Celtics defense falls apart in ugly Game 2 loss to Cavaliers: ‘An unacceptable performance’

A dominant Game 1 performance had the Boston Celtics riding high. They destroyed the Cleveland Cavaliers with a barrage of scoring from Derrick White and Jaylen Brown mixed with high-level defense.

Then it all came crashing down in Game 2.

“Defensively, it was an unacceptable performance,” said Jaylen Brown. “I think that’s where we look at. [There’s where] I’m the most upset. Defensively. You know we gave up 118 points. Then on top of that, we lost the rebound battle. So we didn’t help ourselves tonight.”

Just one game after a wholly lackluster showing, Donovan Mitchell’s 29 points led a free-flowing Cavaliers offense en route to their highest point total of the postseason.

Cleveland shot 54.7% from the field and 46.4% from beyond the three-point line. They outscored the Celtics by 15 points from long range despite shooting seven fewer threes. “A lot of easy buckets for them,” said Al Horford. “We have to be better in that regard.”

Mitchell’s monster night started with easy drives and some transition opportunities and ended with a string of wild makes.

“Creating separation before the point-of-attack,” Joe Mazzulla said of how Mitchell was able to get open. “They’re using off-ball to get him off there. So, we just got to be a little bit more physical with our off-ball.

“They got some of those that were communication, I think he hit one pick-and-roll one, and then the rest of the threes came in just our miscommunication, [and] our body position at times. Just kind of have to clean up those technical things of our individual defense.”

He scored his 29 while shooting 10/19 from the floor and 5/7 from beyond the three-point arc. Darius Garland also added 14 points to Cleveland’s totals, draining four threes, and Evan Mobley pitched in with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists.

That trio created a deadly pick-and-roll tandem, whether it was Garland and Mobley or Mitchell and Mobley. It was reminiscent of the Tyler Herro-Bam Adebayo pick-and-roll that destroyed the Celtics in Game 2 of their series against the Miami Heat.

“Yeah, they did a good job. Especially on pick-and-roll,” Mazzulla said. “They tested our pick-and-roll defense, we need to get better at that. Like I said, I think a lot of that stuff in the paint came from transition because of our poor offensive spacing and rim decisions at times.”

But rather than leveraging their pick-and-roll game into easy passes for triples like the Heat, the Cavaliers found open lanes to the interior. Cleveland outscored Boston 60 to 40 in the paint. The Celtics put down a welcome mat in the restricted area.

And although the Celtics only turned the ball over seven times, the Cavaliers still managed to burn them by running the floor.

Boston’s offensive flow was completely frozen by Cleveland’s tight closeouts and improved paint defense. So, rather than playing against scrambling defenses, the Celtics were constantly forced to fight against a set scheme.

“It’s easier to play when you don’t have to take the ball out,” said Jayson Tatum. “We’re not hitting shots – they get out, running in transition. It kind of opens things up for them. You make shots, they’re going to take the ball out – just naturally, it forces a team to play slower.

To answer your question, yes, it does play a part when you’re not hitting shots, they’re leaking out, they’re pushing the ball in transition. It makes it a little tougher.”

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The Celtics have been switching everything outside of the five-man in this series. Horford and Luke Kornet have been playing in drop. But in Game 2, that just led to easy Cavaliers drives.

Xavier Tillman found success in a double-big lineup with Horford in which they were able to switch every matchup, but that tandem only got a little bit of run in the first half.

Boston bounced back after their Game 2 loss to the Heat. But a huge part of that was Miami’s shooting regressing to the mean. The way Cleveland got their buckets on Thursday night felt like more than that.

This isn’t a situation where the Celtics can simply play the same defense and hope it works out. Would an improved offense have helped? Absolutely. But that starts with an improved defense. It’s all connected.