Just some random thoughts on Mo Williams’ serious game (or at least serious second half) against Boston in Game One on Saturday evening.

#1.)  Mo Williams scored the first basket of the game, off a pass from LeBron.  He made another lay-up later in the quarter . . . and did not score another point until the third quarter.  He had 14 points in the third . . . including a 10-point barrage in about two minutes.  (5:16 left in the third to 3:12 left)

During that stretch, Mo alone outscored the Celtics 10-4.

#2.)  His 10-point shooting gallery began with a dunk on Paul Pierce, which was his first dunk . . . on anybody, ever . . . with the Cavs.  Naturally, that seemed to jack him up.  He relaxed and began looking for his shot, which is a gear that Mo hasn’t moved into much this season, especially later, with the additions of Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison.

#3.)  Mo finished with 20 points (on 8-of-14 shooting;  57%).  He made four of his five free throw attempts, but none of his three 3-point attempts.  Interestingly enough, Mo has only scored 20 or more points . . . without a 3-pointer . . . oncebefore as a member of the Cavs.  [It happened in a game against the Detroit Pistons last season, on February 1st.]

#4.)  He went 0-for-3 from long range . . . meaning that he went 8-of-11 from the field inside the arc.  Mo is a streaky shooter, but that’s a good sign.  3-pointers are great . . . especially when he’s got that flare-out two-man game going with LeBron . . . but with all these new offensive weapons, Mo can find himself stuck on the arc.  (And Anthony Parker already has that role covered.)

When Mo’s hitting two-pointers, it means he’s actively involved in the offensive creation.

#5.)  In the Chicago series, Mo shot 41% from the floor:  39% from range, and 43% on two-pointers.  33 of his 61 shots were three pointers.  That’s 54%.  He averaged 15.6 points.  On the season, Mo shot 44% from the floor:  43% from range, and 45% on two-pointers.  371 of his 855 shots were three pointers.  That’s 44%.  And he averaged 15.8 points.

#6.)  Obviously the other sign to a transcendent Mo is assists.  My magic number for Mo this season has been 10 assists.  In the regular season, he did that six times this year (and only once last year).  In those six games, Mo had point totals of 35, 22, 14, 14, 14 and seven.  In five of the six, he had 10 assists on the dot.  In the sixth, he had 12.  That happened in a game against the Toronto Raptors last month.

He’s had 10 assists in the playoffs once:  Game One against the Bulls last month.

#7.)  Mo led the team with a +23 plus/minus.  (Since the Cavs won by eight, that means the Celtics were 15 points better than the Cavs with Mo on the bench.)  Jamison was next with a +11.

#8.)  Sure, single game plus/minus scores can be a little circumstantial, but consider this:  In the first quarter, the Cavs were even with the Celtics when Mo left with 3:30 left to go in the quarter.  When he returned two minutes into the second, the Cavs were down 10.  And when he left again three minutes after that, the Celtics lead had been cut in half, to five.

Less than two minutes after that, he returned again, with the Cavs back down by nine.  The Cavs weren’t able to gain any ground on the Celtics in any of the stretches where Mo was on the bench.

#9.)  Mo also finished with six assists, five rebounds and a steal.

#10.)  This wasn’t Mo’s greatest performance as a Cavalier.  And with the exception of that white hot, 10-point flash . . . it’s perfectly reasonable that he could use this game as a building block for the rest of the series.  And the same goes for the entire Cavs roster.  It was a solid win without anyone having the sort of game that they couldn’t be expected to duplicate.

The Celtics can definitely be better . . . and so can the Cavs.