Shorthanded Celtics Can’t Overcome First-Place Cavs

Sunday’s battle for first place

 

in the East came down to a Payton Pritchard-Donovan Mitchell fourth-quarter showdown at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

In the end, Mitchell’s 20-point quarter triumphed over Pritchard’s 17-point frame and the Cavaliers walked away with a 115-111 win and a 1.5-game lead over Boston in the standings.

The C’s were massively shorthanded, missing starters Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. But that didn’t stop them from taking Cleveland down to the wire. They even had a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and likely would’ve come away with an upset win if it hadn’t been for Mitchell going nuclear in crunch time.

Mitchell scored 15 of his game-high 35 points during the final 3:13, canning three straight 3-pointers, a floater, and four free-throws to carry his team to the win.

Mitchell also scored 35 points in their Nov. 19 meeting, which the Celtics won 120-117. His one weakness in that matchup was that he couldn’t score on Brown. JB matched up with Mitchell on 30.5 defensive possessions and held the Cavs star to just four points on 1-of-6 shooting. But on Sunday night, the Celtics didn’t have the luxury of relying on Brown’s defensive prowess.

They did, however, have the luxury of another Pritchard masterpiece. The backup point guard kept them in the game down to the last possession. He scoring 10 of his 24 points in the final 1:52 of the game, including a huge 3-pointer to pull the Celtics to within one point with 17 seconds remaining.

However, Cleveland wouldn’t let him get another shot off after that.

Kenny Atkinson had seen enough of Pritchard’s heroics of late, which also included 19 fourth-quarter points Friday night in Chicago. Typically, the Cavs’ coach wouldn’t have had his guys foul until there were less than 10 seconds left in the game. But he had them wrap up Pritchard as soon as he caught the ball on the following three possessions.

“I was like, ‘Screw that, we’re fouling,'” Atkinson said. “I don’t want to see Payton Prichard come down and shoot a step-back.”

So the Celtics and Cavs matched free throw for free throw over the last several possessions, which was why Boston could never get back over the hump.

The C’s also got a great effort out of Jayson Tatum, who logged 33 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. He logged more than half of those points and rebounds in the third quarter when he erupted for 17 points, knocking down all three of his 3-point attempts, and corralled five boards.

Kristaps Porzingis notched his second straight 21-point, eight-rebound performance after reaching those marks Friday night in Chicago. He’s been ramping up his minutes each game, starting with 23 minutes in his season debut against the Clippers, reaching 25 minutes against the Bulls, and finally getting up over 32 minutes against the Cavs. KP also made some nice plays on the defensive end, where he tied Sam Hauser with a game-high of three steals.