LeBron James celebrated his second straight MVP trophy last night at his home court, Quicken Loans Arena, by laying a stinker in front of the hapless Cleveland fans.
The Boston Celtics blew out the Cavs, 104-86 in Game 2 to tie the Eastern Conference Semifinals series at 1. Game 3 isn't until Friday night back at TD Garden, giving King James and his teammates plenty of time to wonder what happened as they lost the all-important home court.
Six Celtics scored in double figures, led by Rajon Rondo who tied a team playoff record (Bob Cousy) with 19 assists and 13 points. Rasheed Wallace also had his best game in a Celtics uniform, dropping 17 points on a smoking 7 of 8 shooting. Ray Allen had 22 points, Kevin Garnett added his second straight double double (18 points, 10 rebounds), Paul Pierce notched 14 points and Kendrick Perkins had 10 points and nine rebounds.
LeBron had 24 points and seven rebounds but he didn't do anything until it was too late. Boston led by as much as 23 points in the third quarter before Cleveland cut it to 10 (92-82) in the fourth quarter. Only two other Cavs scored in double figures: Antawn Jamison (16 points) and J.J. Hickson (13 points).
The Celts led 26-22 after the first quarter and 52-48 at the half. They broke it wide open with an awesome third quarter (31-12) and were able to withstand's Cleveland's inevitable fourth quarter run (26-21).
Boston shot 51.3% to Cleveland's icy 40.0%. They made five more 3-pointers (9-4), outrebounded the rugged Cavs (43-32) and spread it around much better (30-17 assists).
Nobody thought the Celts had a chance in this series but they've put themselves in great position to at least make this go six or seven games. LeBron and the Cavaliers are a bunch of frontrunners, as proven by their choke job last season in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic. It would be a beautiful thing to see the Cavs fall apart with LeBron due to become a free agent this summer.
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