The Celtics defense smothered the Cavaliers in Game 1

BOSTON -- The Celtics got big offensive nights from Jaylen Brown and Derrick White -- who combined for 57 points for Boston -- and Jayson Tatum had an all-around game despite some shooting woes in Boston's Game 1 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night. While some excellent three-point shooting shifted the tide in the second half, it was another smothering performance from Boston's defense that was the catalyst of the 120-95 victory.

Boston's edge in overall talent was on full display throughout Game 1, as the Celtics got a bit of everything from everyone while the Cavs got a lot of nothing from anyone not named Donovan Mitchell. The Cavs star did his thing and ended up with 33 points off 12-for-25 shooting overall and 4-for-11 from deep. There wasn't much the Celtics could do defensively to keep him from getting his points, which isn't anything unusual.

The rest of the Cavaliers provided nothing though, as the Boston defense held Mitchell's running mates to just 62 points. Players without the No. 45 on their jersey were just 25-for-65 from the floor and 7-for-31 from downtown. 

Evan Mobley was Cleveland's second-leading scorer with 17 points, and 10 of those came in the fourth quarter while Boston's lead hovered in the 20s. Darius Garland was just 6-for-15 for the night and 2-for-8 from three. And Max Strus wasn't a torn in the C's side like he was in a Miami Heat uniform last year, hitting two of his eight shots overall and just one of his five tries from deep.

Holding an opponent under the century mark is nothing to scoff at, and the Celtics have now done it in four straight playoff games. No NBA team has done that since the 2019 Toronto Raptors. With six playoff games under their belts, the Celtics have allowed just 92.7 points per game this postseason.

"Just hanging our hat on the defense end," Brown said after dropping a Celtics-high 32 points. "It's gotta be nonnegotiable. We don't want to get into trading baskets with teams; we want to get stops. You get stops, that allows you to jack up and put up as many threes as you want, and that's what we want to do. But we gotta get stops. We can't let teams just trade baskets, and we got enough defenders on our team to do that."

The Cavaliers came out hot, hitting six of their 12 three-pointers and scoring 34 points in the first quarter. But it wasn't enough to keep pace with the Celtics, who dropped 40 in the frame. 

From there, the Celtics locked down the Cavs. Cleveland scored just 15 points in the second, held to just 6-for-23 overall and 2-for-10 from three-point land. The Cavs woke up a bit out of halftime with 28 points in the third, but they hit just three of their 10 threes. The Celtics, on the other hand, knocked down seven of their 15 shots from deep and added five points to their 10-point halftime advantage. 

The third quarter started with Tatum rejecting a Mitchell layup. Brown blocked his good buddy later in the quarter, as the Celtics racked up seven rejections for the night.

Backup big man Luke Kornet rejected a pair of shots and contested nine overall throughout his 21 minutes on the floor. His big performance -- he finished with four points and 10 rebounds, six of which came off the offensive glass -- off the bench allowed Al Horford to play just 27 minutes. 

There was no rust factor with the Celtics after they had nearly a week off following their first-round series win over the Heat. But head coach Joe Mazzulla believes the team can play even better than what they showed in Game 1 on Tuesday night. 

"Yeah, I think so. I think both ends of the floor," said Mazzulla. "I think if you want to get to where you want to get to against teams like this, you can always fight for another level."

The Celtics trailed for just 18 seconds in Game 1. All five of their wins this postseason have been by double digits. And as Mazzulla said, the team can get even better.

Game 2 of the series is set for Thursday night at TD Garden.