BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla has insisted on many occasions that the regular season isn’t much different than the postseason over the past month. The Celtics followed suit in Game 2 in an atrocious 118-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden. Losing at home is no surprise for this Boston team given this core’s history. They have gone up 2-0 in a series just once in their last five attempts despite having homecourt throughout those contests.
However, the Celtics treated Game 2 against the Cavaliers like a Wednesday night contest in January against a lottery team. Boston shot poorly, the Cavs shot great but this performance went beyond the numbers. The focus was simply not there from this group for the better part of 48 minutes and that led to one of the team’s worst performances of the year.
The biggest issues for Boston came on the defensive end. Miscommunications occurred early and often in pick-and-roll defense. Jrue Holiday’s improvisation led to easy looks for Cavs shooters. Transition defense was non-existent. The fact that the Cavs were in a tight game at halfway with almost no contributions from their starting backcourt was a red flag. Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland both got going in the second half and the Celtics had no resistance.
Offensively, the Celtics didn’t play smart either. They missed a lot of makable shots but they also fell into bad habits. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown spent multiple possessions attacking the Cavs best defender (Evan Mobley). A lack of good ball movement led to fewer quality looks and one of the ugliest halves of the year for the Celtics.
The Cavs are far from contenders but they have a lot more talent than the Heat. Mitchell and Garland have given the Celtics headaches throughout their career while Mobley easily looked like the best big on the floor Thursday night. It would be one thing if the Celtics put up a fight but they didn’t even mount an honest effort in the fourth quarter with Mazzulla mercifully pulling the plug on the starters with five minutes left.
Lineup choices left something to be desired as well particularly in the second half. Throwing in the entire bench unit midway through the third quarter after a dismal first half showing from Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser was a questionable call. The same goes for playing double bigs with Xavier Tillman in the second half when offense was hard to come by. It was an ugly night across the board and that’s a troubling proposition for a Cavs team that suddenly has some confidence heading into Game 3.
The Celtics bounced back well after their Game 2 loss to the Heat but the calculus changes this time around. This Cavs team is better and has more firepower. Meanwhile, Boston is showing shades of old tendencies that have sunk their past postseasons and they have a smaller margin of error during this series without Kristaps Porzingis available.
A sense of urgency should never be a concern for a team this late into a playoff run. Boston showed otherwise in Game 2, making life uncomfortable for themselves as this series shifts to Cleveland with plenty of more intrigue.
