Boston Celtics play very well, but Cleveland Cavaliers play better, win 99-91

The Cleveland Cavaliers spoiled an impressive effort by the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, coming out victorious to take a two game lead in their series, 99-91.

Cleveland began the game with a Kevin Love three and and a Timofey Mozgov dunk, but Boston was not rattled on their way to a 16-8 lead, which forced the Cavs in their first timeout.

The regroup was effective for Cleveland as they came out and quickly closed the gap. Both teams played about even until the end of the quarter, which saw Boston leave the floor ahead 26-25.

In the second quarter, Boston authored an 8-0 run to take a 41-34 lead with strong play on both ends. Jae Crowder did his best to pester LeBron James and not let him get anything easy.

After eventually extending the lead to 45-36, Cleveland went on their own 8-0 run to pull within one. After a Jared Sullinger three pointer broke the streak, Cleveland continued their run to take a 51-50 lead at the half.

The evenly played game saw Boston beating the Cavs 26-25 in the first quarter and the Cavs outscoring the Celtics 26-24 in the second.

At the half, Boston was lead by Tyler Zeller and Isaiah Thomas, each with 9. Cleveland had three players in double figures with Irving scoring 12, James with 11 and Mosgov with 10.

The third quarter saw much more Cleveland energy with them at one point putting the Celtics on the wrong end of a 26-9 run that ended with a fast-break alley-oop from James to Love.

Cleveland was up by as much as 14 in the quarter before Boston clawed their way back to a more respectable deficit at the end of the quarter, 75-68.

Early in the 4th, the Celtics went on a 7-0 run to get within 2, 79-77. After flirting with tying the game a few times, but never getting even, Cleveland again reclaimed a lead of about 7 that they didn't seem willing to give up.

And they didn't. Final score was 99-91.

Boston was led by Thomas with 22 points. Cleveland was led by James with 30 and another good performance by Irving with 26.

Game three of the series is in Boston on Thursday at 7:00pm. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)