The Cleveland Cavaliers took on the Boston Celtics on the road on Wednesday night, a showdown between two of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference. The two teams battled back and forth throughout the first half, with the Celtics having just a three-point lead at the half.
Then Jayson Tatum and the defending East champs blew the doors off in the third quarter, outscoring the Cavs by 15 points. Tatum scored 18 of his 41 points in the third, and Boston built a lead that would prove to be insurmountable. The Cavs battled back, led by Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, but their furious comeback came too late in the 117-113 loss.
Mitchell was incredible, battling with Tatum the entire game and finishing with 44 points. The worst moment of the night was when Mitchell went down in the third quarter and appeared to reaggravate his groin injury. He looked fine afterwards, but it’s something to monitor in the coming days.
The loss dropped the Cavaliers to 39-26, while every other top team in the East won. They are now just 1.5 games up on the New York Knicks for fifth, and three full games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for third. The screws are only tightening for this stretch run.
More Cavs news
After an 8-3 February the Cavaliers started off the month of March with a loss, although a four-point road loss to the champion favorites is hardly a reason for panic. Here on the website, John Suchan takes a look at each game remaining to predict the Cavaliers’ record.
To help them with that schedule, the Cavs signed Sam Merrill from the Cleveland Charge to a 10-day contract to temporarily fill their 15th roster spot:
The Cleveland Cavaliers are planning to sign guard Sam Merrill to a 10-day contract out of their NBA G League Charge affiliate, sources tell me and @kelseyyrusso.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 1, 2023
We touched on Merrill earlier this year when discussing 10-day candidates for the Cavaliers to consider, and went into a little more detail back in November on his skillset when analyzing the host of talent on the Charge.
NBA news
We mentioned above that all of the East contenders won, with the Philadelphia 76ers winning comfortably against the Miami Heat, the Milwaukee Bucks taking down the Orlando Magic, and the New York Knicks blowing the doors off of the Brooklyn Nets. Out West, the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers pulled off key victories in the postseason race against the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively.
Finally, Kevin Durant made his Phoenix Suns debut against the Charlotte Hornets. As usual he came back from injury with very little rust, scoring a cool 23 points, and Devin Booker added 37 for an easy Suns win.
Coming up: The Cavaliers return home for a two-game set, taking on the Detroit Pistons on Saturday before a rematch with the Celtics on Monday