The Cleveland Cavaliers will have an advantage over the Celtics before tipoff
The Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, and for play them in the playoffs for the second straight season. Don’t expect this series to be any more competitive than the last time they met, which led to a sweep by the Cavs.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will face an opponent with as much heart as its leader in the Boston Celtics. With that said, the Cavs are on a mission and they mean business.
After finally wrapping up a wild Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Washington Wizards, the Celtics get to play the Cavs as a reward.
For this series, Isaiah Thomas will have to do more than watch LeBron James battle Paul Pierce to get himself mentally prepared for the task that lay ahead.
The Celtics are a great team with a great coach but the Cleveland Cavaliers have superior offensive talent with a defensive scheme that could be particularly bothersome for The Mighty IT.
Starting units:
PG matchup: Kyrie Irving / Isaiah Thomas
* This matchup is pretty equal, in terms of this matchup, considering the incredible scoring ability of both players and it’s juxtaposition with their reputations as porous defenders. Thomas is the better leader at this point in his career but he’s also three years older than Irving and the best player on his team. That’s no knock on Irving, he just happens to be teammates with the best player in the world.
SG matchup: J.R. Smith / Avery Bradley
*Avery Bradley is the better player but in this matchup, this another one that’s about pretty equal. Smith has the defensive ability to contain Bradley and Bradley, while being a great defender, will have trouble with the fact that Smith prefers the tougher shots.
SF matchup: LeBron James / Jae Crowder
*Somebody go get the “LEBRON JAMES” kid. Crowder, while a tough defender, and big enough to not get completely overwhelmed by James defensively, is going against the best player in the world, the best player of the decade and what people are beginning to consider is the best player ever. On offense, Crowder may not even be the one defending James, who may opt to back down the guards in the post for this matchup. Defensively, James doesn’t have to do much defending on Crowder, so he’ll be able to roam and jump passing lanes as he’s done all through the playoffs.
PF matchup: Kevin Love / Al Horford
*This is another close one and Al Horford is the better player because of his defensive abilities along with offensive skillset. Love, however, is the more explosive player and liable to go Kelly Olynyk at any moment. Haha, just kidding. He’s way better than Olynyk. If Love gets hot, it’s going to be virtually impossible for the Celtics to stop the Cavs from getting points around the rim. Another area where Love has an advantage over Horford is defensive rebounding, which is good for the Cavs ability to close out defensive possessions.
C matchup: Tristan Thompson / Amir Johnson
*These are two mobile, smart and heady big men who are slightly undersized for the position. However, expect Thompson to be attacking the glass as Johnson has only averaged 2.1 rebounds per game this postseason and 0.9 defensive rebounds. Thompson is averaging 10.6 rebounds per game in the playoffs and 4.9 offensive rebounds per game.
Bench unit: Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jaylen Brown
Bench unit: Iman Shumpert, Deron Williams, Channing Frye, Kyle Korver
*The Celtics bench has an athletic advantage but if James leads the bench units then that advantage is more or less negated. Meanwhile, the Celtics will have nobody to guard James and they’ll be forced to match the Cavs’ three-point shooting.
Here’s a look at each Celtics’ three-point percentage so far in the postseason:
Rk | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Isaiah Thomas | 2.6 | 7.6 | .343 |
2 | Avery Bradley | 2.4 | 6.2 | .383 |
3 | Jae Crowder | 1.5 | 4.9 | .313 |
4 | Al Horford | 1.6 | 2.8 | .583 |
5 | Marcus Smart | 1.5 | 3.8 | .388 |
6 | Kelly Olynyk | 1.0 | 2.8 | .351 |
7 | Gerald Green | 1.3 | 3.2 | .414 |
8 | Terry Rozier | 0.9 | 2.1 | .440 |
9 | Jaylen Brown | 0.3 | 1.5 | .222 |
10 | Amir Johnson | 0.1 | 0.3 | .333 |
11 | Tyler Zeller | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
12 | Jonas Jerebko | 0.1 | 0.9 | .143 |
13 | James Young | 0.4 | 1.0 | .375 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2017.
Here’s a look at how the Cavs have shot so far in the postseason:
Rk | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LeBron James | 2.8 | 5.9 | .468 |
2 | Kyrie Irving | 2.0 | 7.1 | .281 |
3 | Tristan Thompson | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
4 | Kevin Love | 1.9 | 4.6 | .405 |
5 | J.R. Smith | 1.9 | 4.3 | .441 |
6 | Kyle Korver | 2.0 | 4.1 | .485 |
7 | Iman Shumpert | 0.6 | 1.4 | .400 |
8 | Deron Williams | 1.1 | 1.9 | .600 |
9 | Channing Frye | 2.0 | 3.6 | .552 |
10 | Richard Jefferson | 0.3 | 0.5 | .500 |
11 | Derrick Williams | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.000 |
12 | Dahntay Jones | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
13 | James Jones | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2017.
Right off the bat, we can see that the Cleveland Cavaliers rotation players have greater consistency all across the board, save Kyrie Irving, who is a much better three-point shooter than his percentages indicate. All in all the Cleveland Cavaliers are making 14.3 three-point attempts per game and 8.6 of those threes come from the starting lineup, showing a fair amount of balance between how many threes the starters contribute compared to the bench.
The Celtics are making 11.6 three-point attempts per game.
This difference of 2.7 threes per game on average could make for an instant 8-point handicap in favor of the Cavs.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Thomas. Avery Bradley and Al Horford, who have combined for 56.3 points per game this postseason, will have to contend with the scoring abilities of Irving, James and Kevin Love. The Cavs Big Three has scored a combined 72.0 points per game.
That’s a difference of 15.7 points per game.
Defensively, the Celtics will get after it, hustle and play hard enough to erase some of that deficit. They’ll try to exploit Love and Irving in pick-and-rolls with Thomas and Horford but the Cavs should adjust to that with trapping the high ball-screens. Thomas, who is 5-foot-9, is not likely going to do so well seeing over the 6-foot-3 Irving and 6-foot-10 Love, which negates his ability to swing the ball to an open shooter out of the trap.
He could try to split the trap but if he does, the successful attempts will be few and far between.
More likely than not, the traps will cause a lot of trouble for Thomas. Brad Stevens could opt to put the ball in Bradley’s hands more to avoid the traps and to combat that, Irving will have to keep up with Thomas off-ball and the Cavs have to be on time and on target with their rotations. This is where the Versaclimber contests come in handy, as the Cavs will have to exert a ton of energy over the course of this series if they want to finish it in four games.
So long as the Cleveland Cavaliers focus on execution on both ends of the floor, and give Isaiah Thomas different looks to keep him from getting too warmed up, they should be fine. There’s probably no need to mention how the Cavs have had a week and a half off, how they’re fresh and how their rotation players are fully healthy.
The Cavs played the Celtics four times in regular season, going 3-1. In the lone Celtics win, Smith and Love were injured. If the Cavs stay healthy, I’d expect the Cavs to sweep the boys from Beantown for the second straight postseason.
The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t just have the offensive advantage though.
They have the mental edge from their 7-1 record against the Celtics in their last eight meetings and because they have the best player in the NBA.
The difference between the rhetoric paints a telling picture.
The Boston Celtics feel like the underdogs because the Cleveland Cavaliers are the champions, and they have James, that much is obvious. However, the Cavs aren’t focused on the narrative, they’re focused on the goal.
Related Story: 5 Keys for the Cleveland Cavaliers to defeat the Boston Celtics
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*All stats courtesy of www.basketball-reference.com