Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from Game 5 vs. Boston Celtics

1. Cavs cannot win on the Celtics’ home-court

The Boston Celtics took care of their seeding in the regular season and finished at the second seed in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs were the fourth seed, and knocked out the first seed Toronto Raptors in the conference semifinals.

Home-court advantage is coming back to haunt the Cavaliers as they just can’t seem to win at TD Garden. The Celtics have benefitted from their home-court advantage in the playoffs.

They are a perfect 10-0 at home these playoffs, but only have one road win, which they picked up against the Philadelphia 76ers. You could say if they don’t have home-court against the Milwaukee Bucks, they do not win that first round series.

In all of the games that the Celtics have won at home, they have held the Cavs to under 100 points. For Cleveland to win Game 6 and then steal Game 7, it will have to put up more than 100 points in Boston.

There just hasn’t been much offense on the road. The Celtics know how to close up the driving lanes and play in-your-face defense, which contributes to the Cavs’ inability to score.

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To counter that, they will have to be patient and move the ball around to get open shots for shooters like Smith and Korver. Running plays will help too. The Cavs will need more patience for things to open up in Boston than they would in Cleveland.