Celtics ‘gooning the game up,’ says Cavs coach

 LOS ANGELES, United States – Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue referred to the Boston players as “goons” after the Celtics took a 2-0 lead over his Cavaliers in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Lue said his team needs to be more physical as the Celtics dumped the Cavaliers, 107-94, despite the 42-point, triple-double performance of LeBron James in Game 2 on Tuesday, May 15 (Wednesday, May 16 in Manila), in Boston.

“We got to be tougher mentally and physically,” Lue said. “They are gooning it up and we have got to do the same thing.” 

Game 2 got physical as the Celtics pulled out all the stops to try and contain James.

Tyronn Lue on the Celtics physical play "They’re gooning the game up and we have to do the same thing." #Celtics pic.twitter.com/OHazQSOWKf

— Chad Amaral (@chad_amaral) May 16, 2018

James, who appeared to strain his neck in a first-half collision, expects the Cavs to rebound as the series heads to Cleveland.

“We have the opportunity go back home and take home court,” said James, who also delivered 12 assists and 10 rebounds. “They did what they had to do to protect home court and now it is our time as well.

“We will see what we are made of on Saturday.”

Kevin Love finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds for Cleveland.

Kyle Korver came off the bench to score 11 points but starters Tristan Thompson, JR Smith and George Hill combined for just 11 points in the loss.

“Down the stretch we took some bad shots,” Lue said. “We didn’t close the half the way we wanted to and they had a big 3rd quarter.

“In the 3rd quarter we had some miscommunication on defense and they scored some easy baskets.” – Rappler.com