Over their first three quarters on Saturday night, the Boston Celtics showed the Cleveland Cavaliers why they are still a feared team in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics took the floor in Cleveland on Saturday looking to jump out to an early 1-0 lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinal series with the Cavaliers.

The C’s started off hot, Paul Pierce drained 4 of 5 shots and the Celts played timely team defense to gain an early edge over the team that finished with the best regular season record, the team favored to win the whole thing this year.

As they kept getting stronger, the Celtics seemed on their way to upsetting the top-seeded Cavaliers at home. They were, for those three quarters, the better team. The Boston Globe described, the start:

"Boston played lockdown defense, circa 2008, and marched to an 11-point lead in the middle of the third quarter.

Paced by their kid rocket — Rajon Rondo is the best guard in the playoffs at this hour — the Boston Graybeards jolted the 61-win Cavaliers and their fans. Clevelanders, accustomed to things going wrong in the postseason, wondered where the dominance went. It was only the first 30 minutes of the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but it was an awakening nonetheless. The Celtics reminded Basketball America that they can beat any team on the planet. In any house."

But the lead disappeared in the fourth quarter and all the momentum they had spent three quarters building seemed to slip away in a heartbeat. In the end, the Celtics couldn’t hold on, falling 101-93 to the Cavs in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.

Paul had 13 points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals in the loss. However, The Truth was also hampered with early foul trouble in the game, affecting how aggressive he wanted to be, as he told the Boston Globe:

"I wasn’t really as aggressive as I wanted to be in the third, but like Doc said, I can’t really worry about that stuff," said Pierce. "Just continue to play. Be aggressive on both ends of the court and see what happens."

SEIZE THE DAY
Despite the disappointing loss on Saturday, the Captain wasn’t dwelling on the missed opportunity.

Instead, he turned his attention to Game 2, telling ESPN.com the Celtics need to feel some pressure;

"The urgency has to go up. You don’t want to go down 2-0 and put yourself in that type of hole, especially against a team like Cleveland," Pierce said. "The urgency is there. We felt like Game 1 was important, but we let it slip away due to little things. Hopefully we clean those things up, come back with the same type of mindset, the same type of energy, with a little more perfection in our game, and we’ll be all right.

"We gotta play Game 2 like it’s Game 7," he added."

Boston looks to avoid falling into a 0-2 deficit as it plays Cleveland in Game 2 tonight. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST. and the game will be nationally televised on TNT.

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