Celtics at Cavaliers
The Boston Celtics are surging with wins in nine of the last 10 games and outlasted one of the best teams in the Western Conference with a 134-129 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. The Celtics will try to avoid a letdown when they make a one-game stop to visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.
Boston's lone loss in the last 10 games was a 115-111 setback to the defending champion Golden State Warriors, and the team is feeling very confident after shooting 59.3 percent from the floor and placing eight scorers in double figures in the win over the Thunder. "It says we can compete with anybody," Celtics guard Marcus Smart told reporters after the victory. "They're one of the best defenses in the league and we dropped 134 points on them." The Cavaliers no longer own the worst record in the NBA but missed out on a chance to record their first three-game winning streak of the season when they fell to the Dallas Mavericks 111-98 at home on Saturday. Rookie point guard Collin Sexton went 4-of-17 from the field in the loss and is 15-of-53 over the last four contests.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBCS Boston, FS Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE CELTICS (34-19): Boston scored at least 31 points in each quarter on Sunday and had only one of the nine players who saw action shoot under 50 percent (Gordon Hayward, 1-of-6). "We shot the ball unreal, but we were getting really good looks," center Al Horford told reporters. "That's the difference. It wasn't like lucky shots and stuff like that. We were getting the quality shots that we look for and we just made a lot of them." All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving led the charge with 30 points on 14-of-19 shooting and added 11 assists for his fourth consecutive double-double but the team ruled him out for Tuesday due to a hip injury.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (11-42): Cleveland's season was at first defined by the departure of superstar LeBron James and then quickly became defined by a series of injuries which left the team playing for the lottery. All-Star forward Kevin Love (foot) played in only four games before going down and is closing in on a return, but small forward Cedi Osman became the latest to hit the shelf after leaving Saturday's game with an ankle injury. Osman, who is day-to-day, put up 10 points in 14 minutes prior to his departure and averaged 24.3 points over the four previous games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cleveland traded SG Rodney Hood to the Portland Trail Blazers for Gs Wade Baldwin IV and Nik Stauskas and two future second-round draft picks.
2. Celtics C Aron Baynes (foot) sat out Sunday and is not expected to play Tuesday.
3. Boston took the first two meetings by an average of 26.5 points.