20-9 in the first round. The night promised for the Boston Celtics, who seemed not to suffer from the loss of Jalyen Brown to deploy a good attack and, above all, a superlative defense. The second quarter was the opposite. The attacks were imposed on the defenses, but the Celtics held the pace, and after a 32-29 set they went into the break with a comfortable double-digit lead.
The dominance on the scoreboard, however, was not bulky enough for Ime Udoka’s men to indulge in living off the income, so far from taking their foot off the gas, they kept pushing until they put the maximum difference, 53- 72, less than three minutes until the third quarter ended. The fans who had come to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse were beginning to assume that luck would not smile on theirs in the first of the two consecutive games they were going to have against Massachusetts (in two days they will see their faces again), and that the head of the East, after the victory of the Wizards, they were going to move away. But then everything took a turn.
To the sound of Ricky
Inspiration dried up on the visiting side, and the Cavs began to flow as they have done all season, at that time from the hand of Darius Garland (22 points), Evan Mobley (19) and Ricky Rubio (16 points and a final scandalous meeting at the address).
At a brutal 24-4 partial, the Spanish put the tie with a free kick that was the first local advantage in the light so far at night (77-76). And from there, as often happens in these cases, the forces were equalized. Up to seven leadership changes occurred from there to the end, but Dennis Schroder (28 points, his best) missed his shot to force overtime, and the Cavs took a club-painting duel, proving a great capacity for reaction, a facet that we still did not know about this season and that is another notch in the, for now and openly, revelation team.
16 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds
That last assist@ rickyrubio9 in the victory of @cavs against Celtics pic.twitter.com/HRtcZ1FvaB
— NBA Spain (@NBAspain) November 14, 2021
Come to stay
“We were dancing in the locker room, because it was a great game,” confessed an euphoric Cedi Osman. “We have the best fans in the world. Today it breathed an atmosphere like the playoffs. The atmosphere was impressive.
“We are here and we are not going to be left behind,” said Garland, who has already begun to take the weight of the attack in a role that is expected to be long with the severe injury of Colin Sexton (and that already seems to have his replacement in minutes with Denzel Valentine, first time with weight in rotation). “We have a lot of heart and we never give up. My teammates trust me to make plays, so I congratulate them ”.
Thus, the Cavs manage not to disengage from the noble zone of their conference while the Celtics, after two wins in a row, squander the first option they had to get a neutral balance this season. The next 16, the rematch.
(Cover photo Jason Miller / Getty Images)