On May 10, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs division semifinals continued. The Eastern Side Boston Celtics host the Cleveland Cavaliers.
G1's Green Army without Boshen defeated the Cavaliers without Allen at home and led 1-0. G2 Cavaliers Allen continues to be sidelined, will the Green Army take the opponent lightly again?
However, the G2 Celtics suffered a 94-118 defeat to the Cavaliers at home, and the impregnable character of North Shore Gardens collapsed, and the big score was rewritten to 1-1.
You must know that in the first round, the Cavaliers lost all 3 games at the Magic's home court. The Cavaliers are very bad at playing on the road, and they are still missing Allen, an interior stalwart who averages 17 points, 13.8 rebounds and 1 block per game in the playoffs.
If the Green Army's first-round loss to the Heat was because the opponent felt too good, then the loss to the Cavaliers was not at all. The Cavaliers are a well-balanced offensive team, they have a lot of offensive points, and they never rely on someone to burst out to win.
In this game, Tatum continued to be inefficient, contributing 25 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. And the duo, who used to be very efficient offensively, also collapsed today, with Brown contributing 19 points and 4 boards and White contributing 10 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. In addition, Pritchard contributed 13 points and Horford contributed 11.
The referee gave the Green Army enough tilt today, and the free throws led the Cavaliers 24-16, but the Green Army still lacked firepower when the Trident was poor, and no one could score consistently.
On the other hand, the Cavaliers were full of firepower, with Mitchell 29 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, Mobley 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, and LeVert 21 points and 6 boards. In addition, Garland contributed 14 points and 7 boards, Strus had 12 points and 6 boards, and Okoro had 12 points.
When the offense was sluggish, the Green Army was not excited to grab rebounds, and only grabbed 31 rebounds in the whole game, 13 fewer than the Cavaliers. That's well below their regular season average of 46.3 rebounds per game.
This battle wiped out the Green Army's high position in the east. Everyone thought that the Green Army was the only one in the east, but they didn't expect it to be like this. In the game, we didn't see their ability to play hard and turn the tables. The typical downwind is extremely tough and the upwind lacks tenacity.
After today, I'm more optimistic about the other team in the East, which is the New York Knicks. Don't look at New York without Randle, but it may not be better to have Randle, because Randle is not a tough bone in the playoffs.
New York's Brunson is as stable as Jordan, averaging 35.6 points and 8.1 assists per game in eight playoff games, and has become the No. 1 point guard. Hart was as hard as Pippen in the playoffs, averaging 18 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block per game in eight playoff games, almost double the regular season stats.
On top of that, New York's Anunoby and DiVincenzo have also been very tough. This year's Knicks, sitting on the New York version of "Jordan and Pippen", are significantly better than the Green Army twins in their tough-fighting ability, and are expected to be the final winners in the East.