Celtics Stop Cavs' Win Streak, 120-117
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 20 Nov 2024
The Boston Celtics ended the Cleveland Cavaliers season starting winning streak at 15 games, holding out to a 120-117 victory at the TD Garden.
The loss was not entirely unexpected but the Cavaliers had all the motivations to win this game:
-Extend its winning streak to 16 which would put them next only to the record setting Golden State's 24-0;
-Beat the Celtics in their own home arena;
-Raise their record to 2-0 in the Group play for the NBA Emirates Cup while relegating Boston to 0-2 virtually putting them out of contention; and
-Put them ahead of Boston and everyone else in the trouble-laden Eastern Conference at least for the first quarter of the season
Most pointedly, the Cavs have the materials to accomplish the job. In fact, experts were spot on that Boston would have problem protecting the rim against Cleveland's big and tall frontline. Stats bore them out- the Cavs starring their bigs Jarret Allen and Eric Mobley beat the Celtics in inside scoring, 44-22.
But the Cavs never reckoned with the Celtics' heart of champion.
And did not have anybody to match Boston's three points shooting particularly that of Jason Tatum who burned them for a game high 33 points.
With Tatum leading the scoring with Jalen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, Boston bucked the Cavs' ring rattling assaults to race to a 65-48 halftime margin.
The Cavs realized that they had to match the Celts outside shooting to make the game competitive so their offense shifted more to Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.
But Garland was either in an off night or successfully hounded by Jrue Holiday producing a low 8 points for the evening.
It's the Cavs luck that the off the bench players as George Niang, Ty Jerome and Craig Porter took up the slack enabling Cleveland to make the game closer by the mid third quarter and for most of the final quarter.
Still the absence of stalwarts as Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert told on the Cavs as the Celtics had all available hands on deck, not allowing Cleveland a taste of the lead though they came to within two many times in the final quarter.
The Celtics shot more than 50 percent from the three points area negating the Cavs inside scoring.
Though seemingly outplayed by the Cavs bigs on defense, Al Horford more than adequately held his own on offense, scoring 20 points in support of Tatum. Brown contributed a silent 17 points while White banged in 19 points, Pritchard 13 and Holiday 11. Relief center Nehemias Quetta also saw some minutes and scored 4 points and 4 rebounds.
Mitchell topped for the Cavs with game high 35 points followed by Mobley with 20. Allen just 10 despite his towering presence at the slot. Garland was limited to just 8 points which was not compensated by Niang's 11 points, Jerome's 10 points and Porter's 15 points.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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