Donovan Mitchell skipped around the sidelines during a fourth quarter timeout, called just moments after the Cleveland star drained yet another three-pointer and gave a cheeky shrug to a stunned Boston crowd.
What a slap in the face this loss was, a 118-94 pantsing on the parquet.
Boston fans were so sure after a dominant Game 1 that these Celtics weren’t supposed to lose this way, falling flat in the third quarter like so many Boston teams of yesteryear. But that’s exactly how it went: the Celtics held Mitchell to just six points and chose to live with Evan Mobley and the Cavs feasting in the restricted zone in the first half. Everyone went to the locker rooms tied 54-54.
Was it Scooter the Dog’s halftime performance that woke something up in Mitchell, who went on to score 23 in the second half? Or was it the Celtics' lackluster perimeter defense, which allowed Mitchell and Garland to open the quarter draining three-pointers on back-to-back possessions?
It felt like 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 in the Garden as the Celtics let Cleveland go 7-for-10 from behind the arc, as they whiffed a ghastly 0-for-8 on their own end. Boston couldn’t buy a bucket, but they couldn’t stop the momentum Mitchell led on the other end of the court, either.
The pinnacle of his second-half performance came in the waning seconds of Boston’s nightmare quarter. He hunted out Tatum in the far high corner of the arc, and Brown hedged over to help. With less than two seconds left in the period, he crossed back over on Tatum and sank another bucket.
“There were times in the game when we went through tough stretches offensively, and it affected our defense,” coach Joe Mazzulla said postgame.
Jaylen Brown echoed the connection:
“Overall, maybe we missed some shots, and we let that translate. It’s the playoffs. We can’t let that happen,” he said.
Cleveland outscored Boston 34-22 in the third quarter, graduating from the fast-break, paint points they collected in the first half to raining perimeter shots and dominating the boards.
But for Brown, it wasn’t the Celtics’ lack of offense that hurt his pride the most. The Cavs out-rebounded the Celtics 44-31 by the game’s end.
“We’ve got to play defense, and we’ve got to rebound and get them off the glass. Those are two things we didn’t do tonight. We didn’t rebound very well, and we didn’t defend at a high enough level,” he said.
Boston’s third quarter was a reminder that they can’t live and die by the three, nor can they underestimate any other playoff team’s abilities from behind the arc. By this point, one would think they’d have those lessons committed to heart.
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