No one on Cavs can break down D or iso up, Lebron have to do it all by himself, it Celtics double him up and rotate that might not even let Cavs make an open look, this is gonna be long ride (or rather sort) for Cavs.
Celtics are the best team in the east...they compete hard, play as a team, play tough on D, do all the little things... I was surprised so many media members picked the Cavs to either sweep or win in 5. Lebron is Lebron but they're offensive gameplan is so predictable and they don't play as cohesive unit on that end. Love and Korver can be easily neutralized and what else do you have? Raptors have this mental roadblock against Lebron and they were always a fake elite defensive team. Their metrics sucked against the best teams and they fell over mightily since the all-star break.
This is what scares me. If it looks like the Celtics are Finals bound, does Silver screw over the Rockets with ref assignments in order to ensure Golden State gets out of the West. The NBA's worst nightmare has to be Houston vs Boston even though I personally think that could be a very competitive series.
I think this really shows that something is wrong with the raptors. Pacers took cavs to 7, celtics look like they can compete with ‘em. Cavs arent world beaters. Derozan was just mentally gone and something was broken for that raptors team.
C'mon guys! It's just the 1st quarter and LeBron was barely trying. He was resting and gauging. Stay tuned.
Agreed with this. Everyone in the media apparently has recency bias; they completely disregarded how bad, historically, the Raptors have been against LeBron, and only saw "4-0," deciding that they would easily dispatch Boston, as well.
so the celtics were +235 for this series? i heard on some podcast they were +500 for the sixers series. i guess they really are the team no one believes in. i need to start online sports gambling. i realize everything went right for the celtics and wrong for the cavs in the 1st quarter (indy series 1st quarter all over again), but i don't know why people thought boston couldn't score against them. they have an endless supply of athletic wings who can create off the dribble and hit 3's, everyone else can hit 3's, and after a decade in the league, al horford has finally pulled his head out of his ass and realized how to post up people. meanwhile the cavs have a very limited supply of athletic wings who can defend. virtually every person guarded by someone not named lebron james is a mismatch. the celtics should win this. since they're a boston sports team, i'm sure adding kyrie and hayward will make them even better, but i don't know if they really do. that's just less minutes for tatum and brown and athletic defenders which have made boston so tough.
Even though the usual suspects have reached the conference finals, and we routinely talk about the refs, this year it really feels like the NBA has let the players play. An injured Celtics team has made it all the way to the ECF going through the MVP everyone wanted before the season, Giannis; and America's new favorite team Philly. Pacers took Lebron to 7 games and almost advanced. Everyone thought this was going to be a simple series for the Cavs. If Silver cared about the bottom line, you think he would have let Lebron Sweep Toronto? Silver would have at least let that series go 5. Pelicans swept Media darling Dame Lillard. Portland had home court advantage too. An Injured Utah team beat OKC for goodness sake! You know the media and fans were thirsty for a potential OK3/Houston match up, or even better, an OK3/GSW match up. OKC flamed out in spectacular fashion. If strings were being manipulated, I have no doubt OKC would have been still playing. Feels like this year, it's being earned on the court.
