The Cleveland Cavaliers eliminate the Celtics in a blowout win in Boston, 135-102
The Cleveland Cavaliers are headed to the finals for the third straight season and the Celtics are staying home after yet another blowout win in Boston, 135-102. LeBron James had his most complete game this series scoring 34 points on 13 of 18 shooting to go along with 8 rebounds, 8 assists and a pair of steals. He dominated right out of the gate. Kyrie Irving followed up his big game 4 with 24 points and 7 assists and both players only players only played the first three quarters.
For the Celtics, Avery Bradley had 23 points and both Jae Crowder and Gerald Green finished with 11 a piece. The C's found themselves down big early and could never dig themselves back into the game.
Rough beginning for the C's as Cleveland jumped out a to a 14-5 lead to start things off. Kevin Love started hot knocking down a pair of threes and another bucket for 8 of those early points, while the Celtics were sloppy shooting over that opening stretch.
Celtics launching a lot of ugly shots early here.— Brian Robb (@CelticsHub) May 26, 2017
Things didn't get any better after a Celtics timeout as the Cavs continued to overwhelm the home team. The game started to look very much like last Friday's blowout at the Garden:
28-12 CLE with 3:58 left in the 1Q. #Celtics look confused and discouraged.— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) May 26, 2017
As the Cavs continued to attack the rim to start the 2nd quarter the C's found themselves in foul trouble quickly, they were in the penalty with 9:48 in the first half.
Avery Bradley was able to get going offensively for the Celtics, scoring 14 points in the 2nd quarter. We also got some flashes of brilliance from Jaylen Brown, including this drive with LeBron draped all over him:
I 👁👁 you, Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/6QXBzsbACv— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) May 26, 2017
However LeBron continued to roll, finishing the half with 20 points and Deron Williams had 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting. The Cavs finished the first half with an 18-point lead (75-57) shooting 59.5% as a team. They got to the line 21 times in the first half alone.
The Cavs' 75 points are the most ANY team has scored in the 1st half of a playoff game since the 2003 Mavericks (83 vs Kings)— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 26, 2017
The third quarter got really out of hand as Cleveland nearly doubled their lead to 35 points. Through another monster frame LeBron James passed Michael Jordan for the all-time playoff points record. Jordan held that mark with 5,987 points in the postseason over his historic career:
The historic bucket. Salute, @KingJames. We are all witnesses. pic.twitter.com/xuUZB7Ibfg— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) May 26, 2017
Adding injury to insult, Jaylen Brown headed to the locker room after a trip to the basket ended with him getting incidentally bridged by JR Smith under the hoop. The Cavaliers topped 100 points after just three quarters, leading 109-74 heading into the 4th. Both teams emptied their benches for the 4th, and the Cavs are headed to the finals for the third straight season.
All in all it was a depressing ending to what was a great season for the Celtics. It was a big step forward for a team that had yet to win a playoff series heading into this postseason, and yet they found themselves in the Eastern Conference Finals against the reigning NBA champions after two hard fought series wins. There's a good chance that next year's Celtics squad will have a lot of new faces, but this scrappy team has been a pleasure to watch.
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