2009 Eastern Conference Finals: C's vs Cavs

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

Didn't the Cavs have their 2nd best player out against Atlanta? And they lost at the buzzer, whereas Boston won at the buzzer.

Regardless though, Boston played the worst possible basketball in their entire history, and still beat the Cavs who were playing out of their minds crazy good (Re: LeBron shooting 2-18, 6-24, 5-16 ect) and Boston still won.

As I recall, the Celtics forced LBJ into a lot of contested jumpers to arrive at these poor shooting performances.

C

Do you think he'll shoot sub-.300 vs. the Celtics this year like he did in two of the loses to Boston last year?

[GuyClinch]

This sounds crazy given our record but put me in the camp that thinks we need at least another backup center in our ten man rotation to beat the Cavs. If not a new backup SF and center. Cleveland has improved too much with Mo Williams and the resurgence of Ben Wallace to be taken lightly. And lets' not forget - for whatever reason Wally gave Ray a hard time..

[Benedict_Boozer]

I'm interested to see how Ray fares against the Cavs this year. He struggled in the 1st game this year as well, but I want to see if it was Ray just being off or whether he genuinely has problems with the Cavs defensive scheme...

Cause him being off is what kept the series close IMO. If Ray plays at his normal level I don't see anyone touching the C's in a 7 game series.

Another key match up could be Rondo and Mo Williams. I could see Rondo beating him off the dribble which would force the Cavs to put West on him and play Mo against Ray...which is in the C's favor obviously

[witnessmoboobie]

Rondo has really improved as a player, but I still feel that I want to make him try to beat us not the "big 3". Id rather stick West,a good defender, on Ray and the quicker Mo might be able to keep up better with Rondo. I really think we are in for a hell of a series, but I think that my Cavs are a little better (Im biased).

[NEM]

magic fan here.

im not meaning to troll, but the cavaliers really haven't played the top tier teams in the league other than you guys on opening night, whereas the magic have had a tougher schedule over the past couple of weeks winning games in portland, utah (without d12), and at home against SAS and LAL. im not saying we are better than them, i mean it's close and it would be a good series (it probably will be the second round series with the 2/3 matchup) and it would probably go the distance, but what do you guys think of the magic, and a magic/celtics matchup. i mean we play close games, other than the one in boston this year which was close up until midway through the third and rondo would burn johnson on every play because we were missing jameer.

i just want your thoughts

[Fencer reregistered]

magic fan here.

im not meaning to troll, but the cavaliers really haven't played the top tier teams in the league other than you guys on opening night, whereas the magic have had a tougher schedule over the past couple of weeks winning games in portland, utah (without d12), and at home against SAS and LAL. im not saying we are better than them, i mean it's close and it would be a good series (it probably will be the second round series with the 2/3 matchup) and it would probably go the distance, but what do you guys think of the magic, and a magic/celtics matchup. i mean we play close games, other than the one in boston this year which was close up until midway through the third and rondo would burn johnson on every play because we were missing jameer.

i just want your thoughts

Relative to team quality, Orlando is a tough matchup for the Cs. That's because you have two jump-shooting forwards, which pulls KG to the perimeter.

On the other hand -- the Cs have a lot of potential to get Howard in foul trouble. They made need to be more serious about that vs. Orlando than they have in the past.

[humblebum]

As I said in another thread the Cavs are most certainly legit. I wouldn't say they are scary but they're damn good and very deep. The saving grace for the Celtics is going to have to be Rondo vs. Mo Williams. Rondo has the ability to consistently beat Mo off the dribble, get in the paint, and score/create for teammates. If Rondo plays to his potential in this matchup it really changes the whole dynamic by forcing the Cavs to change their matchups/personnel. West/Wally in the backcourt definitely takes away some of the Cavs ability to get their superior offensive flow going, especially with Rondo pressuring West full court. So Rondo can really change the game for the C's hopefully allowing Pierce and Ray to get easier looks, rather than facing a stacked defense.

It's also important to note Perkins' offensive improvements. I the past he's struggled pretty mightily with Z... if he can be more effective it helps the Celtics out. The C's could definitely stand to bring in another tall PF-C because Powe and Davis are more or less ineffective against the long Cleveland bigs.

I disagree on the Tony not being able to guard Lebron thing though. I actually think he's possibly one of the tougher guys for Lebron to deal with because he doesn't have the quickness advantage outright, not with Tony's lateral quickness. Also Tony is damn strong and tough which obviously helps vs. Lebron. Posey's defense was wildly overrated against Lebron... didn't have the footspeed to even make LBJ think twice. If Lebron is attempting jumpshots over TA or trying to work in the post I think that's actually a good thing... what you really need to do is keep LBJ out of the transition game and out of the paint and you'll be in decent shape.

As far as the rest of the playoffs go, I just hope that Atlanta and Detroit face off inthe first round as the 4/5 matchup and the C's get to play Detroit and then Orlando and Cleveland face off and kill each other and we get the more tired opponent. A nice first round matchup for the Celtics would be great.