Halftime Scorching Takes: THESE are the undefeated Cavs????

We’re midway by means of Tuesday’s NBA Cup matchup between the Boston Celtics and the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers and issues are going glorious. The Celtics are up 17 and may very well be en path to a key group-stage win.

Are we certain this group is the undefeated one we’ve heard about for weeks???

Now, prepare for some Halftime Scorching Takes, buddy.

Picture by Streeter Lecka/Getty Photographs

7 p.m. Begin instances may not be the perfect for Celtics followers

This sport is likely one of the most intriguing matchups of the season thus far. But, there have been nonetheless a ton of empty seats in The Backyard after tip-off.

It felt like a Miami Warmth sport in right here for some time.

I get it. The NBA needs to make the Cup really feel particular and begin all the early-slate video games on the similar time in an effort to extend viewership. That’s nice and all, however the product actually suffers when folks don’t have sufficient time to get to their seats because of site visitors or busy T strains.

By the primary TV timeout, issues had crammed out a bit and the constructing had some juice, however man was the power low to start out off such a highly-anticipated matchup.

The Sluggish-Begin Celtics could be useless

Over the previous week or so, the Celtics have change into notorious for sleepwalking out of the gates. In that span, they fell behind early towards the Golden State Warriors, Brooklyn Nets (twice), Milwaukee Bucks, and Atlanta Hawks.

Tuesday’s begin really made it #DifferentHere.

Boston jumped out to a fast 12-4 lead earlier than the primary TV break, then continued to push to get it as much as 20-8.

Jayson Tatum was an enormous a part of the group’s robust begin.

He had his fingerprints all around the sport with eight factors, 5 rebounds, and three assists all within the opening body.

Tatum’s dominance continued for the rest of the half, the place he completed with 17 factors, eight boards, 4 assists, and a pair of steals. He needs this one.

As an entire, they did an incredible job of transferring the ball and getting Cleveland’s protection out of place. Seven of their ten first-quarter makes had been off of assists and 5 got here from past the arc.

The trouble on the defensive finish felt completely different as properly. The Cs allowed simply 20 factors within the opening body. There have been just a few lapses, however total they rotated properly, saved the ball in entrance of them, and made the guests need to earn their seems.

I can’t inform if the Celtics ought to be up by extra or not

Normally, whenever you’re watching a basketball sport, there’s a really feel to how issues are going. For instance, you may lookup on the scoreboard and be stunned that it’s solely a five-point sport, regardless of your favourite group taking part in horribly.

There are different nights that they will’t appear to tug away despite the fact that it seems like all the things goes proper.

This primary half was a little bit of a mixture.

The aforementioned robust begin was nice, however the Cs had been solely up by six on the finish of the primary quarter. Then there have been stretches the place we noticed a Jaylen Brown and the boys lineup on the market, seemingly having to wrestle for each bucket, however in some way Boston didn’t lose a lot floor.

Towards the top of the second, they actually hit their stride and pulled away from the lossless Cavs. Tatum’s seventeenth level of the half introduced Boston’s result in simply as many, proper earlier than the break.

Contemplating that the Cs shot 14-22 from deep and held Cleveland to simply 43.2% capturing, that quantity is suitable, proper?

Ought to they be up extra?

With the best way that all the things appeared to work out, possibly they need to be. This isn’t me complaining. However, in the event that they go chilly right here, be ready for a little bit of a scare.