BOSTON – And on the seventh day, the Cleveland Cavaliers rested most of their starters.
No one could be happier about that than Celtics Nation, who have plenty to cheer about after Boston took advantage of the extremely short-handed Cavaliers with a resounding 117-78 win.
The 39-point margin of victory was the largest ever for Boston over Cleveland. The previous record was 35 (123-88) that was set on December 9, 1972.
Boston (38-42) has now won four straight and six of its last seven games.
Even more important, the victory puts the Celtics in position to secure a playoff berth tonight if the Indiana Pacers lose to Oklahoma City.
Regardless, at this point it’s more a matter of when, not if, the Celtics will be in the playoffs this month.
And in the early moments of Sunday’s game, Boston came out and played with a show-no-mercy mentality with a 9-0 run.
Boston Celtics
But the game’s momentum soon changed after Cavs head coach David Blatt called a timeout with 8:25 to play in the first quarter.
Whatever he said, the Framingham native might want to bottle it up and save it for the playoffs.
His team on the floor – minus LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith who were all held out to rest – responded with a flurry of shots.
It all added up to an 18-4 Cleveland run that propelled them to a 22-21 lead after one quarter of play.
Cleveland’s success was short-lived, however.
In the second quarter, Boston broke open a 24-24 game with a 12-0 run of their own. Boston would eventually pull ahead by as many as 26 points in the quarter before settling on a 55-31 halftime lead.
It was more of the same in the third quarter which ended with Boston ahead by 29 points.
And by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Boston was simply doing just enough to keep the game from getting too close.
And then, they rested.
Here are some of the keys to Sunday’s game:
WHAT WORKED
Turnovers
When you sit as many key ball handlers as the Cavs did on Sunday, lots of mistakes are a given. Cleveland turned the ball over 25 times on Sunday which accounted for 36 points for Boston. The Celtics were especially impressive when it came to getting steals. They finished with 20 steals – one short of tying the franchise record.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
Rebounding
There wasn’t a lot that didn’t go the Celtics’ way today, but rebounding certainly could have been better. Cleveland won the battle of the boards 44-38.
KEY PLAY/STRETCH
With the score tied at 24 in the second quarter, Boston responded with a 12-0 run. From there, the Celtics enjoyed a double-digit lead that only grew with time.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Celtics will host the Toronto Raptors in the home finale on Tuesday.