We often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics. Here’s a look at some enemy chatter from Cleveland.
Kelly Olynyk will hurt you if you forget to guard him
Olynyk scored all 12 of his points in the first half, including a pair of 3-pointers and a right-handed slam dunk down the lane. He earned a spot on the floor to start the third quarter before the Cavaliers caught on and held him scoreless in the second half.
Stevens said afterward that the Celtics need their skilled big men to be able to stretch the floor and make shots the way Olynyk did in the first two periods. But most importantly they need to make good decisions and limit turnovers.
Kelly’s 1st half shooting display had me jumping off the couch. I targeted him in our series preview as a guy who needed to play at his best for the Celtics to have a shot and he was proving me right.
That all changed in the 2nd half (this reporter’s take isn’t entirely accurate, Olynyk scored the C’s first bucket in the 3rd quarter). He didn’t log a ton of minutes (18), but that’s likely because the Celtics were having issues defending and rebounding, not exactly his strong suits. KO needs to continue the aggressive shooting and do better than 1 rebound every 9 minutes in Game 2.
On an unrelated note, I found the ESPN broadcast to be decent. Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy did recognize the obvious missed foul calls on LeBron James, and, in the land of ESPN, that qualifies as heavy criticism. I’m sure all 3 received an email reminder this morning.
Naturally, Cleveland fans had a different take:
@FearTheSword thank god we get tnt on Tuesday so we don’t have to listen to the espn boston lean
— ButteryJumper (@ButteryJumper) April 19, 2015
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Boston lean? Right….
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