SportsFullCircle

Boston, MA - The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-94 on Friday night in Boston to tie the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings.  The Cavaliers remain in first place by percentage points.

In one of the most anticipated matchups of the season, LeBron James and the Cavs went into Boston with a one-game lead over the KG-less Celtics, but home court advantage proved too much an advantage for the Celtics in the end.  Led by Paul Pierce’s 29 points and with major contributions from reserve Leon Powe (20 points, 11 rebounds), the Celtics were able to hold off the Cavaliers on their home court and move into a tie for the Eastern Conference lead.

Without All-Star forward Kevin Garnett, who missed his seventh straight game due to a strained knee muscle, and backup center Glen Davis, who was ejected in the third quarter for a flagrant foul, the Celtics needed big contributions from the bench to have a shot in this one, and Powe certainly answered the call, with season-highs in both points and rebounds.

Cavs star LeBron James had a rather weak game by his standards, only scoring 21 points on 5-15 shooting from the field and 9-12 shooting from the line.  James’s most uncharacteristic moment came in the second quarter, when he missed a breakaway tomahawk dunk off the back iron, much to the delight of the sellout Boston crowd.

Despite James’s “poor” game, the Cavaliers were able to keep it close for much of the game, with the score tied 57-57 late in the third quarter, but the Celtics pulled away for good behind clutch shooting from Pierce and Ray Allen.

Things got a little chippy when Davis wrapped up Cavs forward Anderson Varejao to prevent an easy basket a little to roughly.  James and Allen started jawing at each other, and they, in addition to Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, received technical fouls.  However, when Allen fouled James on a breakaway later in the quarter, James helped Allen up and tapped him on the behind, signaling that the semi-feud was over.

Home court advantage is becoming a crucial aspect of the rivarly forming between the east’s two premier teams.  The home team has won all three games this season, and the home team (Boston had home court advantage) in last year’s epic Conference Finals won every game, with Boston winning game 7 and eventually winning the NBA Finals against the Lakers.  Thus, both of these teams will be fighting for home court advantage, because it seems whichever team gets last licks at home will emerge victorious.