CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Cavaliers had a strong start to Game 2 of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, but were unable to hold off the Boston Celtics in the second half and suffered a 107-94 loss at TD Garden in Boston Tuesday night.
The Cavaliers returned to Cleveland in an 0-2 hole in the best-of-seven series, and yet, no one in the locker room has admittedly hit the panic button, especially not with the Eastern Conference Finals shifting to Cleveland and Quicken Loans Arena Saturday and Monday nights.
“The reality is, they did what they were supposed to do,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said after the Game 2 loss. “They took care of home court. We have to win one game here. That’s our mindset, but going back home, we know we’ll play better.
“They’ve shown they haven’t played that well on the road in the playoffs. They play great at home, so we’ve got to come out swinging. We’ve got to be aggressive. I think we’ve got to be physical, and we’ve got to have a physical mindset that they’re coming in playing tough. They’re aggressive, and we’ve got to match that.”
Led by a 25-point effort from small forward LeBron James, the Cavaliers built a 55-48 lead over the Celtics at halftime of Game 2.
However, Boston outscored the Cavaliers, 36-22, in the third quarter, thanks in large part to its 56 percent shooting from the field. Out of the halftime break, the Celtics converted 14 of their 25 looks at the hoop, including a five-for-10 showing from three-point range.
After a strong shooting performance in the first half, the Cavaliers made only nine of their 22 attempts from the field in the third quarter.
The Celtics outrebounded the Cavaliers, 13-10, and converted two Cleveland turnovers into points in the third quarter.
“We need more energy,” shooting guard Kyle Korver said. “I thought it was on both sides of the ball at the start of the third quarter. The first half, I thought we played pretty well. The ending, we didn’t finish off the half like we wanted to, but our energy wasn’t there in the second half. That affects how you shoot the ball. That affects the shots you get. That affects everything, and we just didn’t have good energy."
Following their lopsided Game 1 loss to the Celtics, James had “zero concern” about the Cavaliers in the series, and embraced a similar mindset after Game 2.
“I’m not going to lose sleep over it,” James said. “You go out and you lay everything out on the line. At the end of the day, you can live with that. I’ll recalibrate as far as how I can help this team continue to be successful, how I can do some things to make us be even more complete.
“We have an opportunity to go back home and protect home court. We’re going to use these days to really dive into what needs to be done to help our ball club be successful. They did what they had to do, and that was protect home. Now, it’s our time to try to do that as well. We have a few days, and we’re going to see what we’re made of on Saturday.”
