Game 1 between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers turned out to be a grind-it-out, defensive battle of a game. The Celts prevailed 76-72 in this ugly turnover plagued game. Some particular stat-lines jump right off the page here.
LeBron had possibly his worst game ever and definitely his worst playoff game ever ending up with 12 points on only 2-18 shooting. Only 2 of those 12 came in the 2nd half where he normally comes up clutch late in the game. He did have 9 rebounds and 9 assists for some positive numbers, but add in 10 turnovers by him alone and you understand the type of night he had. He also got the benefit of a flagrant foul call on Sam Cassell, which replays showed LeBron going for an Oscar award for best acting job of the night making the play look much worse than it actually really was. Lucky for the Celts Cassell was not ejected, but let's look at the other staggering stats of the game.
Ray Allen had zero points. Nothing. I expected a huge game from Ray here after such a disappointing game 7 and this may have been worse even though he only took 4 shots on the night. Sweet Baby Ray has not had a zero point night since his rookie season back in 1997. The Celts will need to get him going for these games coming up and I will try predicting again that Ray has a nice bounce-back game in Game 2 with the crowd behind him.
Paul Pierce only had 4 points on a woeful 2-14 shooting night. Though to his credit, he did a very good job on LeBron when he had him. So 2/3 of the Big Three combined for 4 points. To think between Ray Allen and Paul Pierce only giving you 4 points, you would have expected the Celts to come out on the losing end of this one. The Celts as a team even had a 7 minute stretch in the 3rd Quarter where they were scoreless. But other guys stepped up for this team.
The C's grabbed an early 10 point advantage after the first frame 25-15, but then could only muster 16 in the 2nd and a terrible 12 in the 3rd. Turnovers killed them all night. They committed 23 turnovers for the game and really kept Cleveland in the game, while the Cavs were only shooting 31% for the night. It really was an ugly game for both teams and you knew whichever team lost was going to be shaking their heads at the missed opportunities in this one. Luckily for the Celts, a few of their other guys came to play.
KG had 28 points and always seemed to get a bucket when the C's desperately needed one. Garnett played a great game. Perkins grabbed 12 boards. Rondo had 15 points in the first half, but then was scoreless in the 2nd half. And Sam Cassell came up real huge off the bench with 13 points and 10 of those coming in the critical 4th quarter. KG and Sam receive my co-players of the night award with Rondo right behind them. Cassell hit some ridiculous clutch shots coming down the stretch for the C's as they escaped with this win.
Cleveland stayed so close with a nice night from Big Z Ilgauskas who had 22 points and 12 boards. Szczerbiak hit a couple big shots down the stretch after being ice cold to start the game and finished with 13 points. Daniel Gibson only had 7 but hit the big 3 at the end to tie things up at 68 with a couple minutes remaining. LeBron missed 4 crucial shots in the last couple minutes including the game tying driving layup with only 8 seconds left. Posey grabbed the rebound, was fouled and hit both free throws to ice this game. Posey also played tremendous D against LeBron all night.
So onto Game 2, Thursday night in Boston. This one should have a different feel to it as LeBron, Ray and Pierce look to all get their games in gear. Boston who has had the best team D in the league all season does face a Cavs team who plays great team defense as well. So this could be just the first sign of what to expect between these teams. Look for the C's to cut down their turnovers and play much better in Game 2. As ugly wins go, the C's will definitely take this one and move on from it.
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