Last Tuesday night in Boston Massachusetts the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Boston Celtics in game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semi Finals best of seven series. The Cavaliers were coming off an emotional game 7 series clinching win against the Orlando Magic in Cleveland last Sunday. The Celtics made short work of their first-round opponent, eliminating the Miami Heat in 5 games in the first round. The Cavaliers were trying to prove their playoff toughness by winning a playoff road game. Out for the Cavs was C Jarrett Allen and out for the Celtics was PF Kristaps Porzingis. The Cavs have won two out of the last three games against the Celtics when they were relatively healthy. This series matchup was more favorable for the Cavaliers than the first round Orlando Magic.

The Celtics showed no rust by starting the 1st quarter with a 12-2 run. The Cavs showed resiliency by fighting back to take a 23-21 first quarter lead. The high scoring first quarter ended with the Celtics leading the Cavs 40-34. The Cavs missed their first 8 shots at the start of the 2nd quarter. And the Celtics went on a 7-0 run. The Cavs did continue to struggle in the first half. And the Celtics led at halftime 59-49. In the second half the Celtics took advantage of being the led the better rested team and extended their double-digit lead in the third quarter. The Celtics led at the start of the fourth quarter 92-77.  Boston continued their dominance and won the game 120-95. Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs in scoring with 33 points and Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 32 points.

Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday night at 7pm in Boston. The Cavaliers goal was to at least split the first two games of this series to avoid being in too big of a hole. The best-case scenario for the Cavs is to win the second game of this series and head home with the series tied 1-1. That would make it a 5-game series.  And at that point anything can happen and that’s why they play the games.