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Cleveland Cavaliers v Boston Celtics – Emirates NBA Cup
There were a lot of things Boston did right in this game: Great defense, particularly in the first half, taking Cleveland out of its flow and keeping the ball on one side of the court; Jayson Tatum scoring 33; Al Horford hanging with the two big men the Cavaliers roll out and coming up with crucial blocks late.
However, the Celtics won for a far more simple reason: They made 22 3-pointers and shot 53.7% from deep. Boston shot 14-of-22 (65.2%) on 3-pointers in the first half. For the game, core Celtics Tatum, Horford, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard combined to shoot 20-of-32 from beyond the arc.
CELTICS GET IT DONE WITH THE 3-BALL
☘️ 22 3-pointers made
☘️ 22/41 (53.7%)
☘️ Only the third instance in NBA history of a team making 20+ 3-pointers in 3 or more consecutive games pic.twitter.com/AZcuvRZX1Z
— NBA (@NBA) November 20, 2024
When Boston shoots like that from 3 it becomes a math game and no other team can keep up.
Boston played a brilliant first half of basketball, led by as many as 21, and held on at the end to hand Cleveland its first loss of the season, 120-117.
The Cavaliers are now 15-1 on the season, still atop the East, but with a better idea of what it is going to take to knock off these Celtics in the postseason. Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with 35 points, while Evan Mobley had another strong game with 22 points and 11 rebounds.
One thing that hurt Cleveland was a rough night from Darius Garland, who was hounded by White and Holiday, and shot 3-of-21. The Cavaliers can also spin a positive out of this loss that they went toe-to-toe with the champs while without rotation players Isaac Okoro (they really missed his defense), Caris LeVert, Max Strus and Dean Wade. To be fair, Boston won without their starting center Kristaps Porzingis.
This was a game both teams took seriously, not something you often see in November — Boston wanted to remind Cleveland who is the champs, Cleveland wanted to make a statement, and throw in this was an NBA Cup game and it matters a little more (both the Celtics and Cavaliers are 1-1 in NBA…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-rain-3-pointers-cavaliers-031957002.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-20 03:19:00
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