BOSTON — Let’s assume the Cleveland Cavaliers make this a series, that they won’t simply be overwhelmed in the next three games by the same method the Boston Celtics used to crush them in Tuesday’s Game 1.
If this hypothesis comes true, it could take some time to come to fruition. No team in the NBA has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, so the Cavs have exactly two games to at least get close to an answer.
But the complicated ordeal of keeping the league’s best 3-point shooting team off the 3-point line, while avoiding being eviscerated in the paint by two of the game’s best finishers, doesn’t have to be something that is necessarily taken from a single match.
The Celtics’ 120-95 dismantling of the Cavaliers in that first Eastern Conference semifinal presented the puzzle, front and center. Boston was 6 of 22 from 3 in the first half (the Cavs actually made eight at halftime), and yet led Cleveland by 10. By the end of the game, the Celtics had fought their way to 18 3s on 46 attempts.
Jayson Tatum didn’t even play well (7 of 19 shooting, 0 of 5 3s, 18 points), and the Celtics still had way too many. Derrick White made seven 3s en route to 25 points. Jaylen Brown needed just four 3s to get to 32 points — partly because the driving lanes were open from all the pressure Boston applied from the perimeter.
Payton Pritchard had 16 points coming off the bench, mainly on 3-pointers. Jrue Holiday, one of the best perimeter defenders in the game, made two 3s en route to his 14 points.
“We have to do a better job of limiting the number of 3-pointers they took,” Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff said. “Meaning being in our position as early as possible, but doing a better job than tonight reading the basketball.”
It’s the third time in eight playoff games that the Cavs have been eliminated, but unlike the two lopsided losses to Orlando, there were no long blank stares, slumped shoulders and sullen grunts in the Cleveland locker room.
It felt like the Cavs were eager to get their first taste of the various challenges the Celtics presented, and if a beating was to be administered Tuesday night, so be it. “We’ve had the opportunity to see them firsthand, and our guys have had the opportunity to be explained what we’re trying to do,” Bickerstaff said.
But a simple statement about trying to limit the Celtics’ 3-point attempts is, at best, just a starting point. Pulling defenders away from the rim to reach the perimeter will leave gaping driving lanes not only for Brown, who dominated Game 1, but also for Tatum, still one of the best players in the NBA.
“That’s what we’re all trying to figure out,” Cleveland wing Max Strus said.
While this is the first playoff game against the Celtics for most Cavs players, Strus has now faced Boston in the playoffs for three straight years. Twice in the previous two seasons, Strus was a member of the Miami Heat teams that played seven games with Boston in the Eastern Conference finals – each team won once.
Strus said this iteration of the Celtics is similar to the previous two because they play mostly the same way. He noted that Kristaps Porziņģis (calf) is out, so, as usual, Al Horford is on the field playing important minutes. Strus didn’t say Holiday was Boston’s point guard, which gives the Celtics a whole different dimension of not having to force Tatum and Brown to run the offense in the clutch — but there was no of clutch minutes on Tuesday as this game was only close. for a few minutes.
The Celtics took the most, made the most and had the second-highest 3-point shooting percentage in the NBA all season, so limiting their attempts isn’t something anyone has done with regularity. Cleveland’s response will have to go a little deeper than that.
The Cavs might try to make some 3s of their own. Their spring slump continued in Game 1, shooting 11 of 42 from 3 after shooting 28 percent for the series against Orlando. Cleveland just can’t survive another series shooting so poorly from deep.
While Donovan Mitchell remained hot – 33 more points, bringing his total to 122 over the last three games – Darius Garland (6 of 15 shooting) and Strus (2 of 8 shooting) still struggled. Sam Merrill, a sharpshooter all season who played a small but important role in Cleveland’s comeback Sunday in Game 7 against the Magic, was 0 for 5. Caris LeVert, 2 for 6.
“I think you can see the formula for attacking, how to put yourself and the group in the right positions to be successful,” said Mitchell, who shot 12 of 25 overall and 4 of 11 from 3. “I think we can figure some things out (after a game), but we have to make some shots. They’re a high-volume team, a very powerful team.
It was a long time ago and the Cavs only had one player on the roster from that era, but organizationally, it took two complete games – two blowout losses – for Cleveland to even begin to understand the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Finals.
This was stated by Tristan Thompson on Tuesday. He was a starter on that Cleveland team and is now playing reserve minutes in this series.
“In the third game we figured them out, so we were down 2-1,” Thompson said. “Game 4, we kept messing up the Klay (Thompson)-Steph (Curry) pick-and-roll, because they kept sliding, and JR (Smith) and Kyrie (Irving) were trying to…us We didn’t do our best. work to prepare for this. But you know, we won game 5 with the same game plan that we had for games 3 and 4. We just knew how to cover it better.
“It’s just the whole coaching staff watching the film and breaking it down, but it’s a long series.”
What does a championship series from eight years ago have to do with the here and now, you may ask?
Playing against the Celtics today is somewhat similar to playing against the Warriors back then, not because of the playing styles, but because of the pressure that Boston’s offense puts on their opponents. It took Cleveland’s best team, with arguably the greatest player in history, two comprehensive defeats at the hands of Golden State to begin to understand how to respond. But, over time, the Cavs have managed to do just that.
Thompson agreed and said, “They have Horford guarding Isaac (Okoro), which is how they guarded Draymond (Green) when the Warriors beat Boston in the Finals (in 2022). So probably ask Isaac to watch some of those clips where he mixes the short roll and the pops. When Tatum or one of their little ones guards our five, when we set screens and they change, throw it in for a quick and easy bucket for Evan (Mobley) and take advantage, because if we can get it quick, easily small points like that, it will open up our 3-point shot.
Bickerstaff and the entire Cavs expect a better performance in Game 2 on Thursday. But if you’re aiming for Cleveland and that’s not what happens, don’t panic – just yet.
Give Cleveland until Game 3, at home, a chance to figure that out.
(Photo by Jaylen Brown: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)