Cavaliers clearly lack passion following Game 2 loss

Following the first-quarter onslaught by LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers eventually went into the half up seven. From there, it all went downhill.

The third quarter was really the start of the Cleveland Cavaliers collapse. From up seven at the half to down seven at the start of the fourth, the Cavs were a disturbing -14 in the third.

Let’s look at some other rather worrisome stats from the third quarter. For starters, the Cavaliers as a team only had three players score. James had 7, Love 11 and Thompson 4. George Hill played over 10 minutes in the quarter and failed to score.

Overall, the Cavs had a net rating of -56.3 for the quarter, a figure like that for even one quarter can damage a team for the entire game.

However, it wasn’t by accident that the Cavaliers were being outplayed. They were just flat out being outworked.

The C’s were making several game-changing plays just like this one.

Smart was tied for fifth in scoring in Game 2 but ended with a jaw-dropping +21. While sometimes +/- can be deceiving, this time it’s not. Smart was a difference maker in this game and no Cavalier came close to matching his unrivaled energy.

Here’s yet another sequence where Smart made not one but two huge plays to end the half. Instead of possibly going into the half down ten or more, Smart forced a turnover and got a huge game-changing bucket for Morris.

While Smart was the man for Boston in Game 2, much more than just Smart caused this massive Cavalier implosion.

Their turnovers, both the ones forced by Boston’s tenacious defense and those resulting from sloppy offensive sets, hurt Cleveland. The Cavs ended this game -10 in turnovers and -12 in field goal attempts, two stats that normally are correlated to the game’s end result.

In a smaller sample, both of these are relayed back to the third quarter. The C’s had zero turnovers and three offensive rebounds while the Cavs had two turnovers and one offensive board.

On top of that, the C’s recorded six more steals in Game 2.

To end the montage of cringing stats, here are a few defining defensive figures from none other than Rachel Nichols.

One quarter defined a game, but one game won’t define the series.

That’s exactly what Cavalier fans must think moving forward.

The Celtics are passionate at home, more so than just about any other team in the league. However, on the road, it’s a different a story. The C’s lost all three games on the road in their first-round series against Milwaukee.

While TD Garden is difficult to win at, the Cavs might have two more chances to make it happen. Besides that, the truth that the series doesn’t start until a team wins on the opponent’s court isn’t around for nothing. Boston must now win in Cleveland to really put Cleveland in desperation mode.

LeBron James is a special, once-in-a-generation type player, and if the Cavaliers are going to make this comeback happen, they’ll need to help him out. 42 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists has to be enough for the Cavs to win.

It’s passion. That’s the difference.

The Celtics had it, and the Cavs didn’t.

Next: Cleveland Cavaliers: Top 30 all-time greatest players

Let’s just hope Game 3 in Quicken Loans will help the Cavs take one step in the right direction.

Set the gameplan, find the passion, win the game.