In the first half tonight it looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to run away and hide. At one point they had a 15-point lead and Lebron James was, well, Lebron James as he pumped in 23 first half points and you thought oh no he’s on his way to 50 and the Green are going to have to win on the road.
Then a few things happened. Boston’s second year point guard Rajon Rondo said “gimme the damn ball”, the team started to shoot better and the Celtics stepped up defensively taking away James for most of the second half. This all led to them having their trademark third quarter outscoring the Cavs, 29-17 on their way to a 96-89 win at the TD BankNorth Garden in Game Five on Wednesday night.
The Celtics, who when they needed to ended up turning it up a notch, take a 3-2 series lead as they head to Cleveland for Game Six on Friday night.
The Green were led by Paul Pierce who had 29 points, Kevin Garnett had a double-double with 26 points and 16 boards and Rondo also had a double-double with 20 points and 13 assists in the big win.
Cleveland was led by James who finished with 35 points, after being held to only two points in the third quarter and former Celtics Delonte West had 21 points and Wally Szczerbiak added 10 points in the loss.
I really thought after the first quarter the C’s were done and all of the sudden it was like okay they are winning. Great game tonight.
They really need to win on Friday so Detroit doesn’t get a month off before they play again in the Eastern Conference Finals.