The Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics at the Q last night after a grueling West Coast road trip. Both Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson continued to play top-flight basketball. Some notes:
— Kyrie dropped 40 points on a scorching 16 for 24 shooting performance. It's the second 40-pt game of his career (both this season) and one point shy of his all-time high. Nineteen of his points came in the first quarter, the most by any Cavalier in a single quarter this season.
— Tyler Zeller tallied 3 blocks, including a blockbuster special-order turkey stuffing on Paul Pierce. Zeller was sprinting horizontally across the court, and the force of his own block sent him reeling. It was hilarious and heroic at once, bless his heart.
— Boobie looked pretty out of sync out there. He missed the three shots he took (all from downtown) and dribbled the ball so deliberately that he looked like a middle-schooler. New acquisition Wayne Ellington might find himself picking up the extraneous minutes Boobie's been collecting in between bouts of the flu.
— Alonzo Gee had a breathtaking marquee dunk in the sweating face of Kevin Garnett midway through the 3rd quarter. If Gee could find a way to put 15 points on the board night in and night out (instead of 11), why, this offense would be four points stronger.
— TThomp continues to be a dunk machine. He's really getting into a groove out there, harnessing some of his rookie instabilities and playing to his physical strengths. It'd be nice to see him asserting himself a bit more on the defensive end. Remember those insane high-flying blocks last year?
Next up: Milwaukee Bucks on Friday Jan. 25 at the Quicken Loans Arena
