The short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers, playing without four of their five starters, showed fight early, even finishing the first 12 minutes with a 22-21 lead against the Boston Celtics.
But on an afternoon when 10 players dressed, the Cavs couldn’t keep pace with an energetic group from Boston that’s still fighting for one of the two final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, losing the final road game of the year, 117-78.
“Just wanted the guys to play hard,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said. “Almost not a fair situation to put them in because most of these guys are used to playing with the other guys and feeding off them and then suddenly they’re in primary roles. That made it difficult for those guys that were on the floor. I was just hoping to see them play hard, work harder and better on the defensive end than we did.”
In a forgettable second quarter, the Celtics opened on a 16-2 spurt and finished the first half with a 24-point lead, outscoring the Cavs, 34-9. The Celtics made 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the field while the Cavs went 2-of-16 (12.5 percent).
With the Cavs resting their top four scorers — LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith — the offense struggled against a defense that entered the contest ranked 23rd in the NBA. The Cavs managed just 78 points, tied for their lowest this season, and shot a paltry 39 percent from the field.
Iman Shumpert, who missed Friday’s game against Boston with a bruised right quad, started in place of Smith at shooting guard. Shumpert scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-15 from the field in 38 minutes. He also added a team-high 10 rebounds.
“It was alright. It was fine,” Shumpert said of his quad. “Luckily I didn’t get hit in it and made it out healthy.”
The versatile swingman admitted following the game he will continue treatment on his leg, but doesn’t expect it to be a problem moving forward.
Tristan Thompson started in place of Love and added 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Sharpshooter James Jones delivered 14 points off the bench. Timofey Mozgov, the lone member of the normal starting five to play on Sunday, finished with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds.
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