BOSTON — Donovan Mitchell stared down the TD Garden crowd, stunned for a second straight series, seemingly surprised to see a Cavaliers fan in front of him. He denied the high five at first, then handed it out after effectively stopping the Celtics from building a 2-0 lead at home.
His three on the final possession vaulted Cleveland ahead by 12 before the Cavs exploded for a 24-9 run into the fourth to sit the Celtics’ starters down.
“I think it was just a bad game,” Jaylen Brown said. “Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight, but defensively, it was an unacceptable performance. I think that’s where we look at that, I’m the most upset. Defensively, we gave up 118 points, and then on top of that, we lost the rebound battle, so we didn’t help ourself tonight.”
Mitchell finished with 29 points, seven rebounds and eight assists while Jayson Tatum’s playoff-long struggles continued, shooting 7-for-17 in one of the worst Boston offensive efforts of the season. Brown matched him (7-17), Derrick White cooled off to 3-for-11 while the Cavs nearly doubled up the Celtics from three on fewer attempts after battering Boston inside early and often. The series now turns to Ohio tied 1-1.
The Cavaliers shot 82% at the rim in Game 1 and returned there to spark a 30-24 first quarter win. Cleveland began 10-for-13 inside, botching a few early Evan Mobley give-and-go attempts before continuing to empower him for a 5-for-8 start. Seven straight Celtics misses late in the first powered the Cavaliers’ fast break, Max Strus and Caris LeVert sneaking downhill for transition layups in an 10-4 half for Cleveland’s transition offense. Mobley, meanwhile, hit a left-handed scoop shot, dunked twice and buried a three above the break, scoring 21-point double double.
“The transition defense is a byproduct of your offensive spacing and shot selection, so that’s not an effort thing as much as an execution thing,” Mazzulla said. “They beat us to a few of the loose balls, especially in that first half. Our spacing (broke down) … they did a better job pressuring us, they did a better job helping at the rim … I definitely thing there were times in the game where we went through tough stretches offensively that affected our defense.”
On offense, Tatum reached the free throw line six times early, but missed a pair of layups in traffic, went 1-for-3 shooting from mid-range and fell to 3-for-10 with an off-balance three point miss late in the second. Al Horford took advantage of the Cavs shying away from him, shooting 3-for-4 from three and exploding past Mobley’s late recovery for a driving finish in the first. He scored 11 points while his Cavs counterpart entered halftime with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Boston led 51-43 midway through the second, but an Okoro breakout finish, Mobley free throws and a pick-and-roll finish, along with a last-second Brown turnover and foul in the bonus allowed the Cavs to tie the game, 54-54, before the buzzer.
The Cavaliers carried the run into a 36-24 third where Tatum managed 3-for-5 shooting by going to the rim. The defense continued to falter though, forcing Mazzulla to take a timeout two minutes in after Mitchell and Darius Garland stepped into threes. Brown and Tatum drove downhill for three-point plays after, but Boston’s defense slipped low on Garland again when he pulled up from three. Mobley rolled in a wide open free throw line jumper as the Celtics’ players called for a travel and Okoro ran to the rim again for two.
Kornet briefly built some momentum by forcing a third and fourth foul on Mobley, only for Mitchell to attack Hauser downhill, LeVert to hit a leaning two over Kornet and Cleveland to hit four straight shots and 6-of-7 late in the frame. Tristan Thompson grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds, Tatum drove into two defenders and turned the ball over and after Mitchell’s buzzer beater, the game quickly went off the rails.
“My feeling was that we were playing solid defense and they were hitting tough shots,” Horford said. “I felt like we continued to stay with it. At the end of the third it was right there, then Donovan makes a tough shot like Payton made a tough shot in Game 1, but I felt like even though they hit us … I still felt good going into the fourth quarter … it’s just about trying to get something going and we weren’t able to.”
Jrue Holiday grabbed a Pritchard to begin the fourth that briefly provided some life when he tossed the ball back to him for a three that cut the lead to 12. A loose ball foul on Horford after he grabbed an offensive board on the following possession seemed to especially deflate the Celtics.
They could never get back, despite the Cavaliers failing to hit a fourth quarter three, falling to 11.8% themselves in the second half on 17 attempts. Mitchell drove for a layup uncontested, Strus hit a corner three with Boston scrambling in rotation and LeVert finished through a flagrant foul with 4:58 remaining that sent the Celtics’ starters to the bench down 111-88. Tatum remained defiant even while sliding to 40.7% from the field and 26.8% from three, only shooting one free throw in the second half. He called out a double-standard by media that didn’t heavily consider him for MVP or Mazzulla for coach of the year but asks for consistent blowout wins, while vowing to break his slump.
“I’ve been in the league long enough that sometimes you just don’t make (shots),” Tatum said. “You’ve gotta continue to take the right shots and it’ll even out. I’m not really getting caught up on that. I know how to score the ball … just get ready for Saturday. Nobody was in there defeated or deflated. You never want to lose, especially in the playoffs … we get it. The world thinks we’re never supposed to lose, we’re supposed to win every game by 25 and it’s not gonna be like that. We don’t expect it to be easy … we’ve bounced back plenty of times.”
