Despite Jays’ masterclass, Cavs mount big comeback to win 123-116 over Celtics

Coming off of a blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons, the Celtics returned home to face off against the #1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. In the final matchup of the season between these two Eastern Conference juggernauts, it was the Cavs that took down the Celtics 123-116 in a dogfight.

Jayson Tatum put on a masterclass with 46 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists on 19-37 shooting while Jaylen Brown scored 37 points on 13-24 shooting, but it wasn’t enough. Donovan Mitchell scored 41 points on 13-26 shooting and almost single-handedly won the Cavs the game in the second half.

The Cavs rebounding was huge, giving them multiple chances to score and winning the rebounding matchup 44-40. Cleveland’s bench also dominated Boston’s, outscoring them 33-6.

After being listed as questionable most of the day, Jaylen Brown started the scoring for Boston with a three pointer. This ignited the Celtics offense as a midrange jumper from Tatum and two threes from Sam Hauser and Derrick White resulted in an 11-0 run for Boston to force an early Cavaliers timeout.

The timeout didn’t slow the Celtics offense down as Boston was absolutely on fire, opening up a 25-3 lead in under five minutes of game time. It was a long-range aerial attack for the Celtics as they started the game shooting 7-9 from three and had the Boston faithful ready to blow the roof off the top of TD Garden.

Torrey Craig and Drew Peterson got some early first quarter minutes for the Celtics, but it was all about Jayson Tatum. With 18 points in the first quarter, Tatum passed Wilt Chamberlain for 6th place in points scored before the age of 27.

Cleveland started to mount a comeback at the end of the first quarter, led by Ty Jerome who finished with 8 points. However, the Cavs still trailed the Celtics 38-26 at the end of the first. The Celtics shot 52% from the field and 50% from three in the first quarter as Jaylen Brown (11 points) and Jayson Tatum (18 points) single handedly outscored the Cavs 29-26.

Tatum had a historic start, as he became the only player in the play-by-play era with a first quarter of at least 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and a block.

The second quarter started with 7 straight points from Donovan Mitchell, but Boston had an answer as Jaylen Brown continued his hot shooting. Cleveland started to find a groove as a 17-5 run cut the Celtics lead to 2 as Boston’s offense started to slow down.

The Cavs were able to get back into this game thanks to their bench as they outscored the Celtics 28-3 with contributions from DeAndre Hunter, Ty Jerome, Isaac Okoro, and Dean Wade.

Jayson Tatum got the Celtics offense back on track with 8 straight points and 13-4 run to get Boston’s lead back up to double digits at one point but the Cavs continued to fight back. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell did a good job keeping the Cavs in the game but still trailed the Celtics 74-64 at the half behind Tatum’s brilliant performance.

Jayson Tatum scored a ridiculous 30 points in the first half alongside 9 rebounds and 7 assists on 11-17 shooting from the field and 4-8 from three. This is the first time in the play-by-play era any player has eclipsed those numbers in a half.

Jaylen Brown had 19 points of his own even with three fouls as Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 15 points. Both teams shot the ball well in the first half as Boston shot 56% from the field and 54% from three while Cleveland shot 54% from the field and 50% from three. Although the Cavs had 22 points in the paint, the Celtics’ 14 threes offset any momentum Cleveland tried to build.

The third quarter started with the Jays continuing pilot the Celtics offense, as Brown and Tatum scored 10 of Boston’s first 13 points of the second half. Cleveland responded with a 9-0 run but Tatum would not let them gain any ground. He was slicing through the Cavs defense and getting to the paint at will while playing some elite defense.

The Cavs were down but Donovan Mitchell didn’t let them give up as he went on a 10-2 personal run to make it a 98-95 game going into the fourth quarter.

Tatum scored 10 more points for a total of 40 points through three quarters while Mitchell scored 14 points to get up to 29. The Celtics three-point shooting started to fade in the quarter, only shooting 2-8 from beyond the arc but still held the lead.

With Tatum on the bench to begin the fourth quarter, Evan Mobley scored 9 straight points for the Cavs as Cleveland took their first lead of the night with 8:43 to go in the game. After a Celtics timeout, Tatum checked in and scored right away as both teams started to trade the lead.

After Jayson Tatum made a layup to make it a 3-point game, Darius Garland hit a 30-foot three to push the Cavs lead up again and forced the Celtics to call a timeout with 4:49 left in the game. Out of the Celtics timeout, Tatum got a wide-open dunk which made the Cavs call a timeout.

The Cavs missed two shots out of the timeout and Jaylen Brown made them pay with back-to-back shots to tie the game again. Mitchell responded with back-to-back layups including an and-1 to make it a 5-point game again. With 1:46 to go Jayson Tatum committed an offensive foul but Mitchell air balled a three on the other end.

Derrick White then missed a three and with under a minute left, Garland made a long two make it a 7-point game. White came down and hit two free throws, Garland missed a layup, but Tatum missed a three that would’ve made it a one possession game. Mitchell hit two free throws and Jaylen Brown missed a three as the Cleveland Cavaliers held on for the win.

The Celtics next game is Sunday, March 2nd against the Denver Nuggets at 1 pm.