Excitement quickly turned into disappointment at TD Garden on Friday night. The Boston Celtics saw an early 22-point lead evaporate as they fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second time this season.
Of course, this game had a ton of buzz heading into it, and rightfully so. It was the final regular-season matchup of the year for the Eastern Conference’s top two seeds, and the stars played like it.
Boston got monster performances from Jayson Tatum (46 points) and Jaylen Brown (37 points), while the Cavs rode Donovan Mitchell’s seemingly eternal hot hand to victory. Mitchell finished the night with 41 points and sank big shots any time he had the opportunity.
He scored 26 in the second half alone, serving as the driving force for his team’s statement win on the parquet — just like he did in Cleveland’s win at home against the Cs earlier this season. The All-Star guard did it all. He drilled momentum-swinging threes, hit several right-handed floaters in traffic, and even threw down a loud dunk in the fourth.
“Tonight he tried to find the matchups that he wanted and things like that to get himself in a good spot,” said Brown postgame.
To be honest with you, I don’t think a single person watching this game was shocked to see Mitchell do this. It’s become the norm against Boston at this point.
He is a certified Celtic Killer. We’re not talking about the Ish Smith-level of Celtic killer where you’re just annoyed that the eighth guy off the bench managed to score 1.
No.
Mitchell is one of the greats.
The man has the highest career scoring average against Boston EVER. His 30.8 points per game is slightly better than Michael Jordan’s 30.7. Anytime you’re topping MJ, you’re doing something pretty incredible.
Since joining the Cavaliers in the summer of 2022, he’s been unbelievable. He’s faced the Cs ten times in the regular season, has scored more than 40 points on four different occasions, and has had 30 or more eight times. Mitchell’s worst game during this span was a 25-point outing in November of 2022.
If Cleveland is playing Boston, Mitchell will be there no matter what.
His overwhelming presence is going to make a potential playoff matchup between these two teams all the more interesting.
“If we potentially see them down the line, we’ll have some good information,” Brown added.
Good information or not, it’s going to be a challenge to slow Mitchell down over the course of seven games.
The playoffs, after all, are where true Celtic Killers write their legacy. Guys like LeBron James, Khris Middleton, and Jimmy Butler have had incredible showings vs. Boston in the spring.
Mitchell was good last year in the second round with 31.7 points per game on 51.5/53.3 shooting splits, but wound up getting injured before Boston won the series in five games. Even in the three matchups he played in, the Cavs only managed to take one.
I suppose we’ll all just have to wait a few months to see if he’s able to do enough to get his squad past the reigning champs. In the meantime, it’s only fair to respect him as one of this franchise’s great foes.
