Cavaliers win as Celtics let it slip away
A night after winning probably one of the most anticipated and hyped openers in the history of the NBA, the Boston Celtics succumbed to an inspired Cleveland Cavaliers playing for the first time
since 2002 without LeBron James. The match ended with 95-87 in favour of the Cavaliers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers previous season ended on a rocky note after being knocked out of the playoffs by the Celtics. As if this was not enough they suffered another huge setback when LeBron James,
ruling the lack of talent at Cleveland as a dissapointment, decided to move to the Miami Heats. In the backdrop of all these events, Cavaliers showed great guts as they toppled a team brimming with confidence after taking down the feared Heats in their season
curtain raiser.
The game generally hung in the balance with neither team holding on to a clear advantage in the first half. J.J Hickson led all scores with 14 points with the teams going into the locker room at
47-46, Cleveland trailing by one. The Celtics kept the Cavaliers at bay in the third quarter as well and outscored them 26-22 to make it a 5 point game.
The advent of the fourth quarter witnessed an aggressive Cleveland team and they decided to turn it on. Celtics went for more than three minutes in the fourth quarter without a score, paving the
way for Cleveland’s dominance. Hickson’s layup with 3:09 to go, put the Cavaliers in front and from there on in they never looked back. Anthony Parker chipped in with a 25 foot 3 point jumper moments later to consolidate the lead. The Celtics tried their best
to rally back in the game but the Cavaliers held their ground and went on to hand the Boston Celtics their first defeat of the season.
J.J Hickson scored the game high of 21 points for the Cavaliers. The trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen who were instrumental in taking the heat of Miami in the opener, struggled this
time around and failed to match their impressive 49 points, 15-for-31 points last night with just 34 points on 12-for-33. Cleveland took advantage of the tired and weary legs of the Celtics as they committed 19 turnovers, giving the ball away far too many
times. Glen Davis' performance was perhaps the only bright spot for the Boston Celtics as he chipped in with 14 points with 7-for-11 and 5 rebounds.
Defeat for Boston was definitely an unexpected result and they need to improve their play and failed to take control of the game early and gave the Cavaliers too many chances to hang around. As
for Cleveland, they can enjoy their victory over the team that knocked down LeBron James' new outfit last night.
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