Left-for-dead Cavs showing why they shouldn’t be counted out against the Celtics — Chris Fedor

BOSTON — Inside the visitor’s locker room at Boston’s TD Garden, Darius Garland was tucked away in the corner using a paper cup as a spittoon. No one knew the extent of his injury at the time. Only that his face was still throbbing, he was in excruciating pain and bleeding from the mouth more than an hour after bashing his face into Kristaps Porzingis’ hip.

That was Dec. 14, 2023. The night the Cavs’ season first ended. Or so they said.

Cleveland, also without starting forward Evan Mobley because of a knee issue, spent the next few weeks spurning Donovan Mitchell trade calls while staying together and rallying in the face of potentially crippling, franchise-altering adversity.

The Cavs’ epitaph was chiseled numerous times after that.

When Mitchell underwent a platelet-rich-plasma procedure on his troublesome left knee in early March — and looked less than 100% thereafter.

When an Easter Sunday embarrassment in Denver appeared to show how far they were from legitimate title contention status — an afternoon when a miffed Mitchell famously said, ‘It’s (expletive) April!”

When they supposedly cheated the game in the regular season finale against lottery-bound Charlotte — a loss that was sure to have the basketball gods eyeing vengeance for their reprehensible approach, an egregious form of matchup manipulation.

... or something like that.

When they were punked by 61 combined points in Games 3 and 4 of the first-round series against young, hungry Orlando, evening the best-of-seven at two games apiece and shifting the pressure back on Cleveland.

When they collapsed late in Game 6.

When they were down by 18 points in the first half of Game 7, a few quarters from extinction.

When they entered round two against the mighty Celtics with the longest odds to win a series in the conference semifinals or beyond since 2017.

When they lost Tuesday’s series opener by 25 points, looking overmatched and outclassed by a superior, battle-tested opponent — a result that led to them being double-digit underdogs, with oddsmakers having the audacity to set a 4-0 sweep at nearly even money and a result that had Max Strus being called overpaid, Mobley overrated, Garland broken, Georges Niang unplayable and coach J.B. Bickerstaff incompetent.

When they were 0-for-the-playoffs on the road and entering the green-clad TD Garden dungeon.

When they were down by nearly double-digits — again — just a few minutes after Game 2 tipped off.

And yet here they are. One of eight teams still alive. Tied at a game apiece with the title favorites. Three wins from the conference finals, none of which need to come on the road given that they’ve ripped away home-court advantage. Playing with house money. All the pressure on the championship-or-bust Celtics. Belief that, maybe, they can do the improbable.

For a moment, let the mind wander.

“It talks about the togetherness of the group, the resilience of the group, and the importance of winning to them,” Bickerstaff said following Thursday’s 118-94 Game 2 victory.

“That’s the most important thing to the guys. There is nothing else that matters. There is no other agenda. We’ve got playoff games in front of us that we need to win and the guys sacrifice and are willing to do whatever it takes to win. When it seems like our backs are against the wall and things are difficult, our guys figure out a way together to get through it.”

Details. Toughness. Together. Compete. 1 More.

Five words at the heart of this renaissance. The core values Bickerstaff enacted ahead of the 2021-22 season.

They are affixed in big, bold, block letters on the wall of the weight room and sprinkled around the film room at Cleveland Clinic Courts. They are arranged elegantly above “Cavaliers” on a framed 68 x 24-inch black-and-white picture that hangs both in the hallway of the Independence practice facility and near the entrance of Bickerstaff’s office.

They are displayed prominently inside the locker room at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, right at the entrance. They were printed on old team-issued T-shirts that Bickerstaff helped design years ago -- and one that he still pulls out from the bottom drawer periodically. There’s even still a file on his laptop explaining the rationale behind each word.

Said every day, one way or another, they have become the foundation for who the Cavs are. Thursday’s triumph was a nod to each one.

During an off-day film session and practice at nearby Emerson University, the Cavs identified weak points with the 64-win Porzingis-less Celtics — the same ones that have been clear for weeks, maybe months. A team that has a tendency to lose focus. An over-reliance on 3-point shots. A lack of rim protection. A switch-heavy defensive scheme that can lead to advantageous matchups.

The difference? The Cavs zeroed in on those details and executed the game plan to a T — at both ends.

On offense, they took the space available on the perimeter with big men Al Horford, Xavier Tillman and Luke Kornet in “drop” coverage, shooting 13 of 28 (46.4%) from 3-point range. They pushed the pace, getting easy baskets — 14 fastbreak points and a handful more in semi-transition — before Boston could set its typically suffocating defense. They relentlessly attacked the paint, scoring 60 points in there, more than half their total output. They attacked mismatches.

On the other end, the primary point of emphasis was to close out hard, run the Celtics off the 3-point line and force tough, contested 2s — even if that meant temporarily abandoning their well-established protect-the-paint identity.

“We needed to be better than we were the first game,” Bickerstaff said. “I thought our guys took that to heart. These games come down to execution. The team that executes best is the team that typically is going to win. I thought our guys did what they had to do to make it extremely difficult on Boston, and that works whether you’re at home or on the road. What we do travels. We can win anywhere.”

Cleveland held Boston below the 100-point mark for the first time in this year’s playoffs. It’s the only time the high-powered Celtics have failed to cross the threshold in the last month. The Cavs won the paint battle by 16 and finished with a 13-rebound advantage.

Toughness.

Mitchell was brilliant again Thursday night. He finished with 29 points, including 23 during a dynamic, showstopping second half in which the Cavs started pulling away and forced Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla to empty his bench around the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

In the opening minute of the fourth, Mitchell came off a screen at the top of the key and launched an off-balance 3-pointer. Looking like a miss the entire way, the ball banged off the backboard and through the net.

All Mitchell could do was shrug as he backpedaled down the court.

It’s the same reaction the silenced crowd inside TD Garden had. Perhaps even one shared by many stunned NBA fans across the world that were expecting a snoozer series.

That jumper was the proverbial dagger, with Mitchell as the second-half assassin.

But this time, he got plenty of help, purposely empowering his teammates the way he did in Game 7 of round one.

Mobley finished with a dominant, forceful playoff career-high 21 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal in 33 forceful minutes — his fifth playoff double-double. He scored 11 of those points in the first quarter, helping the Cavs dig out of an early 14-5 hole and build a six-point cushion going into the second quarter. Mobley became the youngest Cavalier since LeBron James to have a 20-10-5 playoff game. He is just the fourth player in franchise history with a 20-10-5-2 playoff stat line. LeBron, Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance Sr. are the others.

With Mobley on the floor, Cleveland outscored Boston by 35 points.

“He started it for us,” Strus said. “He was great tonight. I’ve said it before, we go as Evan goes. He’s going to keep carrying us. He was phenomenal on both ends of the ball.”

Sixth man Caris LeVert, who was acutely aware of the critics following another Game 1 clunker, added 21 points off the bench. Garland chipped in with 14 points and seven boards.

Isaac Okoro and Strus also reached double figures while Tristan Thompson made an impact after Mobley picked up his fourth foul. Thompson displacing Celtics rebounders underneath and also brought infectious energy and hustle — the characteristics that define his impact and give him a clear role. Marcus Morris Sr. and Georges Niang scored off the bench too.

Together.

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The other two words speak for themselves. Thursday wasn’t a flukey triumph. It was total domination, the kind of well-rounded, team-first win required to take down the East’s best.

Forget the injuries (no playoff team had more absences), never-ending questions about the future of Bickerstaff and Mitchell, doubts about roster construction, losing streaks, unrest and chaos — the many factors that have contributed to external doubt. To this point, the Cavs have been able to overcome everything.

“We have a group that sticks together and believes in each other,” Mitchell said. “Even when we were going through that streak in L.A., it is easy to kind of be like, ‘We don’t got it, we don’t have it.’ Everybody’s like you want to trend upward in the playoffs and different things. But understanding that we’ve been through so much, so why stop now? Continuing to believe in each other.

“We’ve had guys in. We have guys out. We’ve played terrible. We’ve played well. Like I said in the regular season, I’m glad it happened then so you understand when those moments come in playoffs, you have two good games at home, get smacked twice on the road, come back, have a good game, lose Game 6, that can knock you out. But we believe in each other as a group.”

No one knows how this series will end. Thursday could end up as another misstep in the Celtics’ championship climb. Or it could become a Cleveland turning point.

Either way, the early-series dismissal wasn’t warranted. Shame on us. We should’ve known better. They were built for this. It is who they are.