J.R. Smith said the ‘extremely scrappy’ Celtics made it tough for the Cavs in Game 1
J.R. Smith scored four points for the Cavaliers on Sunday. That total was not quite enough to lift Cleveland over the Celtics, as Smith and the rest of LeBron James’s supporting cast found no more success against Boston’s defense than their leader did in a 108-83 defeat.
Smith is having an inconsistent postseason, but he delivered in Game 1 against the Indiana Pacers (15 points) and again in the series opener in Toronto (20 points, 5-6 from three). On Sunday, the Celtics held him scoreless from beyond the arc as they overwhelmed the Cavs at the TD Garden.
After the game, Smith said, “It’s tough but we got to figure out a way to mix it up. We got to help LeBron. We can’t just expect him to do everything. As role players we got to play our role.”
How were the Celtics able to limit Cleveland to shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from deep?
“Defensively, they’re extremely long,” Smith said. “[Jayson] Tatum is 6-foot-8, has long arms. Same thing with [Jaylen] Brown. [Marcus] Morris is huge, has huge arms and wingspan. Terry [Rozier] is extremely scrappy. Same as the other guys and it’s just tough. We didn’t help it by turning the ball over. They put us in tough situations to turn the ball over.”
The Cavaliers created decent looks early but couldn’t capitalize as the Celtics scored 17 unanswered points midway through the first quarter. Cleveland missed its first 14 three-point attempts. James alone accounted for five of the team’s 21 missed threes.
“We had some great shots early that we didn’t make, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said postgame. “Couldn’t really make shots. 4-for-26 from three, that’s not us. But they did a good job of closing out, and trying to run us off the three. But I thought we had some good shots and missed.”
Kyle Korver, the Cavs’ veteran guard, was asked what the team could do better in Tuesday’s Game 2.
“Pretty much everything, I would say. I don’t think we did anything that well tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball well. We weren’t aggressive enough on defense. Long list,” he said.
For his part, Smith pointed out that if you took out some of the turnovers the Cavaliers made and changed a few of their misses into makes, the outcome could have been different.
“We missed a lot of shots. They made shots, forced turnovers. Take some of the turnovers out, make a few shots, and it’s a different game,” he said.
