The Cavaliers came into game two of the Eastern Conference Finals feeling much better than they did in game one. Many people saw this as a warning to the Celtics, but nobody thought it would've gotten that bad. The Celtics were decimated by the Cavs, losing the game 130-86. The Celtics looked like the were a freshman high school basketball team, as they had no offensive rhythm and were terrible on defense as well. The Cavaliers were the superior team, and the Celtics had no answer for King James and crew. After the game, head coach Brad Stevens didn't hold back any words when evaluating his team's performance, and neither did the players.
Old School Beatdown
The Celtics were the victim of an old school beatdown Friday night and their rookie Jaylen Brown didn't hold back his words when he talked about his team's performance or lack thereof.
According to ESPN.com's Chris Forsberg, he said, "We got our ass kicked. Point-blank, period. We didn't come out with enough energy to start the game off, two games in a row."
Brad Steven also commented on the team's awful night saying, "We have to play a lot better. So we're going to focus on us, we're going to figure out ways to play better."
Both Brown and Stevens are telling the truth as the Celtics have fallen into big holes at the start of the first two games in this series. In game one the were down by 23 at halftime and in game two they were down by a record 41 points.
The Cavs haven't seemed sluggish from their rest at all and the Celtics are looking like they are gassed. After playing two physical series, they are now going up against a freight train in LeBron James. The Celtics haven't done much to stop him, as he averages 35 points this series. Boston prides itself on their physicality on the defensive side, but they look like they have played matador defense, allowing the Cavs to score 114 and 130 in two games.
They need to find answers to what was an embarrassing night for Boston.
Staying Together
One of the things the Celtics need to do is stay together. Being down 0-2 and getting blown out like that can cause some teams to point fingers at each other and ruin the chemistry on a team. Gerald Green hopes to avoid that.
He told ESPN.com's Chris Forsberg, " We've got to stay together and ride the course.
It's a long series. We've been in this situation before. We lost two games at home. It wasn't to this type of caliber team, though. But we've been in this situation before. I think guys still believe."
Green makes a valid point, as they did drop their first two games at home in their series against the Bulls. They managed to win the series by rattling off four straight wins, but these aren't the Bulls they are playing against. These are the defending champion Cavs who have a player on fire in LeBron James and two other stars who are playing very well.
The Celtics uphill climb begins in Game three and coach Brad Stevens is ready to find ways to win saying, "We're going to go after it on Sunday.
We're getting on that plane to play well."
After Boston's performance, many are already sealing the deal for the Cavs to sweep the C's and move on to The Finals. Even though the Cavs are playing ridiculously great basketball, don't count Boston out. They thrive on being the underdog and this is the perfect situation to catch the Cavs by surprise and steal a game on the road. The C's admit that they were slapped around Friday night, but they are looking to make this more competitive than it's been the first two games. See if the C's show some fight in game three on Sunday at 8:30 on TNT.
