a date with the Hawks on Friday then travel to Atlanta for a back-to-back against the Hawks and Heat next Sunday and Monday before closing out the campaign next Wednesday against Toronto at The Q.FIND SEATS | VIEW FULL SCHEDULE

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#CavsCeltics Game Preview - April 5, 2017

On Wednesday, April 5, 2017, FOX Sports Ohio is airing the Cavs – Celtics game (8:00 p.m.) and the Reds – Phillies game (7:00 p.m.). Please refer to these programming details, available online HERE.

Cavaliers Live Pregame Show begins at 7:30 p.m. | Tipoff at 8:00 p.m.

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#CavsCeltics Programming Note - April 5, 2017

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4‑5‑17 at Celtics