Photo by Nick Michaels/VSBN
Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
After an impressive victory Thursday night in game two of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cavs returned to their home floor for game three but struggled to keep the momentum in their favor as they dropped a tough one to the Celtics 106-93. The Cavs couldn't get things going in the 2nd and 3rd quarters Saturday night and saw the game take a drastic turn after the halftime break as the Celtics began the second half on a 14-0 scoring run that essentially put the game out of reach. Donovan Mitchell had 33 points, carrying the load for the Cavs yet again. The defensive end of the floor was a weak spot for the Cavs on Saturday night with Jarrett Allen missing his sixth consecutive game. Some of the other guys took a bit longer to get going leaving an opening for Boston capitalize with balanced scoring and an efficient 51 percent from the field. Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown had a combined 61 points which lead to the Celtics easy victory. The Cavs were able to cut the deficit to single digits but wouldn't come closer than a nine point margin in the second half.
Following game three, Evan Mobley talked about why he wasn’t able to establish a consistent rhythm in the paint like he did on Thursday, “They just kept switching and keeping pretty big defenders on me throughout the game. We just got to find different advantages and find ways for me to score more on them.”
Donovan Mitchell despite another stellar performance recapped to tough loss at home, “I wouldn’t call it demoralizing because we can’t afford for it to be demoralizing. I think at the end of the day we need to do a better job defensively and we didn’t score, we didn’t score enough to find our way back.”
Now the Cavs will head back to the drawing board and make adjustments for a crucial game four at home Monday night at 7pm in Downtown Cleveland. Boston leads this best of seven series 2-1.
Nick Michaels
VSBN Radio