Up 1-0 in the series heading into tonight, the Boston Celtics were blown out at home by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland broke open a 54-54 tie at halftime with a 36-24 third quarter and then continued pouring it on, evening the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 118-94 win.
With five minutes remaining and the Celtics trailing by 24, ESPN cameras caught a good portion of the home crowd heading for the exits.
Celtics fans hitting the exits pic.twitter.com/7IFvqa0dYa
— Chaz (@ChazNBA) May 10, 2024
The game was already decided at that point, but the image of Boston fans bolt early was a welcome sight for some opposing fan bases.
“Such an embarrassing loss man,” said a LeBron fan account.
“I get it bro, the lines for Dunkin at this hour can be brutal,” joked Ryan Cortes of Meadowlark Media.
“Weren’t they just in my mentions telling me how sorry #HEATCulture is ?” asked a Heat fan.
“Saving this for when people tell me only California fans leave games early,” chimed in broadcaster Ben Ross.
“I thought it wasn’t okay to leave early? That’s not die hard spirit right there,” a second Miami fan joked.
Led by Donovan Mitchell’s game-high 29 points, all five Cavaliers starters scored in double digits tonight. Caris LeVert also added 21 points off the bench.
In the first round, Boston also suffered a surprising loss to the Miami Heat in Game 2 and responded by winning the next three games fairly easily.
We’ll see what they’re made of starting in Game 3 in Cleveland Saturday night.