"Call it the Sheedshank Redemption if you want. Call it a miracle if you must. Call it whatever you'd like, but in the end the smart thing is to call it what it was last night at Quicken Loans Arena.

It was a warning.

The Cavs may have the league's MVP. They may have the best record in basketball. They may have youth and the NBA hierarchy on their side, the latter rooting for a LeBron vs. Kobe NBA Finals.

But they don't have the Celtics convinced of anything except that they are not going quietly to an early summer vacation.

That became evident in the second half of last night's 104-86 Game 2 Celtics victory that evened the series at 1 and cost the Cavs the homecourt advantage they had worked all season to earn.

For the first 30 minutes the game seemed like a potentially sad replay of Game 1, with the Celtics in the lead but unable to get the Cavs off their back. Then came an explosive third-quarter thrashing in which the Celtics looked like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and the Cavs like Shane Mosley. Simply put, the Cavs got pummeled. They got embarrassed. Most of all, they got dominated."