Celtics 99 - Cavaliers 90: LeBron Lays Egg, C's Get Huge Win

AP Photo

The Celtics were wire to wire dominant last night against the Cavs and just kept improving their playoff position with a 99-90 win.

Marcus Smart was firing from the get go and finished the night with 19 points to lead five players for the Celtics who had double figures. Evan Turner, who was quiet scoring the basketball added a career high 13 assists as he settles seamlessly into his play maker role.

Isaiah Thomas had another brilliant game off the bench as he makes his late run to the 6th man of the year award chipping in 17 points off the bench. Avery Bradley also had a strong game scoring 15 on 7-12 shooting.

LeBron James played only 26 minutes and sat out the entire 4th quarter. There were rumors if he was going to play in the game but it seemed like he suited up and was physically on the court but most certainly took the night off. He had a pedestrian 14 points on 5-14 shooting and asked to come out of the game a few times. He cemented his image in Boston fans eyes, he's at times the biggest chump in the league.

AP Photo

Evan Turner had the quote of the night when addressing the fact that LeBron sat the entire 4th quarter.

"I threw away my LeBron poster in high school. so I don't care. Closing out a game like this and winning is huge."

After this win the Celtics are in prime position to make the playoffs. They are sitting in the seventh seed (half a game ahead of the Pacers at 36-43) right now, with an identical record as the Nets (37-42) but own the tie-breaker. Also in an even more interesting development the Celtics are now only two games behind the Bucks with three-games left including the season finale at Milwaukee. The sixth seed is no longer a pipe dream for this team, it could become a reality.

You can look at this win in two ways. On one side the Cavs were sitting Kyrie Irving in street clothes giving him the night off and LeBron looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than on the court at times. Cleveland is playing for nothing right now so to drop a meaningless game in April when resting for the playoffs isn't really a big deal.

On the other end of the spectrum though, the Celtics are continuing to show they belong in the playoffs. It doesnt matter who the opponent is, who is suiting up and who is resting, there is one goal and that is to play to the best of their abilities and win the game that night. Brad Stevens has this team extremely focused on the game and not scoreboard watching or worried about seeding. This team has one mindset and it's to play tonight the best they can and good results will happen.

With three-games remaining, the C's clearly want to control their own destiny with a possible postseason berth.

Up Next: Cleveland at the TD Garden on Sunday afternoon, tip-off is at 3:30 EST


Sean Dutra
Follow on Twitter:@SeanDutra