The Cleveland Cavaliers going into their first playoff game in five years and the debuts of stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love where they stepped up in different ways for the team. The Boston Celtics came out swinging from the start which did not surprise anyone with a Head Coach like Brad Stevens.
The Celtics lead the way through the first quarter leading 31-27 Kelly Olynyk set the tone early in his debut for Boston while The Cavaliers Kyrie Irving didn’t get things started until the second quarter when he erupted for 12 of his 30 points in that quarter to help give Cleveland the lead going into halftime 62-54.
The Celtics were still within arms reach going into halftime, and it almost felt like Boston was poised to make the adjustments and give Cleveland a run for their money.
Stevens had The Celtics double teaming LeBron James to hopefully cause some turnovers or to simply make James work for his opportunities. The strategy did work a little bit forcing James to have 5 turnovers but he still had an impact in the post.
Cleveland would end the 3rd Quarter 91-76 which might have been the reason Cleveland won this game. Tristan Thompson doing all the little things combined with Irving’s big scoring night of 30 helped cap off a Game 1 victory over Boston 113-100.
In the Post Game Irving talked a little bit about how he prepared himself for moments like this, and how the Big 3 and players on The Cavs have on goal in mind and that’s a championship.
Irving preached the words like brothers, team, and fighting alongside his brothers and it’s quite clear Irving understands the stage this team is on and he’s ready to take them there.
LeBron ended the game with 20 points,7 assists, and 6 rebounds and James discussed his teammates effort with this:
“They were phenomenal,” he said. “Those two guys, they succeeded for the first time being in the postseason.”
James knows getting Love confident in this series is huge if The Cavs want to advance which Love shot 5/14 from the field, but still had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Love stayed aggressive against a Celtics team that played him pretty physical.
Isaiah Thomas is still confident in his team which he talked about post game after his 22 point and 10 assist performance.
“Guys are ready for Game 2, knowing that good or bad you’ve got to have a short memory. There are possibly seven games in this series and it could go either way.”
The Cavaliers and Celtics Game 2 is on Tuesday at 7:00 pm in Cleveland where Boston will try to even up the series and head to Boston hopefully with a series all tied up.
