Fantastic 1-1! Mitchell 29+8, Spurs veteran 3 of 11 Brown 19 points, who pays attention to Tatum's moves!
Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
On May 10, Beijing time, the second round of the NBA playoffs ushered in the Eastern focus battle, and the Boston Celtics continued to sit at home to face the Cleveland Cavaliers. At present, the score of the two teams is 1-0, the Celtics take the next city first, and win G1 by 25 points, the overall perception is that the Cavaliers are almost powerless, maybe the direction of this round of the series has been basically clear, the most important thing is to see if Garland and Mobley can stand up and share the offensive pressure of Mitchell. Before the game, the American media ESPN also gave a winning rate prediction: the Celtics have a winning rate of 68.6%, and the Cavaliers have a 31.4% winning rate.
Indeed, in the G1 game, except for Mitchell, who scored 33 points alone, the rest of the Cavaliers' teammates lost themselves a little, and this has almost become their playoff norm. So far, the Cavaliers have played as many as six of the eight games without scoring more than 100 points, and they are the only team to steal seven in the first round. Speaking to the media after the first G1 game, Mitchell said: "We need to make adjustments, start on the offensive end, and find a way to steal a win!" ”
In terms of injuries, Jerome, Craig Porter, and Dean Wade are absent on the Cavaliers' side, and Allen is doubtful for the game, and the starting five are: Garland, Mitchell, Strus, Okoro, Mobley; On the Celtics side, Porzingis is still absent, and the starting lineup is: Brown, Tatum, Horford, Holiday and White.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Tatum made consecutive fouls and hit all four free throws, taking the lead for the Celtics, Mitchell broke through a two-point shot and could also respond, Horford scored 5 points in a row, White received the ball at the top of the arc and hit a big open three-point shot, and the Celtics once again played a 14-5 strong start. Garland passed the ball in the corner, Holiday quickly completed the steal, counterattacked and missed the three-point shot, LeVert received the ball to meet the three-point defense, completed the two-handed dunk, Mobley scored 8 points in a row, and then there was a three-point strong shot, helping the Cavaliers to overtake the score and lead to 9 points. Tatum broke through with the ball at the top of the arc, 'shook down' Garland, and made a three-point stop to stop the bleeding in time, and after the first quarter, the Celtics trailed the Cavaliers by 6 points at 24-30.
On the Cavaliers' side, Mobley finally stepped up, scoring 11 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal on 5-of-8 shooting in the first quarter, and more people need to step up and score if they want to pull a game back. Back in the second quarter, the Celtics strengthened their defense, and started a wave of 6-0 offense, directly erasing the point difference, Garland flank three-point shot up and down, Tatum broke through the middle of the ball and cut Holiday in the middle, the latter completed a one-handed split, and then Tatum stopped at the top of the arc to pull out three points and then hit, and the Celtics played another wave of 19-4 attack climax, surpassing the Cavaliers by 5 points. Holiday collided with Okoro's knee while chasing Mitchell, and both fell to the ground in pain, Jaylen Brown held the ball for the final attack, but dribbled the ball directly into Okoro's arms and fouled the opponent to the free throw line, and the Cavaliers and Celtics tied 54-54 at halftime.
Halftime data, on the Celtics side, Tatum was 3 of 10 and 2 of 5 three-pointers with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists; Jaylen Brown was 5-of-10 from the field for 10 points and two rebounds; Pritchard was 3-of-5 from the field and contributed six points, three assists and one steal. On the Cavaliers' side, Mitchell was 2-of-6 for 6 and had 6 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists; Garland scored 5 points and 4 rebounds on 2-of-4 shooting; LeVert contributed 12 points and 3 rebounds; Mobley scored 15 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, and it is worth mentioning that this is also the first Cavaliers player in the history of the Cavaliers in the past 25 years after James to play 15+5+5 in the playoff half, creating an NBA miracle.
Yibian fought again, Mitchell and Garland hit three points one after another, Tatum missed a layup, the Cavaliers counterattacked the fast break, and Okoro directly completed a two-handed dunk to stop the Celtics. After the pause, Tatum and Brown played 2+1 in a row, Garland made a three-point stop at the top of the arc, White didn't respond to a three-point shot, and Mitchell counterattacked with three points and hit again, and the Cavaliers had a lead of 11 points. Garland broke through White with the ball, but was hit by the volleyball cap, and in the next round, White hit a three-point stop steadily, and the three-point shot in a single quarter was 3 of 3, and Kornet's dummy basket caused Mobley's fourth foul, and the latter had no choice but to get off the court, and the Cavaliers' inside test came. Pritchard hit a pull-up jumper and Mitchell hit a three-pointer from the buzzer, and the Cavaliers led the Celtics by as many as 12 points at 90-78 after the third quarter.
It is worth mentioning that throughout the third quarter, the Cavaliers shot 7 of 9 three-pointers, with a shooting rate of 77.8%, as a comparison, the Celtics shot 0 of 7, and Mitchell scored 16 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist in a single quarter. In the fourth quarter of the decisive battle, Mitchell could hit a difficult three-point shot, and then made Jordan's classic hand-to-hand gesture to celebrate, and then broke through to hit a layup in a row, scoring 7 points again in less than 2 minutes of the opening game, helping the Cavaliers to lead to 16 points and directly stopping the Celtics. After the pause, the Green Army's offense still did not improve, with LeVert hitting a pull-up jumper, and then causing Tatum to foul a malicious foul, the difference has reached 25 points, and the Celtics replaced all the main forces in advance and surrendered.
In the end, the Cavaliers relied on the play of the three main forces, Garland and Mobley both stepped up and pulled back a game with a big score of 118-94, and the big score came to a magical 1-1. With more than 5 minutes left in the final quarter, many Celtics home fans were too disappointed with the performance of the Green Army and chose to leave the game early. I saw Tatum standing next to the bench looking frustrated, obviously dissatisfied with the team's performance in this game.
In terms of statistics, on the Cavaliers' side, Mitchell exploded again, blasting 29 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, Garland also stood up, 4 of 5 three-pointers, contributing 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, Strus 12 points and 6 rebounds, Mobley Jr. 21 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks, and Okoro 12 points and 1 rebound. On the Celtics' side, Tatum was sluggish, with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists on 7-of-17 shooting, Brown chipped in 19 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist, Spurs veteran White was no longer magical, only 10 points and 5 assists on 3-of-11 shooting, Holiday had 4 points and 2 rebounds, and Horford had 11 points and 2 rebounds.