Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Pick & Prediction DECEMBER 12th 2023

The Boston Celtics will attempt to beat the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers for the second time in three days when the teams meet Thursday.

Boston raised its home record to 11-0 with a 120-113 victory over Cleveland on Tuesday. The Celtics trailed by 15 in the first quarter, but pulled away with a 9-0 spurt in the fourth. A pair of Kristaps Porzingis free throws gave the Celtics a 115-106 lead with 3:45 left, and the Cavaliers never got closer than seven points down the stretch.

Boston was 26 of 26 from the free throw line and had a 20-point edge in made free throws.

“It’s the game,” Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “It tells the story of the game. Our guys drive, penetrate. No way we end up with only nine free throws (attempted), and they shoot 26. I don’t know how to explain it. … You can’t overcome a discrepancy 26 to nine. I’ll go back and take a look at it, but it’s really hard to defend the free-throw line.”

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 25 points for Boston in the win. Tatum also had 10 rebounds.

All five Boston starters scored in double figures. Porzingis had 21, Derrick White finished with 17 and Jrue Holiday had 11. Porzingis scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and also finished the game with 10 rebounds.

“Obviously we got off to a slow start,” Tatum said. “We just picked it up. Some shots started to fall, and then we just translated that to our defense.

“It’s like a playoff series. We got a good win (Tuesday). We have to regroup and expect a tough one on Thursday.”

Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 29 points and had six rebounds in the loss, but the Cavaliers were outrebounded 45-35 (12-6 at the offensive end). Darius Garland finished with 26 points and seven assists.

The Cavaliers made 19 of their 45 3-point attempts (42.2 percent). Max Strus made 5 of his 11 shots from behind the 3-point arc and while recording 17 points and nine rebounds.

“We kept them off the glass and we kept them off the free-throw line,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “It was a playoff-like atmosphere. In high-stress, high-emotional games you have to be very diligent about what’s hurting you and you have to be ready to adjust. I thought throughout the game our guys were well connected on what our defensive adjustment was, and I thought we fought to execute against a really good defensive team.

“Those are the type of games you have to win against really good teams. You have to win the free throw battle. You have to win the rebounding battle, and our guys did a good job of just staying the course.”

Cleveland is 13-4 this season when it holds teams to fewer than 120 points, but 0-7 when opponents score 120 points or more.

“There’s some adjustments obviously that we can make where we can be better defensively,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s on us as coaches to put the plan together for Thursday night so we can help our guys out.”

–Field Level Media