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Celtics seek first road win of playoffs

May 10, 2008 - 1:39 PM Boston at Cleveland 8:00 pm EDT Eastern Conference semifinals Celtics lead, 2-0

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - The Boston Celtics have had no trouble winning at home. Now they need to prove that they can excel on the road.

The top-seeded Celtics look to forge a three-games-to-none lead against the fourth-seeded Cavaliers when the Eastern Conference semifinal shifts to Cleveland on Saturday.

Boston held serve with their home-court advantage, winning the first two games of the best-of-seven series at TD Banknorth Garden, including an 89-73 victory in Game Two on Thursday.

Paul Pierce scored 19 points and Ray Allen broke out of his slump by scoring all 16 of his points in the second half on Thursday as the Celtics claimed a 2-0 lead in the series and improved to 6-0 at home in the postseason.

"It was a total team effort," Pierce said. "We kept the turnovers down, we rebounded the ball, we made the extra pass and then we got the job done defensively. That's true Celtic basketball right there."

However, Boston will need an even better effort on Saturday as they are 0-3 on the road in the playoffs and haven't won in Cleveland since 2004.

"We're focused on trying to get this first one in Cleveland," Garnett said. "Defense obviously has to be there. We're going into a hostile building and they play very well (at) home. Some way, somehow, we have to carry this energy over (to Cleveland)."

But, if LeBron James continues to struggle, the Cavs may not make it back to Boston again this season.

James scored 21 points during Game Two but needed 24 shots to do it and turned the ball over seven times.

The five-time All-Star is 8-of-42 from the floor with 17 turnovers in the series overall. Just as in Game One when he made only two baskets, James was forced to take a host of jumpers on Thursday, missing on too many for Cleveland to have any chance.

"They're very aggressive, they're very good," James said. "The shots that I normally make haven't fallen the last two games. The layups that usually go down for me are just jumping out of the rim and the jumpers that usually go down for me are just not going down for me."