The Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-117 to hand Cleveland their first loss of the season.

It was a complete and total team effort on both ends of the court for Boston, but it was Jayson Tatum who led the way with 33-points on 11-of-22 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 from deep while also adding 12 rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.

At the end of the first quarter, Tatum’s stat line read eight points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. By halftime, he scored another nine points and went 4-of-4 from behind the arc. He added another three rebounds and one assist in the second quarter.

Tatum did a little of everything tonight when the team needed it most, but it was the 3-point shooting as a team that really propelled this game almost out of reach for Cleveland, who couldn’t keep up with Boston’s accuracy from behind the arc tonight.

Boston finished the game shooting 22-of-41 (53.7%) from behind the arc while Cleveland finished 10-of-29 (34.5%) from deep. It won’t be easy for any team to defeat Boston when they’re hitting on threes at a clip like this.

The defense played well and held their own against the best-record team in the NBA. Head coach Joe Mazzulla challenged his team to play better individual defense and rebounding after their last game against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.

The biggest problem for the Celtics this season is the high number of points in the paint they allow teams to score on them and it wasn’t any different tonight as Cleveland scored 60-points in the paint.

The reason the Cavaliers couldn’t make a comeback is because they couldn’t keep up with Boston’s production from behind the arc in a math game. But they caught the Celtics a few too many times with creating shots inside the arc.

Al Horford was huge for Boston on both ends of the court. He finished with 20-points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from 3-point land. He also added seven rebounds, one assist, and three huge blocks throughout the game.

Horford handled a lot of the defensive work in the paint with Cleveland’s two bigs of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. He maneuvered well and held his own against a really good team.

Derrick White (19-points) and Jaylen Brown (17-points) combined for 36-points, nine rebounds, and 13 assists. They made the right play more often than not and made baskets when they needed to.

Jrue Holiday was fine. He finished with 11-points, five rebounds, and four assists. I thought he looked a little slow on both ends as I saw him get outworked by Sam Merrill a few times in this one.

The bench wasn’t of much assistance tonight as we’ve been accustomed to seeing from them this season. Between Payton Pritchard (13-points), Sam Hauser (two-points), and Neemias Queta (five-points), they only totaled 20-points although Pritchard and Queta hit big shots and made big plays down the stretch.

Queta struggled at times on both ends of the court, but Mazzulla opted to lean into him and make Queta the only big man to play behind Horford. Both Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman received a DNPCD.

During his postgame press conference, Mazzulla was asked about utilizing Queta and he said that he essentially wants to build trust and confidence.

“If you’re going to believe in your guys, you have to do it in critical moments as well.”

Overall, the Celtics earned a great win against a great team tonight. They advance to 1-1 in the NBA Cup series and hand the Cavs their first loss of the season.

The Celtics play next on Friday in Washington, where they will also make their visit to the White House on Thursday.

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Photo Credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant, NBAE Getty Images