The Cavs Are Simply Not On The Same Planet As The Celtics, And They STILL Talk Like They Are
120-95 Celtics.....and I don't even think the Celtics scratched the surface of how well they can play.
Don't get me wrong, Jaylen Brown was phenomenal from the opening jump, and Derrick White knocked down 7 threes. Those two can't have played any better, but their superstar Jayson Tatum was 7-19 from the field and 0-5 from 3. This team has another level to it, not even mentioning the fact that Kristaps Porzingis is sidelined. There's a reason why they won the Eastern Conference by 14 games...
As for the Cavs, we're cooked. I can sit here and talk about a lot of holes in our team and deficiencies in our Head Coach, but at the end of the day, this series can be summarized into this statement: Donovan Mitchell is not enough. Last night was the EXACT same situation that we had in the Magic series where Donovan had to do it all by himself, it's just that the Celtics are substantially better than the Magic.
He's out there having to do everything for the team, with absolutely ZERO help, reminding me of when LeBron had to carry that 2007 Cavs roster to the NBA Finals. The only difference is that Donovan Mitchell is not LeBron James, and the 2024 Celtics are much better than the gauntlet of the #7 Wizards, #6 Nets, and then #2 Pistons that the Cavs faced in 2007.
And I'm not sure the 2007 Cavs role players wouldn't be outplaying the Cavs 2-5 right now either?? Evan Mobely had a -21 on the court last night, worst on the team. Yes, he blocks shots and plays defense. But that's the guy we thought could be a Top 15 NBA player to pair Donovan with? Not in a million years.
This series is cooked. The question is whether they send us home in 4, or if they make us postpone our flights to Cancun for a 5th game. Everyone knows it, except apparently the Cavs, who are excited that they got a bunch of "open or wide open shots" last night.
Yes, very cool. 42 threes attempted. But the one thing about basketball, and I'm no expert but I know this much, is that you have to MAKE the shot for it to count on the scoreboard. And we can high-five and parade around our shot attempts stat all we want, he's another stat that seems releveant:
Woof. But that's hilarious to me. We're getting open shots, we just can't make them. One quick fix and we might be able to take this series all the way to 5 games!