De ja TWO! Boston No-Shows AGAIN in G2 vs. Cleveland
And, Dallas Makes it 2-0 for Road Dog Upsets in Thursday NBA!
Even dog lovers didn’t see THAT coming. Cleveland shocks Boston 118-94, beating the market by 37.5 points. Then, Dallas beats Oklahoma City 119-110, topping expectations by 14 points.
Doesn’t take much for overconfident favorites to lose a step on either side if the ball. Losing teams make adjustments. Winners strategically stand pat. The laws of competitive balance encourage a back-and-forth within a best-of-seven playoff series. Even #1 seeds sometimes have trouble dealing with it. Given all that, last night was still off the charts.
Though we were all aware of the possibility, I’m still STUNNED that Boston went on another walkabout in almost the exact same way it happened the first time vs. Miami. Turned out not to matter much last week. Just set up a three-game jaunt for the Celtics after renewed focus. Is there anything in Thursday’s box score to suggest Cleveland can make things more interesting than Miami did?
Cleveland (+13.5) 118, Boston 94
2-point Pct: Cleveland 59%, Boston 56%
3-pointers: Cleveland 13/28 (46%), Boston 8/35 (23%)
Free Throws: Cleveland 11/16, Boston 20/24
Rebounds: Cleveland 44, Boston 31
Turnovers: Cleveland 10, Boston 7
Estimated Pace: 94 possessions
Definitely some potential that Cleveland “might” hang tougher than Miami…
*The Heat were 23/43 on treys in their upset, rather than just 13/28 here for Cleveland. Miami had to win that category by 33 points just to win by 10. Cleveland was +15 points in a game it won by 24. So, Cleveland was doing something besides getting lucky on treys to score the upset Thursday night. Thursday’s victory wasn’t entirely driven by the game’s most fickle stat.
*Cleveland won rebounding handily, which is something Miami didn’t do in its upset. Heat won it 40-39. Cleveland more impressive here at 44-31. You regulars know how important rebounding is in playoff-style basketball. Boston has less margin for error in this series on cold shooting nights.
*Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points in 39 minutes for Cleveland. Jason Tatum scored 25 points in 38 minutes for Boston. Those essentially cancel out. Take out the top scorers, and Cleveland’s “everyone else” won scoreboard 89-69. That doesn’t look like a team that’s intimidated. Looks more like a team that woke up after getting slapped. And, emphasis on TEAM rather than one-man show.