Celtics Review - Game 22

Matchup - Cleveland Cavaliers

Results - 110-88 (W)

Record - (17-5)

If I thought the game against the Nuggets was the perfect game, then this was the game sent from the heavens. Everyone just played so well individually and as a team. Hayward came back, and he looks like he didn’t miss a beat. Jaylen continued his hot stretch of games. Kemba pulled us out of a hole where the Cavs went on a huge run. Tatum was hitting his shots consistently. Every single Celtics player just played their role and played it well. What I think my favorite part of yesterday’s game was the fact that we shot 57.7% from the field. That is the best field goal percentage we’ve had in a single game all season. Aside from Grant Williams and Brad Wanamaker, everyone on the team shot at least 50% from the field individually. God, I just really can’t stop thinking about how well we shot the ball. And every single person who suited up for the game for us scored at least a bucket. There were no zeros in that category across the board for the Celtics. And who can forget that moment that Grant finally hit his first NBA three. That was a beautiful thing.

From the very beginning of the game you could tell that we were on our game. We just clicked so well as a team. Semi Ojeleye had 4 steals in the first quarter alone, so you could tell we were just dominating the opponent. One thing I did notice was that we got killed on the glass a little bit. Looking at the box score, we only lost the rebound battle 45-39 on the game, but it felt a little worse than that. Tristan Thompson just seemed like he was getting every rebound over every single guy on our tea. Even Kanter, who’s normally an outstanding rebounder, was getting bullied in the paint on the boards. Luckily for us it wasn't a huge issue because of how well we were shooting and how bad the Cavs are as a team, but if we were playing a good team this might have hurt us a lot more. Like, we play the Pacers next game, and if we allow Sabonis to kill us on the glass then we could be in some trouble.

Other than that issue, though, we just played all around good basketball. By the time the game was in the third quarter, I looked up at my TV and was in shock that it was only the third. We were up by 20+ points at the time, and I thought the game was about to end. Ironically, right after this the Cavs managed to put together a huge run to put themselves back in the game. As an avid Celtics fan, I’m used to this kind of comeback by an opponent, but something happened that I didn’t expect. At the start of the fourth quarter, Brad put Kemba back in the game, and he did what any good leader should do - he put the game out of reach. As soon as Kemba’s feet hit the floor he was on fire again, nailing three after three. It just completely deflated the run the Cavs were on and sealed the win for us as a team. It was awesome so see him flourish in that role as a leader.

Ouch Award - Brad Wanamaker

 I did not want to give this award to Brad Wanamaker, but he’s the only guy who didn’t shoot that well from the field. He shot 16.7%, but he only took 6 shots. This means that he brought our amazing shooting percentage down a little, so that’s the only reason I have him getting the Ouch Award. Despite this, if you actually watched the game you would have seen the great impact Wanamaker had on the game. A guy’s impact goes far beyond their shooting percentage, and that fact reigned true in this game for BWan. He was just always where he needed to be on both ends of the floor and you could tell he was having a real solid impact on the game for us.

Love of my Life Award - Kemba Walker

I could have given this award to a few different people, but come on. Kemba Walker stepped up in this game and played the role of a closer. When it looked like the Cavs could be creeping back up into the game, Kemba completely shut them down. He finished the game with 22 points, 2 rebounds, and 7 assists. He did all this on 61.5% shooting from the field and 55.6% shooting from three. Those are insane numbers, especially when you consider he took 9 threes in the game. I’m just having a great time watching Kemba become a true Celtic day by day. He just keeps getting more and more comfortable on this team, and I’m hyped to see how amazing this team is by the time the playoffs come around.