GAME THREAD: NBA: CLEVELAND (9-8) at BOSTON (13-2)

Re: NBA: CLEVELAND (9-8) at BOSTON (13-2)

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BOSTON (Ticker) -- Without LeBron James, the ClevelandCavaliers were no match for Ray Allen and the Boston Celtics.

Allen scored 20 points Sunday afternoon as the Celtics notchedan 80-70 win over the injury-depleted Cavaliers.


Cleveland looked lost without James, who has missed two straightgames with a sprained left index finger. The Cavs scored theirsecond-lowest point total in franchise history.


Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 12 points and Sasha Pavlovic added 11for the Cavaliers, who shot just 32 percent (25-of-76) andnearly matched their franchise low of 59 points set vs. SanAntonio on March 25, 1997.


"Obviously it's a big hole to fill but more than anything, Ithink offensively in order for us to be fluid we have to sharethe ball," Ilgauskas said. "(We have to) make the ball movefrom one side of the court to another and shoot good shots. Wealso need to limit our turnovers too, so today that's exactlythe things we did not do."


The league's leading scorer, James injured the finger in thesecond quarter of Wednesday's loss to Detroit. The 22-year-oldscored 38 points and dished out 13 assists in a 109-104 overtimewin over Boston on Tuesday, but his absence was glaring in thisone.


"When King James goes down, you feel like you have to carry theteam by yourself offensively," Cavaliers forward Drew Goodensaid. "And I think we are started to get better at doing that,but then again that is not our identity, our identity is havinghim make plays for us."


"We anticipated, LeBron playing, he didn't but the world doesn'tstop," Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said. "The gamedefinitely doesn't stop. We tried to go out there and get awin."


The Celtics also had a sub-par showing, but still managed totake a 43-39 lead into halftime.


"Well, there'll be no video on this game, hopefully," Celticscoach Doc Rivers said. "It's a win, and we'll take the win."

Boston opened the second half with an 18-9 spurt that helped ittake a 61-48 lead with 2:35 left in the period. Allen and RajonRondo scored six points apiece during the run.


Boston led, 64-50, after three quarters and the Cavaliers neverthreatened the rest of the way. Only a 12-3 run in the finalminutes of the fourth quarter salvaged the Cavaliers theembarrassment of setting a franchise record.


"It was a defensive game," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "Ithought both sides did a nice job defending. I'm sure Doc feelsthe same. I feel we had some decent looks that normally wemake that just didn't go down."


Garnett scored just nine points on 2-of-12 from the floor forthe Celtics, who shot 37 percent (27-of-72) but improved to 9-0at home for the first time since 1985-86.


"One of our goals was to establish home," Garnett said . "Youknow, you go to some arenas, Utah, some arenas where you knowit's going to be difficult, the Palace, those are arenas thatjump right off to me as difficult places to play. We're tryingto establish that here."