Celtics Must Leave ‘Bad Game’ In Past To Flip Switch Vs. Cavaliers

BOSTON — The outpour of boos and fans fleeing to the exit tunnels once Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla removed all the starters from the floor was a familiar reaction to a familiar inexcusable playoff performance.

After dominating the Cavaliers to begin their Eastern Conference semifinal series in Game 1, the Celtics, once again, blew their chance to take full advantage of playing at home. Boston was lazy in defending Cleveland’s transition offense, didn’t make a 54-54 halftime tie a competitive race to the finish, and failed to match Donovan Mitchell’s offensive firepower.

“It was just a bad game,” Jaylen Brown said after the 118-94 loss. “Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight, but defensively, it was an unacceptable performance. And I think that’s where we look at that and 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 ourselves.”

If the Celtics feel the need to trim their Game 2 film, they should look no further than rewinding the entire third quarter with their eyes glued.

While the Cavaliers continued to get comfortable and confident in scoring without worrying about the Celtics responding, Boston became a lost puppy. The Celtics, oddly, turned desperate in the second half quickly, rushing to feed guard Derrick White from 3-point territory in contested attempts. That not-so-creative gameplan led White to shoot 0-for-4 from three in the frame and chuck away an off-the-mark airball from the left corner. Collectively, Boston went 0-for-8 from deep while Mitchell drained a buzzer-beating-3-pointer and death-starred the crowd afterward.

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Cleveland shot 56.8% from the field and 55.6% from three, out-rebounded the Celtics, 21-14 in the third and fourth quarters, and held Brown and Jayson Tatum to a combined 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting.

Boston needs to identify those stretches when the threes aren’t falling and reset the offense. The Celtics have been down this road multiple times amid their 15-15 home playoff run dating back to 2021. It’s very much possible to attack the rim, engage defensively when the Cavaliers are pushing the ball in transition, and not get content when the Celtics — more than anyone else — haven’t earned the right to mail in a nonchalant playoff loss at home.

Tatum and Brown are at the forefront of preventing this team from proving the front office’s belief wrong.

For starters, Boston’s one-two punch needs to show up. Tatum scored 25 points, but shot 7-of-17 and scored nine points in the second half. Brown finished with 19 points, also went 7-for-17 from the field, and shot 0-for-6 from beyond the arc with nine second-half points as well.

“Nobody in (the locker room) was defeated or deflated,” Tatum shared. “Never wanna lose, especially in the playoffs. A lot of things we can learn from and we get it, right? The world thinks we’re never supposed to lose, we’re supposed to win every game by 25 (points). And it’s just not gonna be like that all the time. We don’t expect it to be easy.”

Tatum added an encouraging note: “We’ve bounced back plenty of times. We lost what, (18) games this year? So I would like to think we respond pretty well, the few times that we did lose.”

Boston, again, will have to show up on the road, sitting still three wins shy of punching its ticket to the conference finals for the third straight year.