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Allen, Celtics easily beat James-less Cavaliers

Dec 2, 2007 - 9:48 PM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Without LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers were no match for Ray Allen and the Boston Celtics.

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

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

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

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

The league's leading scorer, James injured the finger in the second quarter of Wednesday's loss to Detroit. The 22-year-old scored 38 points and dished out 13 assists in a 109-104 overtime win over Boston on Tuesday, but his absence was glaring in this one.

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

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

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

"Well, there'll be no video on this game, hopefully," Celtics coach 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 it take a 61-48 lead with 2:35 left in the period. Allen and Rajon Rondo scored six points apiece during the run.

Boston led, 64-50, after three quarters and the Cavaliers never threatened the rest of the way. Only a 12-3 run in the final minutes of the fourth quarter salvaged the Cavaliers the embarrassment of setting a franchise record.

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

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

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