“Previewing the first-round series between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.
PREVIOUSLY ON CAVS-CELTICS: The season series between Boston and Cleveland was a tie (2-2) but this is a bit misleading.
Cleveland lost on April 10, 99-90 but Kyrie Irving didn’t play and both LeBron James and Kevin Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter. The same thing basically happened on April 12 when James. Love, Irving and J.R. Smith didn’t play so Boston won easily 117-78.
Cleveland’s two wins over the Celtics were double-digit victories which featured James scoring 41 on November 14 and the Cavs winning by 39 on March 3.
THE BIG PICTURE: Even though this is a drastically different Boston team, expect plenty of imagery from LeBron’s five playoff battles against the Celtics.
Boston was a franchise James had to go through to get to the finals his first time with the Cavs and then later with the Heat. Back then, James had to continually surmount the mountain that Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo and the rest of the Celtics put in his path but now he is that mountain in the way of a young Celtics team.
X-FACTOR: The coaching wizardry of Brad Stevens has been great to witness all season. His ability to exploit matchups and expertly manage in-game situations has caused many to bring up his name in Coach of the Year discussions.
This is of course the first playoff series for Stevens but he is no stranger to high pressure situations as he helmed a Butler team that made it to the National Championship. It will be interesting to if he has any tricks up his sleeve that he has been saving just for the postseason.
The Celtics made the playoffs thanks to Stevens turning them into a scrappy and tough team that expertly executes. Don’t expect this to change against Cleveland.”
