ECF: P1 | (2) Boston Celtics vs (4) Cleveland Cavaliers | BOS 2-0

[ballup]

Despite the Celtics having multiple wings to throw at Lebron, he‘s at a point where he‘ll beat all of them with one of his elite traits whether thats strength, speed, smarts, or skill.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[shaolinmilk]

Cavs in 4 or 5 sounds about right. Lebron's legacy will take a hit if he loses to this Celtics team without their two superstars. Just prepare for him to go all out.

[Karate Diop]

Let it go, Billy. Let it go.

My name's not Billy it's Karate Diop.

Everyone, please call Billy "Karate Diop" from now on. He's had a rough few years and it's probably best if we indulge this phase.

Whatever floats your boat, how's the weather in Bronston?

[TrustFundBaby]

I see you BigTrade92

I'm pulling for the Celtics now dw

[nymets1]

Lebron and his other veteran teammates has won in Boston plenty of times. Lebron's team is pretty good about protecting their homecourt in the playoffs. Celtics couldn't win a road playoff game vs the Wizards, They did against the 76ers but the 76ers team has like no playoff experience before this year. It be more difficult for the Celtics to win in Cleveland than Philly.

[Anthony Davis]

Lol Celtics are going to get crushed by the Cavs like I got crushed by the Warriors.

4-5 games max.

[TheKingOfVa360]

It’s hard to bet against Lebron vs inferior Eastern competition but I’m going with the Celtics in 7. Somehow I think they will win a game or 2 that they shouldn’t win thanks to Brad Stevens coaching.

[Higgs Boston]

Lebron and his other veteran teammates has won in Boston plenty of times. Lebron's team is pretty good about protecting their homecourt in the playoffs. Celtics couldn't win a road playoff game vs the Wizards, They did against the 76ers but the 76ers team has like no playoff experience before this year. It be more difficult for the Celtics to win in Cleveland than Philly.

Last year Celtics won 1 game against cavs on the road. Anyway I don't know why you are talking about last year, the team is totally different and thomas wasn't healthy during all the playoffs, especially in the cavs series where he wasn't able to play.

[Teen Girl Squad]

This is the hardest series to pick in quite a while. The question comes down to if you think Boston is a better version of the Pacers that should have beat the Cavs in round 1 or if the Cavs are a better version of the Bucks that took them to 7. I'm going with my gut and Cavs in 6 because its a veteran team that will play a bit smarter than the Bucks/76ers play, which will somewhat limit the coaching edge. I wouldn't bet any money on this series though as I wouldn't be surprised at most any outcome.

[PierceFan4ever]

Cavs in 6. Boston has no talent

Yeah man that no talent Boston team beat your Sixers in 5

You sound very salty as you have the past week

[bmurph128]

I think Cavs in 5, but I really have no idea. Going off of my personal opinion that Toronto is a far superior team to Boston.

I just don't trust anyone for Boston to score consistently down the stretch. I watched most of their series vs the Sixers and they had a multitude of guys step up, but when it comes down to crunch time and you need a basket to keep up with the best player in the NBA, I just don't see it yet.

[Birdie]

i voted cavs in 6. We'll see. Unlike the sixers threads that started with proclamations of "i'll dig my own grave and lay in it if the sixers lose to boston" "boston has no chance" "easy win, they have no generational talent", these are starting off fine.

I'm even of with the Cavs fans saying close to those things because they have been there before and Lebron is the generational talent.

Win or lose, Celtics have been playing with house money for months. Really wanted to humble the sixers, and we did. Now i can just sit back and enjoy whatever games we have left.

lol, I feel ya on that sentiment and honestly, I had to stay out of those "other" game threads because the MIA/WAS/TOR/BOS/PHI fandoms all got some sort of beef in every which way even when those teams were eliminated. Every fanbase on this board has "those" cocky sons of bishes...lol but for the most part, even though we (CLE) have been on the winning side these past 4 years, in some regards, it's still nice to chop it up with the same ole names who aren't hysterical fanboys and can have a civil debate/conversation without pitchforks out even when LBJ drops a 40pt beatdown from time to time and I'm sure ya'll aren't in the mood to "debate"...lol

But no doubt, I can feel ya on the "house money"..."If" you guys had a healthy Ky/Hayward coming into this ECF, idk how you guys would most likely have been pretty strong favorites. But then I think, do you think Tatum/Brown/Rozier make the jumps they did this year if Hayward/Kyrie were out? For me, Rozier def. was ready, I was impressed with him last year in the run he got. Brown looked REALLY good early season but has sort of fallen back to the mean but STILL good. I think Tatum might've not had the impact he did/has done thus far but you can tell Tatum > Fultz. And talk about dodging one there.

But what do I and most Cavs fans' fallback on in these threads of the past 4 years when it's come to the Eastern Conference? Who is stopping LBJ on BOS? No doubt, Morris/Smart are pitbulls and can play that "harass/annoy" type physical type defense that IND employed but overall, IND isn't a better team than BOS but for some reason, matchup wise, they ALMOST had the formula to pull off the upset. In BOS' case, yea, LBJ is gonna eat but the "other" positive, KLove has a favorable matchup against BOS as well. We all know, KLove Charmin soft against physical/athletic/faster PFs. Thad Young OWNS KLove's soul. On BOS, KLove gonna get switches where Morris/Tatum/Brown/Oyeje/Smart most likely gonna be switch onto him, KLove gonna eat in the post. And on the flipside, Big Al hates guarding KLove on the perimeter. Just watch back some of the ATL series' from '15/'16 and you can see the disgust in his face of having to jump out on KLove 3pt attempts when he gets pulled into the lane to stop a LBJ drive but have to recover cuz KLove camping on the 3pt line...It just seems to be a common big man face of disgust of "wtf I gotta cover this guy on the perimeter when I wanna knock some heads in the paint as KLove splashes a 3 in their face"...

Even though the past shouldn't hold much weight in this current matchup as Cavs (LBJ,Korver,TT,JR,Love) only return 5 players and BOS (Horford,Smart,Brown,Rozier) 4 from last years matchup, I found this little collection of #'s interesting to cobble together:

LBJ has a 16-1 record against Al Horford in the playoffs and is 8-1 against Marcus Smart. 3 sweeps ('09,'15,'16) + 4-1 ('17) against Horford and 1 sweep ('15) + 4-1 ('17) against Smart.

In 4 playoff series' for Al Horford, in 16 games played against LBJ, his total on court +/- in 16 games is -236. He was negative in 14 of 16 games. LBJ's total +/- in 17 games was +269 and was only negative (-3) in 1 game out of 17. In 16-1 record against Al Horford, CLE avg margin of victory was 16.2PPG.

In 2 playoff series' for Marcus Smart, in 9 games played against LBJ, his total on court +/- in 9 games is -90. He was negative in 8 of 9 games. LBJ's total +/- in 9 games was +130 and had postive on court in all 9 games. In 8-1 record against Marcus Smart, CLE avg margin of victory was 15.2PPG.

BOS' only chance of winning this series is if they go god mode from 3, like avg between 13-18 3's made by either out scoring CLE or hoping they shoot like crap while LBJ still gets his. I have a feeling, in the TOR series, CLE unlocked A LOT of actions to FINALLY get some easy generated offense with body/ball movement instead of relying on iso stuff. The Korver/Love/LBJ wing ring around the rosy action is gonna be really tough for BOS to contain as it just presents so many mismatches depending on the defense employed. I have a feeling Stevens' will "dare" LBJ to shoot jumpers and pack the paint which then will force Lue/LBJ to initiate offense out of the post or elbow which presents other problems for BOS.

I'm pretty confident that CLE will employ similar strategies that shut off/contain in combo of Lowry/DD that they'll apply to Rozier/Tatum. And to be honest, while Rozier/Tatum been balling out, to a degree, they're not quite Lowry/DD pedigree though, after watching our series, I could understand how the latter could make an argument to differ. In spite of that, I feel pretty confident that CLE will respect Rozier and look to cut the head off the snake if they gotta take away something. I'd rather Big Al chucking up shots than Rozier jacking up uncontested 3's if need be...

Overall, I think with LBJ, it just gives us the ultimate matchup trump card against BOS and that has always been the discussion these past 4 years when conversing in these playoff threads with the BOS homies. Personally, like always, I just want it over as quick as possible so LBJ gets his rest for the next rd (to most likely get run out the gym by GSW, and HOU, eh, I think we "could" beat them but I got them like 80/20 to smoke us too possibly) but I'm going CLE in 5 to split the difference. "If" KLove/Korver/JR/Hill ball out like they did against TOR in Games 3/4, CLE could get a sweep. But on the flipside, this series could play out like '16 and go 6, BOS wins 2, CLE wins 2, CLE win, CLE closeout a la how it went against TOR.

And out of all I wrote above, we haven't even talked about whether or not TT will be playing. And we all know, and I'm sure the BOS regulars who I've interacted with in these past years, TT OWNS Al Horford's soul when it comes to rebounding against one another. It will be interesting to see if TT gets any blow in this series. If there's one knock I have on BOS, it's always been their lack of frontcourt "beef" and rebounding has been a thorn in their side. We shall see.

[TOStateofMind]

Cavs in 6. Think the celts will give em a good fight but Lebron will do his usual things to win the series.

[Hipster Doofus]

Cavs in 6. Boston has no talent

Yeah man that no talent Boston team beat your Sixers in 5

You sound very salty as you have the past week

That's ok brother, the Saltics still have no talent

One thing I do want to see next series though, make sure you guys really make LeBron work. I want to have a great showing by the Sixers' newest player in a couple of months

See you again when the season starts again in just 5 short months, and most likely for the next decade. There'll be a lot of this

[PierceFan4ever]

Cavs in 6. Boston has no talent

Yeah man that no talent Boston team beat your Sixers in 5

You sound very salty as you have the past week

That's ok brother, the Saltics still have no talent

One thing I do want to see next series though, make sure you guys really make LeBron work. I want to have a great showing by the Sixers' newest player in a couple of months

See you again when the season starts again in just 5 short months, and most likely for the next decade. There'll be a lot of this

Saltics? Are you a raptors or Sixers fan funny how both are watching the Celtics at home. Like I said that no talent team beat you guys down in not 6 or 7 games but 5 lmao. Jayson Tatum embarrassed you guys and your 2nd year rookie.

You can pray for Lebron because imo that’s the only way for the Sixers to be on the level of the Celtics and you know it because you guys lack the talent of the Celtics. At least Celtics fans don’t have to pray next season because we have Kyrie and Hayward coming back and that’s a guarantee. So pray you get Lebron or you might experience similar or worse beatings in the near future and it goes to show you that you don’t have much faith in your current group when you desperately bring up Lebron’s name all the time. Good luck

[Birdie]

Cavs in 6. Boston has no talent

Yeah man that no talent Boston team beat your Sixers in 5

You sound very salty as you have the past week

That's ok brother, the Saltics still have no talent

One thing I do want to see next series though, make sure you guys really make LeBron work. I want to have a great showing by the Sixers' newest player in a couple of months

See you again when the season starts again in just 5 short months, and most likely for the next decade. There'll be a lot of this

Honestly, I'm sort of glad PHI lost as I just think they posed some serious matchup problems against us, possibly. Picking up Illyasova/Bellini was HUGE for you guys cuz it just gave you guys that ELITE 3pt spacing along with Reddick to allow Simmons/Embiid/Saric to do their thing. It's pretty unfortunate how bad your crunch time offense just completely collapsed at times with either bad turnovers, bad plays or straight up Embiid looking gassed. The thing that KILLED me watching the game was the THREE WIDE OPEN 3's Reddick clanked on a few occasions that would've be HUGE momentum 3's for PHI to put that game away...

But it's gonna be funny how this board reacts when CLE retools and lands PG13 or Kawhi + DJ on draft day and LBJ stays on 7/1.

And then BOS goes out and gets AD.

[Hipster Doofus]

Saltics? Are you a raptors or Sixers fan funny how both are watching the Celtics at home. Like I said that no talent team beat you guys down in not 6 or 7 games but 5 lmao. Jayson Tatum embarrassed you guys and your 2nd year rookie.

You can pray for Lebron because imo that’s the only way for the Sixers to be on the level of the Celtics and you know it because you guys lack the talent of the Celtics. At least Celtics fans don’t have to pray next season because we have Kyrie and Hayward coming back and that’s a guarantee. So pray you get Lebron or you might experience similar or worse beatings in the near future and it goes to show you that you don’t have much faith in your current group when you desperately bring up Lebron’s name all the time. Good luck

You know very well, specifically five minutes into your regular season, that nothing is guaranteed in the NBA...

As far as the Sixers, being fans of an awesome young team that's only going to get better and better and has full cap space to sign anyone they want in July, what's not to love

[lakerz12]

Boston in 7, maybe 6. Stevens and the Celtics will have the proper game plan and their talent is underrated.

Cavs will struggle mightily unless the "others" come up big.

[Benedict_Boozer]

Cavs in 4 or 5 sounds about right. Lebron's legacy will take a hit if he loses to this Celtics team without their two superstars. Just prepare for him to go all out.

I think he would take a hit if he lost to the Kyrie led Celtics for obvious reasons.

But I wonder does he take a bigger legacy hit getting another Finals loss (which would be inevitable)?

Or a bigger legacy hit losing to the Celtics prior to the Finals without Kyrie?

[drstarheel]

Why is there this myth that Indiana focused on shutting down the supporting cast while Toronto focused on stopping LeBron? Toronto let LeBron operate 1-on-1 all series while faceguarding Love, Korver, etc.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

People underestimate how much of it comes down to simply making shots versus not making shots. Indiana actually allowed more open and wide open shots combined than Toronto did but the Cavs shot far worse on them against the Pacers. Not to mention in the regular season Toronto finished with the 5th ranked defense while Indiana finished with the 13th ranked defense. And Indiana gave up the 16th most threes per game in the NBA while Toronto gave up the least in the entire league.

Where are you getting this data? Per NBA.com statistics a "wide open" shot is defined as no defender within 6 ft. Indy allowed 13.2 of these per game. Toronto allowed 14.5. Furthermore, any shot with a defender 4 plus feet away is defined as open/wide open. Cavs shot 36.2% against Indy on these. They shot 34.8% against Toronto. So the Cavs actually shot better on open + wide open shots against Indy than they did against Toronto.