Key Moment
Celtics versus Cavs would make one hell of a playoff series, wouldn’t it?
For the second time in six days, the two teams went to overtime in a playoff-like atmosphere. This time it was in Cleveland, and again, the Cavaliers came out on top.
Cleveland held on for the win despite not scoring a point over the final 1:49 of overtime. Its final bucket came off a cutting dunk from Jarrett Allen after Grant Williams and Marcus Smart appeared to miscommunicate at the defensive end of the floor.
That basket provided the Cavs with a 114-109 lead, and the C’s fell just one point shy of erasing that deficit.
Jaylen Brown canned a jumper at the 1:34 mark, and then Jayson Tatum drove the length of the floor between traffic to put home a layup with 1:04 left in overtime. Boston then had two opportunities to take the lead during the final minute but were unable to capitalize on them.
The final chance at the win came with just 2.3 seconds left, after the Celtics had forced a miss out of Darius Garland and then called a timeout. Joe Mazzulla dialed up a play for Brown, who had already scored 30 points, to try to win the game.
Brown streaked from the baseline up to the top of the 3-point arc, where he caught an inbound pass from Marcus Smart while facing away from the basket. He then turned over his left shoulder and took one dribble to face up with the basket and his defender, Dean Wade. He pulled up from about 20 feet away from the hoop to fire up a jumper that fell long off the back of the rim as the buzzer sounded.
With that, Cleveland secured it second overtime win in six days over the defending Eastern Conference champs. Something tells us the Celtics will be anxious to exact revenge when these teams meet again, but they and we will have to wait a while, as the next matchup won’t arrive until March 1.
Key Player
The Celtics didn’t exactly outplay the Cavaliers while Jayson Tatum was on the floor Wednesday night, but that shouldn’t take away from the impressive line Tatum put together in the game.
Tatum not only poured in 26 points to trail only Jaylen Brown’s 30 on the team, but he also tied his season high with 12 rebounds and set a new season high in blocks with four. Those 12 rebounds tied Al Horford for the team’s high mark, and secured his second double-double of the season. Meanwhile, those four blocked shots tied Cleveland’s team total. Tatum also contributed six assists to tie Derrick White for the top mark on the team.
The All-NBA wing logged nearly 43 minutes of playing time during the contest and single-handedly forced overtime with a driving dunk at one end and a blocked shot at the other end. He’d prefer to have the win over the impressive stat line, but despite the loss, his performance cannot be ignored.
Box Score Nuggets
- Jayson Tatum tied Cleveland's team total with four blocked shots.
- Both teams shot 42 percent or worse from the field.
- Boston shot 26-for-27 from the free-throw line.
- Jaylen Brown scored a game-high 30 points.
- Al Horford notched his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
- Jarrett Allen led the game with 14 rebounds.
- Darius Garland played very well while recording 29 points and a game-high 12 assists.
- Derrick White, who scored three points, was the only starter who did not log at least 12 points.
- Malcolm Brogdon (15 points) and Grant Williams (11 points) combined to score all of Boston's 26 points off the bench.
- Marcus Smart tallied 16 points, six rebounds and five assists.
- Both teams made 11 3-pointers.
Quote of the Night
"From a composure standpoint it was fine. It's just, we let go of the rope a little bit as far as making them have to play against our set defense in the second half."
- Joe Mazzulla on Boston's defense