Donovan Mitchell made an impressive 3-pointer from well beyond the arc, and he could only shrug as he headed back on defense. He then scored two more baskets to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 16-point lead.
“Sometimes you just get lucky,” Mitchell said after scoring 29 points to help Cleveland defeat Boston 118-94 on Thursday night. “Shooters shoot.”
After a tough loss in the first game by 25 points, the Cavaliers bounced back with a big win of their own, defeating the top-seeded Celtics in Boston to even their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one game each. Now, the teams are headed to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday.
“We knew they would step up their game, and they did,” Celtics center Al Horford said. “They responded, and we didn’t.” In the first half, Mitchell, the Cavaliers’ All-Star, only took six shots and scored six points, but he dished out five assists.
However, he exploded in the third quarter with 16 points and continued his scoring streak into the fourth quarter, including the impressive 28-foot shot off the backboard.
“I wasn’t shooting much in the first half, trying to get my teammates involved early and picking my spots,” Mitchell explained, who also contributed with eight assists and seven rebounds. “But in the second half, it was all about scoring. Sometimes it’s about assists or rebounds. Whatever the team needs. And when it was time to score, I knew I had to step up.”
Jayson Tatum led Boston with 25 points, while Jaylen Brown added 19. However, Derrick White, who had a strong performance with 25 points in Game 1, struggled in this game, managing only 10 points and missing seven of his eight 3-point attempts.
