The Celtics have the easiest path to the NBA Finals in history. No Jimmy Butler in round one. No Jarrett Allen and now no Donovan Mitchell in round two. Next round it’ll be the Knicks missing multiple key players or the young Pacers. No real challenge until the Finals.

"I was disappointed with how the whistle was blown tonight. I thought our guys deserved better. "... I don't know. I'm not in those guys' heads. But I do know that they were called for zero fouls in the fourth quarter." #Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff on tonight's officials.

Darius Garland: “7 free throws with 2 techs in a 48 minute game… that’s tough.” “This is our second time in the playoffs this year with less than 10 free throws. It’s ridiculous.” #Cavs

Lot of referee gripes that the #Cavs have had tonight team-wide. Darius Garland is not holding back. J.B. Bickerstaff was vocal about it too.

The east is missing: Giannis Dame for half the series Donovan Mitchell OG anunoby Randle Mitchell Robinson Bogdanovic Jarrett Allen Jimmy butler Terry rozier This is the easiest east to get out of since decades (unless you’re one of these teams) everyone is injured..

Fun game. Awesome atmosphere. #Cavs fought hard. Wasn’t the result we wanted. #BacktoBoston #LetemKnow

Cavs gave the Celtics a fight without Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen. They were really out to nail their audition for LeBron.

#Cavs showed tremendous effort, but even without Mitchell & Allen, you just feel like there's something else missing. Little cohesion on offense, too much doubling down on sketchy game plans, & a complete lack of growth from key players. So far from where they want to be...

JB pretty sharp criticism of the refs. Gotta wonder if it’s worthy of a fine. Tried to be nice/composed. #Cavs #LetEmKnow

In the past 5 months, Cleveland has had to play playoff games without: Nick Chubb Deshaun Watson Jack Conklin Jarrett Allen Donovan Mitchell (Shane Bieber?…)

Frustrating 4th quarter for the #Cavs. No moral victories in the playoffs, but I did see former Congressman Tim Ryan sitting in the crowd during a TNT replay… so there’s that.

Unsolicited, JB Bickerstaff made it clear he was not happy with the officiating tonight. #Cavs called for 17 fouls, Boston 12 yet #Celtics shot 24 free throws to Cleveland’s 7

losing jarrett allen before playing a series against a team and they dont really have rim protection hurts man

Cmon now. This is ridiculous. #Cavs #LetEmKnow

#Cavs played hard the whole game and kept coming but just didn’t have enough Garland, Mobley, and LeVert really played well but Tatum and Brown were too much and without Spida and Allen, you’re not going to challenge #Celtics

No excuses. You play with who is available. Joe Flacco was not available. #Cavs