jeff benton sunday
1-0 yesterday 30 dime winner on Orlando. overall, 32-40-3 MINUS 65 dimes.
Sunday's Winner 20 Dime: BOSTON CELTICS
Celtics
There’s just no way. There’s just no way the Cavaliers are going to shoot nearly 60 percent again today as they did in Game 3. There’s just no way the Cavaliers are going to get to the free-throw line 34 times (let alone make 31 foul shots) again today as they did in Game 3. There’s just no way the Cavaliers are going to outrebound Boston 45-30. And there’s just no way that Boston is going to miss 13 of 17 three-point field goals and get a combined 18 points in 70 minutes from Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, as happened in Game 3.
The point: While Cleveland absolutely deserved to win Game 3, there’s NO WAY the Cavaliers are 29 points better than Boston. That was just one of those “perfect storm” games where everything Cleveland did went right and everything the Celtics did went very, very wrong. You can expect Boston, which outplayed the Cavaliers for most of Game 1 and all of Game 2 in Cleveland, to come out today with a vengeance. After all, this team has already made dubious history, as the Game 2 loss was the worst home playoff defeat in the Celtics’ glorious history. If that doesn’t fire up Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Rondo, etc., nothing will.
To show you just how fluky Cleveland’s performance was in Game 3, consider that in the first two contests (on their home floor), the Cavs shot a combined 66-for-148, or 45 percent. On Friday, they went 44-for-74 (59.5 percent). In Games 1 and 2, Boston had an 84-73 rebounding edge. On Friday, Cleveland was +15 on the boards.
One more point to make: Going back to their thrilling seven-game playoff series in 2008, these teams have met 18 times and they’ve split those 18 meetings. And over the past 16 meetings, only once has a team won consecutive games, with the squads alternating wins and losses in the last five clashes going back to mid-March. Also, only once in their last 27 postseason contests have the Celtics lost back-to-back games.
This is serious gut-check time for Boston, and I’m banking on the team that showed up in that 18-point win at Cleveland in Game 2 to take the floor today. I’m not predicting a similar 18-point Celtics blowout, but I’m confident that this one will be in the bag with four minutes left to play.