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

[Jaqua92]

Love stretching the floor and LeBron's drives have given the Celtics problems in the past.

Last year the Cavs put up a 128.4 ORTG against the Celtics.

Love: 22.6 ppg on 68.8% TS
LeBron: 29.6 ppg on 64.6% TS
Kyrie: 25.8 ppg on 76.3% TS
JR: 7.0 ppg on 70.7% TS
Tristan: 11.6 ppg on 77.3% TS

Those numbers are absurd. But the Celtics' defense is better this year and the Cavs' offense will be weaker without Kyrie, so it'll be a much close record matchup for sure.

Kyrie is as elite a scorer in the NBA as you will find.

[xfactor]

Cavs in 5

[JordansBulls]

Game 1 Sun., May 13 Cavaliers at Celtics 3:30 p.m. ABC | ESPN Radio
Game 2 Tue., May 15 Cavaliers at Celtics 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio
Game 3 Sat., May 19 Celtics at Cavaliers 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio
Game 4 Mon., May 21 Celtics at Cavaliers 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio
Game 5* Wed., May 23 Cavaliers at Celtics 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio
Game 6* Fri., May 25 Celtics at Cavaliers 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio
Game 7* Sun., May 27 Cavaliers at Celtics 8:30 p.m. ESPN | ESPN Radio

That long break means Lebron will come out guns blazing in game 3. That’s almost a sure fire win.

Series will come down to whether Boston can hold serve at home in game 1 and 2.


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Boston essentially will have to win there games like they did vs Milwaukee all at home to have a chance, because I doubt they win on the road in this one.

[RB34]

How wild would this of been if Kyrie wasn’t injured.

Still going to be a great series but damn, we all missed out.

[yoyoboy]

Love stretching the floor and LeBron's drives have given the Celtics problems in the past.

Last year the Cavs put up a 128.4 ORTG against the Celtics.

Love: 22.6 ppg on 68.8% TS
LeBron: 29.6 ppg on 64.6% TS
Kyrie: 25.8 ppg on 76.3% TS
JR: 7.0 ppg on 70.7% TS
Tristan: 11.6 ppg on 77.3% TS

Those numbers are absurd. But the Celtics' defense is better this year and the Cavs' offense will be weaker without Kyrie, so it'll be a much close record matchup for sure.

Holy ****. We got murdered by the big 3. It’s a miracle that we were able to steal a game.

Yeah to be fair that series is probably the most the Cavs have clicked as a team since LeBron came back.

The average MOV was +20.0 across the 5 games. The Celtics' 1 win was by 3 points and then the Cavs' 4 victories were by 13, 13, 33, and 44. The Big 3 put up 72 ppg on 69.3% TS (47.0% from three) together. And that win in Game 3 that the Celtics got was when Marcus Smart vastly outplayed LeBron. LeBron put up 11 points and 6 turnovers while Smart posted 27 points on 7/10 shooting from three and 7 assists. LeBron looked horrible and unathletic that day along with Game 4 and I remember thinking we were seeing the beginning of LeDecline but then it turned out he was sick.

Not expecting it to be like last year though. Brown/Tatum/Morris are better than Crowder and Bradley trying to guard LeBron, Hill isn't going to go off like Kyrie did, Baynes is better than Amir, and Rozier has stepped up.

[gino_giode]

Love stretching the floor and LeBron's drives have given the Celtics problems in the past.

Last year the Cavs put up a 128.4 ORTG against the Celtics.

Love: 22.6 ppg on 68.8% TS
LeBron: 29.6 ppg on 64.6% TS
Kyrie: 25.8 ppg on 76.3% TS
JR: 7.0 ppg on 70.7% TS
Tristan: 11.6 ppg on 77.3% TS

Those numbers are absurd. But the Celtics' defense is better this year and the Cavs' offense will be weaker without Kyrie, so it'll be a much close record matchup for sure.

Kyrie is as elite a scorer in the NBA as you will find.

Think it was g4 when LeBron was struggling for 3 quarters. Kyrie in the 3rd went HAMM and allowed LeBron plenty of rest. Good times.

[CelticSooner]

What do you guys think Stevens will do to game plan for LeBron? I think you just gotta play him straight up and hope for the best.

[homecourtloss]

Love stretching the floor and LeBron's drives have given the Celtics problems in the past.

Last year the Cavs put up a 128.4 ORTG against the Celtics.

Love: 22.6 ppg on 68.8% TS
LeBron: 29.6 ppg on 64.6% TS
Kyrie: 25.8 ppg on 76.3% TS
JR: 7.0 ppg on 70.7% TS
Tristan: 11.6 ppg on 77.3% TS

Those numbers are absurd. But the Celtics' defense is better this year and the Cavs' offense will be weaker without Kyrie, so it'll be a much close record matchup for sure.

Holy ****. We got murdered by the big 3. It’s a miracle that we were able to steal a game.

The Cavs literally had the best offensive series in playoff history. Everyone was making everything. LeBron was being LeBron. Etc.

[yoyoboy]

Love stretching the floor and LeBron's drives have given the Celtics problems in the past.

Last year the Cavs put up a 128.4 ORTG against the Celtics.

Love: 22.6 ppg on 68.8% TS
LeBron: 29.6 ppg on 64.6% TS
Kyrie: 25.8 ppg on 76.3% TS
JR: 7.0 ppg on 70.7% TS
Tristan: 11.6 ppg on 77.3% TS

Those numbers are absurd. But the Celtics' defense is better this year and the Cavs' offense will be weaker without Kyrie, so it'll be a much close record matchup for sure.

Kyrie is as elite a scorer in the NBA as you will find.

Think it was g4 when LeBron was struggling for 3 quarters. Kyrie in the 3rd went HAMM and allowed LeBron plenty of rest. Good times.

He wasn't struggling, he was in foul trouble. LeBron got his 4th foul with 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter and then had to sit the rest of the half. Then Kyrie went nuts in the 2nd and 3rd quarters finishing with 42. And LeBron still managed to drop 34/6/5. Also somehow he still played 38 minutes

[RGM_SU]

Congrats to LeBron James to eight straight Finals appearances. Even if the East hasn't had a truly great team aside from his in that span it's a terrific achievement.

[Antinomy]

Read on Twitter

This’ll be a good one of Boston loses.

I can just see the “sonned” & “father” captions now.

[ItsMyPotPie]

What do you guys think Stevens will do to game plan for LeBron? I think you just gotta play him straight up and hope for the best.

I think Stevens is going to focus on the other guys mostly and let Lebron get his plus they've got bodies to atleast try to slow Bron. Will the zone defense make an appearance this series? I do think it will.

[Prez]

The problem with the Sixers tactic of shutting down the role players and letting LeBron get his is that LeBron will actually single handedly destroy you in single coverage like Embiid and Simmons couldn't. He can very realistically average something insane like 34/10/10 on crazy efficiency and beat you by himself if you encourage it.

[lambchop]

What do you guys think Stevens will do to game plan for LeBron? I think you just gotta play him straight up and hope for the best.

I think Stevens is going to focus on the other guys mostly and let Lebron get his plus they've got bodies to atleast try to slow Bron. Will the zone defense make an appearance this series? I do think it will.

It will really just depend on the Cs ability to switch on and off ball screens and of course defend them collectively. Against TOR the cavs did an excellent job seeking out the mismatches, however, outside of Anunoby every player was an extreme liability on defense. Although guys like Siakam and Vanvleet did a good job on their men, they were useless after one screen. And I don't even want to continue describing how Kevin Love shredded Ibakas ankles.

Boston has great defenders across the board.

[picc]

The problem with the Sixers tactic of shutting down the role players and letting LeBron get his is that LeBron will actually single handedly destroy you in single coverage like Embiid and Simmons couldn't. He can very realistically average something insane like 34/10/10 on crazy efficiency and beat you by himself if you encourage it.

True. But still, whatever Brad Stevens does will give them the best chance of victory, whether it works or not.

[GregB]

As a Celtics fan, so proud of this team. Expecting a loss but hoping for a win.

[RB34]

The problem with the Sixers tactic of shutting down the role players and letting LeBron get his is that LeBron will actually single handedly destroy you in single coverage like Embiid and Simmons couldn't. He can very realistically average something insane like 34/10/10 on crazy efficiency and beat you by himself if you encourage it.

How would you guard him? He’s that good that he’ll find the open man every time you double him. Would you mix it up between doubling and staying home? giving him different looks and try to get him guessing.

[Higgs Boston]

I think the best way to reduce Lebron performance is changing often the type of defense on him like sometimes put a lot of pressure on him, other times let him more space, just like spurs did in 2014. Current Lebron is a better shooter but he still needs to get his rhythm and be able to read the moves, with a defender and defense that changes is rather dfficult to do that.

[Young_Star11]

Celtics are better than last year and the Cavs are worse than last year. Very convincing five-game series win for Cleveland last year.

Do note that the Celtics are 7-0 at home (1-4 away) in these playoffs.

Have to back Cleveland to steal a game on the road, and go onto win in 6. They'll have to play well to do it.

[Badlands]

Are The Corey’s posts supposed to be parody?

You would think so. I never trust anyone whose user name doesn't make grammatical sense.