Ahhh, the Celtics got their revenge Tuesday night. After choking an 11-point lead in the final three minutes of the first game between these two teams, Boston held a 21 points lead and managed to choke away just 18 of those points. Progress! Boston was able to hold off a vicious rally by the Cavaliers and ultimately win 93-90. The Celtics improve to 10-10 on the season while the Cavaliers fall to 8-12.
Cavs Leaders: Points: Irving, 21; Rebounds: Varejao, 20; Assists: Sessions, 10
Quick Thoughts:
This game made me so mad for the first three quarters. Nobody played any defense and the zombie corpse of Jermaine O'Neal kept scoring for the Celtics. In the year 2012, Jermaine O'Neal should never score ever. It was also incredibly frustrating because Cleveland didn't even play that poor of defense, but the Celtics just kept hitting long jumpers. When we play good defense and then they still score, that makes me sad. Similarly, when we play no defense and Jermaine O'Neal dunks on us multiple times, that makes me sadder.
Mychel Thompson started for the Cavs at shooting guard because Anthony Parker and Daniel Gibson are both out with injuries. Let's say this: he didn't look terrible. By no means did he look good, but he wasn't terrible. He shot 3 of 9 and wasn't afraid to let it fly. He hit a couple of threes, added a few assists and was generally active on both ends of the floor. I can't really complain about that production from an undrafted fill-in.
Tristan Thompson tweaked his ankle again in the first half of Tuesday's game. He went to the locker room to have it taped up and determined that he was unable to return. Keeping with the theme of things that make me sad, add Tigger's ankles to the list. He needs playing time and experience to develop into the player we want him to be.
Ramon Sessions had a pretty nice game, dishing out 10 assists and scoring effectively. Can't complain about that. We'll see if the trade rumors about Sessions going to the Lakers amount to anything tangible in the coming weeks.
Notable Performances:
Alonzo Gee is such a pest. Once again, he had several steals and a monster dunk. I'm pretty sure I can just copy and paste that sentence into every game recap.
Kyrie Irving takes over the fourth quarter seemingly every night. On a relatively poor shooting night, the rookie comes out firing on all cylinders in the final period and helps close the gap and nearly steal another victory from the Celtics. Watching the game, I felt that Kyrie played pretty average by his standards. After the game I checked out his stat line and saw that he still managed to score 21 points on 16 shoots and dish out 6 assists. He deserves some sort of award that rhymes with "Shmookie Of The Shmear"
Fear The Sword's Player Of The Game
ANDERSON VAREJAO
Andy V is an absolute beast. For a total basketball nerd like myself, he may be one of the most entertaining players in the league to watch. Every time a shot goes up, he tracks the rebound tirelessly and somehow comes out with the ball. He recorded the first 20-20 of his career and grabbed 10 (!!!!) offensive rebounds. The Celtics as a team had seven.