Cavaliers at Celtics
The Boston Celtics have the benefit of playing a Cleveland Cavaliers team with nothing left to gain by riding its starters. The Celtics will try to grab their second straight from the resting Cavaliers when they host Cleveland on Sunday.
Boston took the opener of the home-and-home set on Friday, when the Cavaliers elected to leave LeBron James and Kevin Love on the bench in the fourth quarter of a close game and sat Kyrie Irving. The Celtics snapped Cleveland’s 18-game home winning streak in the 99-90 victory, though the Cavaliers did not seem concerned. “Honestly, we’re worried about ourselves right now and about trying to deal and balance to diametrically opposed things,” Cleveland coach David Blatt told reporters. “One is to keep guys in shape and the other one is to rest them. The result of the games are a little less important because we’ve finished in second place in the Eastern Conference and we’ve won the division, and that’s not going to change one way or another.”
TV: 3 p.m. ET, FSN Ohio (Cleveland), CSN New England (Boston)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (51-28): Cleveland could be looking at a potential playoff preview in the Celtics, who would be the No. 7 seed and start at the Cavaliers if the postseason started today. “Our guys lived up to the challenge that I felt we should finish in second, but whoever we draw in the playoffs, that's not something we're planning for or trying to arrange,” Blatt told reporters. “That's not at all a thought in our minds.” Cleveland will likely rest more players on Sunday and Irving (hip) will get all the time he needs to heal for the first round.
ABOUT THE CELTICS (37-42): Boston, which sits one game ahead of ninth-place Indiana, is not getting a lot of help from the schedule over the last three games and will have to earn its way to the playoffs against Cleveland, Toronto and Milwaukee. The Celtics completed a 3-0 road trip with Friday’s win and have taken five of their last six to stay two games back of the No. 6 Bucks. “We’re just learning as a team every single game and it shows out there,” guard Avery Bradley told the team’s website. “That’s’ why we’re able to get wins. We’re just believing in one another and we’ve got a lot of guys making big plays.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Cavaliers overcame a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull out a 122-121 win in their last trip to Boston on Nov. 14.
2. Celtics G Isaiah Thomas is averaging 24.8 points in the last four games.
3. Cleveland G Iman Shumpert (quad) sat out Friday and is questionable.