The Cavaliers treated the Celtics to a good, old-fashioned butt-whooping Thursday night at TD Garden, embarrassing the NBA’s top team on its home floor in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The 118-95 loss at TD Garden was Boston’s second-worst of the season, trailing only a 135-102 defeat against Milwaukee that came on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, after going to overtime the game before. That January clunker proved to be a forgettable speed bump in an otherwise phenomenal Celtics season. Jayson Tatum seemed to view Thursday’s result the same way. Boston’s best pl ..read more

Derrick White and Jaylen Brown carried the Celtics’ offense in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, helping Boston win easily despite an off night from Jayson Tatum. That was not the case in Game 2. White and Brown both struggled mightily from beyond the arc in the Celtics’ 118-94 loss, going a combined 1-for-14 on 3-point attempts in an all-around ugly outing at TD Garden. White, fresh off becoming just the fourth player in NBA playoff history to make 20 threes over a three-game span, was 1-for-8 from deep Thursday. His lone make came on his first shot of the game. Overall, White fini ..read more

Jayson Tatum raised an open right hand as he hit the brakes under his own basket and turned his head up to the rim late in Game 2. He might as well have been holding a white flag. Cavs guard Caris LeVert had blown by him on a lefty drive Tatum tried to halt with a hard foul, only to watch LeVert rise to the basket anyway. Of course he scored. Lavert’s layup pushed Cleveland’s lead then to 24, a pathetic punctuation to a pathetic defensive performance by the Celtics in Game 2. LeVert still had free throws to fire and 4:58 froze on the clock, but this game was over. Joe Mazzulla knew it. He pull ..read more

Dreams of a leisurely waltz to the NBA Finals? More like Game 2 deja vu. The Celtics had their streak of four consecutive blowout wins in the playoffs snapped Thursday with a 118-94 loss to the Cavaliers at TD Garden in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The humbling defeat evened the series, which has begun to follow a familiar script for the top-seeded Celtics who routed the Heat in their first-round opener around a decisive Game 2 loss. The Cavs weren’t historically productive from 3-point range like Miami was in its win, but they did make 46.4% of theirs to Boston’s 22.9%. “In bo ..read more

Yet another Celtics assistant is joining the NBA head-coaching ranks. The Charlotte Hornets announced the hiring of Charles Lee as their next head coach Thursday. Lee, Joe Mazzulla’s top assistant this season, will not join the Hornets until after Boston’s playoff run concludes. The Celtics owned a 1-0 lead over the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals heading into Thursday’s Game 2. In his pregame news conference, Mazzulla called Lee’s hiring “long overdue,” and offered some blunt advice to his departing lieutenant. “Everybody hates you (when you’re a head coach),” Mazzulla deadpann ..read more

By STEVE REED (AP Sports Writer) CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets have named Charles Lee as their next head coach. The 39-year-old Lee joins the Hornets after serving as the Boston Celtics top assistant coach. Lee will complete the Celtics’ playoff run before joining the Hornets on a full-time basis. Lee spent five seasons under Mike Budenholzer before joining the Celtics last summer. Lee replaces Steve Clifford, who announced before the end of the regular season that he was stepping down as Hornets coach after two seasons in his second stint with the club. The Hornets finished 21 ..read more

Last spring, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal roasted Derrick White. Tuesday night, the TD Garden crowd chanted White’s name in unison as if he was hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy at mid-court. White’s lack of hairline/abundance of forehead was the subject of ridicule on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” after Boston’s first-round Game 2 victory over the Hawks on April 18, 2023. That roast avoided profanity and vulgarity. There were no jokes about ju-jitsu instructors, bitcoin or Aaron Hernandez. Only G-rated jabs. The Big Aristotle and Sir Charles got a little giddy in the 1 a.m. hour after watchi ..read more

Klay Thompson, Jamal Murray, Stephen Curry. Those are the only other NBA players who’ve replicated the incredible postseason tear Derrick White has been on. On Tuesday, White became just the fourth player in NBA playoff history to make 20 3-pointers over a three-game span. He drilled seven on 12 attempts, as the Celtics blew past the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-95 at TD Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. White was similarly lethal in his previous two outings, going 8-for-15 from deep in Game 4 against the Miami Heat and 5-for-10 in the Game 5 clincher, contests the C’s won by d ..read more

Kristaps Porzingis’ absence could prove costly for the Celtics if his injury lingers deep into the NBA postseason. But so far, Boston hasn’t missed its unicorn big man. The Celtics demolished the Heat in their first game after Porzingis’ calf strain, then followed that up with a 25-point laugher in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, walloping the Cavaliers 120-95 Tuesday night at TD Garden. Porzingis can thank a strong shift off the bench from backup center Luke Kornet, who delivered what head coach Joe Mazzulla called a “tremendous” performance. Al Horford’s understudy can’t come cl ..read more

Jaylen Brown flipped a long pass from the right block out to Jayson Tatum early in Tuesday’s third quarter. It was the kind of pass, high-arching and hopeful, that finds a home on a Tuesday night in the regular season, but rarely, if ever, in the second round of the playoffs. Sure enough, there was Isaac Okoro, Cleveland’s sharpest defender, swatting Brown’s pass out of the air and into the backcourt. Okoro’s deflection triggered a two-man race, him and Tatum sprinting away from the action. Tatum won, tracking the ball down below the opposite foul line, but the Cavs had claimed a tiny victory ..read more