Cavs were good, Celtics better. The Celtic bench of Houser, Horford, and Pritchard were all between +10 and +14. We had Thompson, Niang, and Okoro at -11, -14, and -15. Okoro needs to be taken out of the rotation as soon as Mobley can play. He was a -15 in 16 minutes tonight after a -21 last night. We're playing 4-on-5 offensively when he's on the floor and he offers almost nothing in defense or rebounding.
The Celtics shot 26 free throws to 9 for the Cavs. Tatum and Brown are just too quick and skilled to be defended without fouling and Porzingus is too big. Tatum and Porzingus combined for 18 free throws. The excessive fouling against big men that was very evident in both games against Orlando showed up again tonight. The Cavs just can't defend talented bigs like Banchero, Wager, Tatum, and Porzingus without fouling. This wil continue to be a problem.
The good news is our starters (minus Mobley) played their starters even. Our starters were a combined +10 while theirs were -4. It was their bench that won the game. The Celtics are considered to have the best stating five in the league (and the numbers support that), so to see our starters with Wade in for Mobley play them even was very encouraging.
Getting Mobley back puts Wade on the bench and we probably don't need Thompson. Getting Jerome back moves LeVert to small forward with Strus and we don't need Okoro. I'm starting to think the Cavs can compete with the Celtics when healthy. Tonight the game was tied halfway through the 4th quarter until the Celtics slowly pulled away.
Nice to see Allen and Strus bounce back from horrible games last night. Allen had a line of 14/5/5 with 3 steals and 2 blocks. He was a +4. Strus had a line of 17/9/3 with 17 points on 5-for-11 on 3's. Garland and Mitchell played very well. The Cavs were just one player short of a win and that player was Evan Mobley. Thompson was a -11 in 12 minutes and we lost by 7.
