Donovan Mitchell criticized one of the dunks of the year during the confrontation of the Eastern Conference on Tuesday between the Cleveland horsemen and the Boston CE.
But he did not get the victory. The Celtics opened an advance of 35-15 quarters, then held a gathering of riders for A victory of 112-105. With the victory, the second-class Celtics (36-15) moved to 4.5 games behind the riders (40-10) in the race for the head of n ° 1 in the East.
Mitchell, who is at 6 feet 3 inches, tried to set the tone early with his emphatic dunk on the 7-2 center of Boston, Kristaps Porziņģis. With the match equally at 4-4 at the first quarter, Mitchell led the horse-drawn offensive on Halfcourt following a Miss Jayson Tatum. He divided Tatum and Jrue Holiday at the top of the line at 3 points and turned out to be for the basket.
Porziņģs tried to hinder Mitchell on the side of the help, but it was not in vain. While Porziņģs jumped on the basket to block Mitchell’s shot, Mitchell armed the ball with his right hand and slammed it on Porziņģis and through the net.
But Boston was not disconcerted. The Celtics responded by dominating the first quarter on the way to their 20 -point advance at the start of the second. Cleveland is struggling to shoot in a first half of 44 points that the Celtics led, 54-44.
The riders were better after half-time and reduced the Celtics to 109-104 in the last minutes of the match. But Boston limited Cleveland to a single franc throw from there to the seven -point victory.
Mitchell paved the way in the Cleveland rally with 31 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, while Darius Garland surmounted a first half of five points to finish with 25.
But a strong defense and a shot greater than 3 points of the Celtics were too much for Cleveland. The Celtics limited horsemen to 39.6% of the field shooting and a clip of 28.2% (11 out of 39) long -distance. Boston ATTE with an effort of 17 out of 48 (35.4%) from the distance to 3 points while four starters marked two figures.
Jayson Tatum led Boston’s effort with 22 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two interceptions. Derrick White collected 20 points and five assists, while Porziņģis posted 19 points and seven rebounds. Jaylen Brown finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
