Update: Here are Maxwell’s comments (hat tip: Jay King of MassLive):
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No mention of this happening at halftime, but otherwise, the substance matches the paraphrase below.
Kevin Love got hurt while tangling with Kelly Olynyk, an injury Love later said Olynyk deliberately caused.
By halftime, the Cavaliers surely knew what happened.
Joe Giza of WBZ-TV:
Cedric Maxwell on Sports Final last night said Cavs players told him at halftime they were going to get back at #celtics for Love injury
— Joe Giza (@JoeGiza) April 27, 2015
Maxwell played for the Celtics and now serves as color commentator on the team’s radio broadcast. Why would the Cavaliers tell him they planned to retaliate?
It’s hard to buy that multiple Cavaliers did – and I’d really like to hear Maxwell’s exact comments rather than rely on this second-hand account, but I have yet to find them available online – but I believe one Cavalier would: Kendrick Perkins, who played for the Celtics.
And Perkins would know Cleveland’s intentions if they were revenge-oriented, because he’s the team’s enforcer.
The circumstantial evidence certainly backs it. It took Perkins less than a minute of court time to pick a fight with Jae Crowder:
And J.R. Smith later knocked Crowder from the game:
Plus, Perkins re-entered the game as soon as Olynyk went to the scorers’ table in the second half.
If the Cavaliers didn’t seek to even the score after Love’s injury, they had a funny way of showing it – regardless of what anyone told Maxwell.