Will Celtics hand Cavaliers their first loss of the season in Tuesday night's NBA Cup showdown?
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics will welcome the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers to TD Garden on Tuesday night, a highly anticipated showdown between the two best teams in the Eastern Conference. But the juice for this matchup doesn't end there.
The Celtics may be the defending champs, but the Cavaliers are a perfect 15-0 to start the season. Cleveland can continue to flirt with NBA history with a win on Tuesday, and get some revenge for last year's playoffs in the process.
We'll be treated to a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Celtics won in five games en route to their NBA title. This time, the Cavaliers will have their star player.
And for some more added juice, it's also an NBA Cup matchup -- and an extremely important one for Boston. The Celtics dropped their NBA Cup opener last week to the Atlanta Hawks, while the Cavaliers were obviously victorious, beating the Chicago Bulls by 18 points in Cleveland. The Cavs have the edge in Group C, and the Celtics likely have to win out in group play if they want any chance to make it to Las Vegas.
Handing the Cavaliers their first loss of the season would be a great way to get that run started.
Cavaliers tie second-best start in NBA history
The Cavaliers improved to 15-0 on Sunday night with a 128-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets, matching the second-best start in NBA history. They joined the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, and the 1948-49 Washington Capitols as the only teams to open a season at 15-0. Those Warriors hold the NBA record for the best start, winning 24 straight to begin their 2015-16 season.
Celtics-Cavaliers Rematch
On their way to last year's NBA title, the Celtics beat the Cavaliers in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Cleveland won Game 2 in Boston before the C's rattled off three straight wins.
Donovan Mitchell only played in the first three games of that series, but he's firing on all cylinders this season. The Cavs star is averaging a team-high 24.6 points per game off 47 percent shooting overall and 42 percent from downtown. He averaged 30 points in his two games against the C's last regular season, and 31.7 points across his three playoff games against Boston.
Mitchell got the night off Sunday, so he'll be well rested for Tuesday night. But he's just the top of a well-rounded Cavaliers team.
Darius Garland is averaging 21.4 points and 7.0 assists this season, while Evan Mobley (18.1 points, 8.8 rebounds) and Jarrett Allen (14.5 points, 10.9 rebounds) form a formidable frontcourt for the Cavs. Allen missed the playoff series between the two teams last year, and is eager to get a crack at the defending champs on Tuesday night.
"It's a rematch," Allen said Sunday. "I know they didn't have some players. And we didn't have me, so I want to try and beat them and test where we are with them."
The Cavs are not backing down from that rematch mindset. And even though no team has beaten Cleveland this season, first-year Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson agreed that Tuesday night's showdown with the Celtics will be a great measuring stick for his team.
"I think it is. It's going to be a test for us. They obviously play a different style with their five-out, five shooters. It'll be a real test for us, and we're at that point now at 15-0, why not test ourselves against the best?," said Atkinson. "It comes at the perfect time to give us a good measurement of where we are."
It's a big measuring stick for the Celtics too. The Pacers already got some revenge for their Eastern Conference Finals loss by handing the C's their first loss of the season. Boston also dropped a highly anticipated tilt with the Warriors, and their first NBA Cup game to the Hawks. The Celtics have only lost three games, but they were all fairly important.
Tuesday night will be their biggest test of the season yet.
A Celtics-Cavaliers shootout?
With Atkinson at the helm, the Cavaliers have become an offensive force. They currently lead the NBA at 123.7 points per game, which is 11 points higher than what the team averaged last season under J.B. Bickerstaff. They also lead the league in shooting, hitting 52.4 precent overall and 41.9 percent from three-point range.
The Cavs get it done in a bunch of different ways, too. They score a ton down low, averaging 53.6 points in the paint per game, good for fourth in the NBA. That's where they could exploit the C's on Tuesday, as Boston is allowing 53.7 points in the paint per game, which is 27th in the NBA.
The Cavaliers love to get out on the fast break too, scoring 16.8 fast-break points per night. They're also better than anyone else at taking advantage of mistakes, averaging an NBA-best 21.6 points off turnovers per game.
So the Celtics are going to have to take good care of the ball on Tuesday, and will likely find themselves in a shootout with the Cavs. But the Celtics are no offensive slouch, sitting second in the league at 121.6 points per game.
Jayson Tatum is making an early case for MVP, averaging 29.7 points per game, and he's coming off his overtime winner against the Raptors on Saturday night. Jaylen Brown isn't far behind at 25.6 points per game, with Derrick White (18.9 ppg) and Payton Pritchard (15.5 ppg) off to great starts for Boston as well.
We could be heading for a good ole, NBA Cup shootout at the greened-out Garden. But both teams are also pretty solid defensively, with the Cavs ranking seventh in defensive rating at 110.7, while Boston checks in at 10th at 111.2. The Cavs and the Celtics are the only two teams in the NBA to rank in the Top 10 in both offense and defense so far this season.
Boston fans should be in for a treat on Tuesday as they enjoy a rematch from last postseason and a potential preview for this summer. Add in the Cavaliers' undefeated record and the sideshow of the NBA Cup, and there will be a whole lot of juice inside the TD Garden.