Celtics take down first-place Cavaliers 112-105

The world champion Boston Celtics traveled to the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday night in a big Eastern Conference showdown. Both teams scored well below season averages all night and it was Boston’s bench unit that helped propel them to victory 112-105. Boston now move to 36 wins, beating the Cavaliers 2 games to 1 on the seasons series.

Boston started the game very slowly, going 1-9 from the field. The Celtics wouldn’t score a second basket until a Jaylen Brown putback tip at the 8-minute mark of the match. Brown would be the Celtics only scorer with seven straight points to lead the C’s early.

Kristaps was effective protecting the rim for Boston early with 2 blocks to start the contest as Cleveland started out the game with a woeful 2-17 from the field. The game would be just 9-6, with Boston up at the 4-minute mark in the first quarter.

Brown continued his scoring all throughout the quarter, hitting on a team-high 12 first-quarter points. Donovan Mitchell finally hit a fadeaway to break the scoring drought for Cleveland.

Payton Pritchard hit on his first triple of the game from the bench, becoming just the Celtics second scorer. Mitchell then hit a pair of baskets to get the Cavaliers going. Big man Al Horford would round out the quarter for Boston with a blistering 8 points in just 6 and a half minutes as Boston finished the quarter 29-15.

Boston’s shot finally came around at the start of the second quarter, as Sam Hauser and Jayson Tatum hit on their first triples of the match. Boston’s big men were relentless to start the match generating lots of second chance points with eight offensive rebounds. Veteran Al Horford’s tenth point of the match on a put back would see the road team up 40-23 with plenty of time to go in the second quarter.

Jayson Tatum’s second three-pointer of the game came over an outstretched Evan Mobley, who was caught out on a switch on Boston’s top scorer. Cleveland was helpless to stop the Jays in the half as the star duo had 24 points at the midway point of the second compared to just the Cavs 26 points.

Sam Merrill hit a pair of threes for Cleveland late in the second quarter as the home team started to chip away at the large lead. Despite holding the lead throughout, Boston didn’t shoot the ball well from the field, at just 35%….