The Next Lamb: The Cleveland Cavalieres

Game 17: Boston (12-4) at Cleveland (7-9)

Tuesday, November 30

7 p.m. Eastern

NBATV

Last meeting: @Cleveland 95, Boston 87 (10/27/10)

The last time the Celtics faced the Cavs, it was the night after the big opening win over Miami -- looking back, it doesn't seem so big, does it? -- and after Boston blew a double-digit second half lead, everyone was quick to blame the hangover from the night before.

Since that time, however, the Cavs have played a bit better than nearly everyone expected they would, emerging as a contender for a low playoff seed in the East. They play hard and are well-coached, and teams with those characteristics are tough to beat.

J.J. Hickson did the most damage to the Celtics in the earlier meeting, and he's again the guy to watch -- he's mobile, active, and has a good jumper. I mentioned last time that offensively, he reminded me a bit of Kevin Garnett, and that's the kind of player that can give Boston trouble if Garnett doesn't stay at home.

The ever-pesky Anderson Varejao mans the middle for the Cavs, and his mobility could give Shaquille O'Neal trouble. Varejao is the kind of player whose value you don't recognize until he goes off the floor and you realize how much easier everything is without him on it. As such, I'd like to see Boston try to ride Shaq's recent hot hand in the early going and maybe get Varejao in foul trouble.

Mo Williams is the starter at point guard. He didn't play in the first Boston game, and while he adds some scoring punch, he's missed five games this year and it's not at all clear that Cleveland suffers too much with him in street clothes. The other change in the lineup is that Joey Graham has recently replaced Jamario Moon in the starting lineup, which really matters very little in the grand scheme of things.

Cleveland's bench had a nice game the last time we played them. They've got some pretty good second-unit weapons, as second-unit weapons go. The most obvious is former All-Star Antawn Jamison, a versatile forward who we can hope decides to content himself with launching perimeter shots. Daniel Gibson is legitimate three-point sniper. I'm not a Ramon Sessions fan, but he has his moments; a big key to defending him is letting him take all the crazy shots he seems willing to take, rather than over-reacting to his penetration and leaving someone else open or by bailing him out with a foul call. None of those guys has a reputation for defense, however, and while the other two bench guys -- Ryan Hollins and Moon -- are decent on D, I think the Celtics bench could do some damage.

It's a game Boston should win, but to reiterate, they'll have to do more than just show up.

Celtics 94, Raptors 87

In his NBA preview column from October 28, ESPN's Bill Simmons -- the Sports Guy -- predicted that "[t]he Celtics will put the word 'defending' back into 'defending champs.'" Down 15 to Toronto midway through the third quarter Monday night in Boston, the Celtics proved him right. Paul Pierce reprised the fourth-quarter cold-blooded assasin role we've become accustomed to over the past year-plus, and a big nod to Kevin Garnett for keeping the team and crowd emotionally involved.

[recap] [box score]

A friend of mine who's a Lakers fan -- I know, I know -- sent me an email after the game. It read, in part, "Doc is hell-bent on killing the Celts [sic] repeat chances," illustrated by him playing Pierce/KG/Ray a combined 117 minutes tonight. His point is completely legit: The season's long, this one seemed out of hand, we just beat Detroit last night, we've got Atlanta on Wednesday. Plenty of coaches would have packed it up for the night and played the bench the rest of the way. Indeed, that's what Doc did in Indiana earlier this year.

There's something to be said, however, for sending a message, even this early in the season. Toronto's on the short list of Eastern Conference contenders. If we face them in the playoffs, they're surely going to remember this game, and how difficult it is to win in Boston.

That's a good thing for us. I don't expect Doc to pull out all the stops every time we put ourselves in this spot (and here's hoping it's not that often), but I do think he's tuned in to which teams are worth fighting against.

A couple of general thoughts about the game:

-Even in the first half, our defense wasn't that bad. Jermaine O'Neal had 19 at halftime -- he finished with just 23 and Kendrick Perkins ate his lunch on a few key possessions in the fourth -- but Chris Bosh was held in check, scoring just nine points in 40 minutes. Bosh came into this game with the third-highest scoring average in the league, at 26.7 per game.

Most of the damage was done by the Raps role players from the outside; Jason Kapono, Anthony Parker, and Joey Graham. Those three combined for 37 points.

Remember, though, our defensive success has been predicated around keeping people out of the lane and forcing the other team to make jumpers -- a lot of jumpers -- if they want to beat us. Graham scored eight points in the second quarter on a free throw and about 64 feet worth of jump shots. I guarantee that if you had told Doc and Tom Thibodeau that Joey Graham was going to be shooting 20-footers, they'd have been fine with it.

-71-70 Raps, eight minutes and change to go. We had three possessions to take the lead, and we got a contested three from Eddie House (blocked); an open three from Tony Allen (which he missed, rebounded, and committed an offensive foul trying to get to the basket); and a 19-footer from Glen Davis (predictably missed).

Garnett and Ray Allen weren't in the game and therefore were unavailable as options, but these can't be the guys taking the shots for us in those moments, at least not those specific shots. If Eddie gets a clean look, that's one thing, but Tony and Baby need to remember why the defense has left them open in those situations.

Next game is Wednesday night, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, in Boston against Atlanta. The Hawks -- the same Hawks who pushed us to seven games in the first round of the playoffs last year -- are 5-0, the last undefeated team in the East as of this writing (they are playing in Chicago Tuesday night). Atlanta's already won in Orlando and New Orleans this year, so they're a formidable opponent. However, they'll be without Josh Smith, who sprained his ankle Friday against Toronto and is expected to miss two to four weeks.

Atlanta, like Toronto, is one of these teams that will be gunning for Boston, and in turn, Boston will want to keep them from winning in the Garden. Boston will need to come out of the gate a lot faster than they did against the Raps.