Excitement quickly turned into disappointment at TD Garden on Friday night, as the Boston Celtics watched a commanding 22-point lead slip away in a tough loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers—their second defeat to Cleveland this season.
This game carried plenty of hype, and for good reason. It was the final regular-season showdown between the Eastern Conference’s top two teams, and the stars delivered. Jayson Tatum erupted for 46 points, while Jaylen Brown added 37, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Donovan Mitchell’s red-hot performance.
Mitchell torched Boston with 41 points, consistently stepping up in crucial moments. He dropped 26 in the second half alone, willing his team to a statement victory on the parquet—just as he did in Cleveland’s earlier win over the Celtics. Whether it was clutch three-pointers, crafty floaters in traffic, or an emphatic dunk in the fourth quarter, the All-Star guard did it all.
“He tried to find the matchups he wanted and put himself in good spots,” Brown said postgame.
At this point, nobody watching was surprised. Mitchell’s dominance over Boston has become routine.
He’s a certified Celtics killer—not in the frustrating “role player having a random big night” kind of way, but in the “one of the greats” category. In fact, Mitchell owns the highest career scoring average against Boston in NBA history, putting up 30.8 points per game—just edging out Michael Jordan’s 30.7. Anytime you surpass MJ in a scoring stat, you’re doing something special.
