Celtics vs. the Lebronaires

[Eddie Jurak]

I rarely do this, but I watched Lebron's post game press conference. Highlights:

He said he had "zero level of concern" about the series.

Someone asked him about whether a lineup change made sense (starting Tristan Thompson), and he disingenously answered that he was being asked about someting that "he had no control over" because it was the coach's decision.

Someone commented on how the Cavs had closed the lead to 14 at the end of third only to have the Celtics go on a 7-0 run at the start of the 4th, and asked King James "What happened?". LBJ responded by going into play-by-play mode and rattling off all of the action from the beginning of the 4th to Tatum's baket that put the Celtics up 21. As he finished, the reporters all broke into laughter and applause.

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

 

[Mystic Merlin]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

He just came off like 5 days of rest, wouldnt today have been a pretty good day to 'exert' himself? I'm not buying it.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

They could have done this last year too but they came out and led 61-39 at the half on the way to a 117-104 win then completely blitzed the Celtics 130-86 in Game 2. While I don't disagree that LeBron will come out and be a beast on Tuesday, it's not like he chose not to exert his full effort today. The Celtics kicked their ass today.

 

[JCizzle]

He had his one bad game last year in our game 3 win. Went off along with Kyrie in the next game to basically end it.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201705210CLE.html

 

[The Needler]

Someone commented on how the Cavs had closed the lead to 14 at the end of third only to have the Celtics go on a 7-0 run at the start of the 4th, and asked King James "What happened?". LBJ responded by going into play-by-play mode and rattling off all of the action from the beginning of the 4th to Tatum's baket that put the Celtics up 21. As he finished, the reporters all broke into laughter and applause.

It was a dismissive response to the question (which happened to be from a female reporter), I thought. And for what's it worth, while he correctly named the Celtics' three scoring plays, he dropped the ball recounting what actually happened when the Cavs had the ball, which included two awful turnovers, including one of his seven that led directly to Tatum's layup and the timeout. A better answer to "what happened?" probably would have been "we got sloppy with the ball, and that's something that starts with me of as a leader of this team. We need to get better at protecting the ball, and we will."

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

I think he misses having Kyrie

 

[DJnVa]

We really try to find every reason to be scared.

Enjoy this. The underlying issues with Cleveland are still there. They were exposed today--no defense, not much outside of Lebron/Love, and making guys like Korver (and even Lebron) play hard on defense.

And yes, "Cleveland will come out HARD next game." Why the fuck didn't they today? If they wanna give a game away because they only have to win one road game, then by all means, I'm glad we curb-stomped them and took it.

 

[Strike4]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

I think everybody is expecting something like that from Lebron, and he can kick it into high gear. The thing is - what happens if it doesn't work? I think today the Cavs took an approach where they tried to at least start by spreading the load on the team rather than just Lebron, and it fell flat. On Tuesday they will drop the pretense and start out running everything through Lebron and he'll be all intense - body-banging post ups, taking it to the basket, kicking it out to Love for 3's, demoralizing dunks in transition. This is what the Celtics will have to stop. But it can't last forever, which is why they didn't come out that way in game one.

If they can withstand that initial charge and then the regroup charge (either late third quarter or early fourth quarter) they will win again.

 

[Rook05]

I think he misses having Kyrie

In fairness, so do I.

 

[Light-Tower-Power]

This Cavs team reminds me a little bit of the old LeBron Cavs teams with Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson, the corpse of Antawn Jamison, etc.. Kevin Love is probably better than anyone else he ever had in Cleveland before the Miami days, but otherwise it's him and a bunch of guys who can't defend or create offense. Most of their offensive gameplan is LeBron either taking a shot or trying to kick it out to a shooter on the perimeter. IT4 not being able to replace Kyrie's role of 1a scorer and ball-handler hurt them.

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

We really try to find every reason to be scared.

Enjoy this. The underlying issues with Cleveland are still there. They were exposed today--no defense, not much outside of Lebron/Love, and making guys like Korver (and even Lebron) play hard on defense.

And yes, "Cleveland will come out HARD next game." Why the fuck didn't they today? If they wanna give a game away because they only have to win one road game, then by all means, I'm glad we curb-stomped them and took it.

A-fucking-men. Cleveland can scheme and counter punch all they want. There still are going to be defensive mismatches all over the court for them. Indiana damn well could have beaten them, and the Celtics are better defensively and more diverse offensively.

 

[Light-Tower-Power]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

I agree 100% with this. LeBron is going to try to win Game 2 by himself, which is something he is capable of doing. If Cleveland defends the way they did today though, they're done, no matter what LeBron does on the offensive end.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

It was a dismissive response to the question (which happened to be from a female reporter), I thought. And for what's it worth, while he correctly named the Celtics' three scoring plays, he dropped the ball recounting what actually happened when the Cavs had the ball, which included two awful turnovers, including one of his seven that led directly to Tatum's layup and the timeout. A better answer to "what happened?" probably would have been "we got sloppy with the ball, and that's something that starts with me of as a leader of this team. We need to get better at protecting the ball, and we will."

Yes, Lebron dodged a question he didn't want to answer. But it was funny. "We're on to Cincinnati" was also a dodged question.

 

[Van Everyman]

IT4 not being able to replace Kyrie's role of 1a scorer and ball-handler hurt them.

I missed today’s game but I have to admit: a small part of me wishes Isaiah had been healthy and worked out for Cleveland. I’d have loved to have seen 2016 IT4 and Lebron play together in the playoffs.

 

[TheRooster]

Biggest takeaway for me: Love can't cover Horford at all and Al knows it. He just decimated Love.

Nice confirmation that Hood is not good at basketball too.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Lebron knows when and where he needs to exert energy. Game 2 is the big game. Take that, and Cleveland never has to win another road game in the series. They can turn it up back home to go up 2-1/3-1, then the series is over. I’m expecting 36/11/14 on 25-30 shots in Game 2 for Lebron.

We really try to find every reason to be scared.

Enjoy this. The underlying issues with Cleveland are still there. They were exposed today--no defense, not much outside of Lebron/Love, and making guys like Korver (and even Lebron) play hard on defense.

And yes, "Cleveland will come out HARD next game." Why the fuck didn't they today? If they wanna give a game away because they only have to win one road game, then by all means, I'm glad we curb-stomped them and took it.

I'm old enough to remember the Memorial Day Massacre.

This was the biggest margin of victory in a Celtics game 1 win since that day.

I wouldn't be so quick to put this one in the bag.

 

[Montana Fan]

Biggest takeaway for me: Love can't cover Horford at all and Al knows it. He just decimated Love.

Nice confirmation that Hood is not good at basketball too.

Yes, I’ve been racking my brain as to what the Cavs can do. I don’t see a matchup outside of Lebron that favors the Cavs. Tuesday will be a war but I think the Celts will get it done.

 

[snowmanny]

I'm old enough to remember the Memorial Day Massacre.

This was the biggest margin of victory in a Celtics game 1 win since that day.

I wouldn't be so quick to put this one in the bag.

And that came ed:three years after the bigger Game 1 blowout against Philly in the ECF.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/198205090BOS.html

 

[PC Drunken Friar]

I'm old enough to remember the Memorial Day Massacre.

This was the biggest margin of victory in a Celtics game 1 win since that day.

I wouldn't be so quick to put this one in the bag.

Looking at that box score... I literally have never heard of Scott Wedman before.

 

[JCizzle]

Looking at that box score... I literally have never heard of Scott Wedman before.

9 and 5 3PA as teams...

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Looking at that box score... I literally have never heard of Scott Wedman before.

Really? He was an All-Star in KC before joining the Cs and was a big part of the 86 run.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Yes, I’ve been racking my brain as to what the Cavs can do. I don’t see a matchup outside of Lebron that favors the Cavs. Tuesday will be a war but I think the Celts will get it done.

Yeah, me as well. The Love/Korver action didn't get them a lot as it appears that BOS has enough people who are big and quick enough to switch that action. (CLE got one dunk when Baynes was on Love.)

I didn't chart the game but it also didn't look like CLE got anything when LBJ switched onto Rozier (BOS doubled quickly and rotated quickly enough to contest 3s). There was one action that got Love switched onto Rozier - CLE didn't run it a lot but I do believe Love got a dunk out if once.

On the other side - it doesn't look like Hill or Smith or Clarkson or Hood or Korver is going to give JT or JB any trouble so CLE is kind of getting limited in what they can do.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the only way the Cs lose this series if for some reason JB or JT stop scoring so that even if LBJ goes Godzilla on the Cs, the Cs will still have enough offense to keep them in it.

As Van Gundy says, sometimes it just comes down to who has more, better players.

 

[PC Drunken Friar]

Really? He was an All-Star in KC before joining the Cs and was a big part of the 86 run.

I was 4. And thought that KC was a defunct ABA team.

 

[TripleOT]

Love had a lot of success going at AL in last year's playoffs. This season, there aren't mismatches all over the court defensively as last year, and AL can just defend straight up. Morris as a guy who can at least try to slow down LBJ at the start of the game is a great weapon, one that can stop the Cavs from putting up 30+ point first quarters, like they did in four of five games last playoffs, including all three games in Boston.

The Cavs have a lot of marginal players who can thrive when the team is running good, but disappear when that's not happening. A stat was floating around that Morris D-ed up on Lebron 23 times, and James scored only five points on him. It that's accurate, it is amazing.

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

Really? He was an All-Star in KC before joining the Cs and was a big part of the 86 run.

He could shoot

 

[snowmanny]

I was 4. And thought that KC was a defunct ABA team.

Rochester Royals>>>>>>Cincinnati Royals >>>>KC-Omaha Kings>>>>Sacramento Kings

 

[PC Drunken Friar]

Must have been thinking of the St Louis Spirit (Marvin Barnes R.I.P)

 

[Infield Infidel]

He seems like a huge mismatch this series.. he seemed to be far less active than Reddick game one on the offensive end. I’m sure we’ll hear from him on the offensive end but he can’t guard anyone on the Celts

They may have too play Hood more and hope J R can hit his shots. JR and Hood can kinda defend when necessary, Korver is useless if he's not draining threes.

 

[DJnVa]

I'm old enough to remember the Memorial Day Massacre.

This was the biggest margin of victory in a Celtics game 1 win since that day.

I wouldn't be so quick to put this one in the bag.

I'm not putting it in the bag. But I also refuse to think that we just pissed off Lebron or something. A lot of folks here picked the Celtics to win this. Did they think in those 4 games they picked us to win, that Lebron would be okay with it?

They cannot cover the Celtics. That deficiency is like the Patriots defense when they play certain kinds of teams--and it blew up on us at the worst possible time. The Pats biggest weakness was exposed. The Cavs biggest weakness is they cannot play defense. And the Celtics can run out 5 guys at them that they can't ignore--Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Horford, Morris, plus Smart and Baynes. They can't switch off and rest on defense. Unless the Celtics all go cold, we're going to have 2 or 3 of them probably on their game, being covered by guys that suck at it.

Can the Cavs win? Of course. But the Celtics have the tools to beat them. It wasn't a fluke.

 

[snowmanny]

Must have been thinking of the St Louis Spirit (Marvin Barnes R.I.P)

The Spirits were the team that was bought out with a percentage of future TV deals, which netted the owners hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

[bosockboy]

Really? He was an All-Star in KC before joining the Cs and was a big part of the 86 run.

He hit the winning jumper in the Gerald Henderson game in ‘84. I grew up in KC and loved the Wedman/Birdsong/Ford Kings dearly.

 

[PC Drunken Friar]

The Spirits were the team that was bought out with a percentage of future TV deals, which netted the owners hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yea, that's a great story. I think they aren't getting any more money today and took like a 500-750 million balloon payment in like 2015.

 

[nighthob]

The Spirits were the team that was bought out with a percentage of future TV deals, which netted the owners hundreds of millions of dollars.

The best part of the story is that the owners of the St. Louis Spirit were willing to sell those rights back to the NBA thirty odd years ago for something like ten to fifteen million, and the NBA balked at the proposal. Apparently they didn’t value the St. Louis market as the original ABA merger deal effectively closed it.

 

[DJnVa]

Lebron remembering the 7-0 Celtics run in that interview is now being hailed on twitter as some ridiculous feat of memory.

I would imagine half this board could do it without looking at a replay.

 

[bosockboy]

Good summary here on the Silna brothers, Ozzie passed in 2016. They netted 750 million.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/15416970/ozzie-silna-former-aba-owner-earned-millions-nba-dies-83

 

[joe dokes]

Rochester Royals>>>>>>Cincinnati Royals >>>>KC-Omaha Kings>>>>Sacramento Kings

69-70 royals with player (briefly) coach Bob cousy.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

I'm not putting it in the bag. But I also refuse to think that we just pissed off Lebron or something. A lot of folks here picked the Celtics to win this. Did they think in those 4 games they picked us to win, that Lebron would be okay with it?

They cannot cover the Celtics. That deficiency is like the Patriots defense when they play certain kinds of teams--and it blew up on us at the worst possible time. The Pats biggest weakness was exposed. The Cavs biggest weakness is they cannot play defense. And the Celtics can run out 5 guys at them that they can't ignore--Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Horford, Morris, plus Smart and Baynes. They can't switch off and rest on defense. Unless the Celtics all go cold, we're going to have 2 or 3 of them probably on their game, being covered by guys that suck at it.

Can the Cavs win? Of course. But the Celtics have the tools to beat them. It wasn't a fluke.

It's not necessarily that they can't play defense per se, it's that they don't have anyone who is really athletic so they struggle to defend off the dribble and in transition. I didn't watch a ton of last season's finals but I remember GSW getting layup after layup either in transition or in the half court after CLE's defense was broken down.

Cs got 60 points in the paint this afternoon. Seemed like against MIL, they didn't 60 points in the paint combined in the games played in MIL.

 

[Red Averages]

Underrated part of game 1: Marcus Smart was getting the ball into the paint whenever he wanted to. If we can continue to get into the paint our offense really thrives... which leads to the defense getting set where it can then thrive.

Feels like we only really get into trouble when we fail to move the ball on offense, get late into the shot clock (this is where no Kyrie hurts) and force up a contested shot that leads to transition offense for the other team. I’m not sure how Cleveland can prevent us from getting into the paint. The Bucks could do it with Maker creating havoc near the hoop (which is when that series started to turn). Embiid couldn’t do it, particularly when being pulled away from the basket. The Cavs small ball starting lineup really plays exactly into what the Celtics want. I’m pretty shocked they aren’t coming out with more size, starting Thompson and packing the middle while out rebounding the Celtics. That’s really the only thing that worries me this series.

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

If Lebron only scores 36 on 25-30 shots the Celtics will win by 30.

 

[lars10]

It was a dismissive response to the question (which happened to be from a female reporter), I thought. And for what's it worth, while he correctly named the Celtics' three scoring plays, he dropped the ball recounting what actually happened when the Cavs had the ball, which included two awful turnovers, including one of his seven that led directly to Tatum's layup and the timeout. A better answer to "what happened?" probably would have been "we got sloppy with the ball, and that's something that starts with me of as a leader of this team. We need to get better at protecting the ball, and we will."

I'd like them to show that no look pass to Baynes as they have the other one all season.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Doug Gottlieb with a tweet showing how Cs went after George Hill on 3 straight possessions:

 

[Montana Fan]

Yeah, me as well. The Love/Korver action didn't get them a lot as it appears that BOS has enough people who are big and quick enough to switch that action. (CLE got one dunk when Baynes was on Love.)

I didn't chart the game but it also didn't look like CLE got anything when LBJ switched onto Rozier (BOS doubled quickly and rotated quickly enough to contest 3s). There was one action that got Love switched onto Rozier - CLE didn't run it a lot but I do believe Love got a dunk out if once.

On the other side - it doesn't look like Hill or Smith or Clarkson or Hood or Korver is going to give JT or JB any trouble so CLE is kind of getting limited in what they can do.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the only way the Cs lose this series if for some reason JB or JT stop scoring so that even if LBJ goes Godzilla on the Cs, the Cs will still have enough offense to keep them in it.

As Van Gundy says, sometimes it just comes down to who has more, better players.

The "others" are going to have to shoot the lights out to get W's against the Celts. They probably will in Cleveland and when you add home court and likely favorable officiating, I'm feeling like this could go 7.

 

[luckiestman]

The "others" are going to have to shoot the lights out to get W's against the Celts. They probably will in Cleveland and when you add home court and likely favorable officiating, I'm feeling like this could go 7.

4

 

[Bleedred]

A few observations:

1. The celtics gave up a few very easy 2s but were super disciplined not to leave the shooters at the 3 point arc. This was by design, and I loved seeing it.

2. Excellent ball pressure on the dribbler, disrupting the pass into the post when switches were made and smaller men were guarding larger. IMO, this is an incredibly underrated component of success. If you body up the ball-handler/passer and force him into a difficult entry pass, the receiver of the pass gets it in less than optimal position, the defender has a chance to deflect or steal, and the shot clock runs into single digits. Fantastic job by the Celtics today pressuring those passes.

3. Cleveland simply has no one who can guard JT and JB not named Lebron.

4. Baynes is a wonderful option when T. Thompson comes into the game.

 

[chilidawg]

Doug Gottlieb with a tweet showing how Cs went after George Hill on 3 straight possessions:

I thought Hill was one of their better defenders?

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

I thought Hill was one of their better defenders?

Hill was a decent defender early and into the peak part of his career. However he is 32 with a lot of NBA miles on him. His lost step or two renders him ineffective against players who are faster and/or stronger. The only thing keeping Smart from completely abusing Hill is that Marcus simply isn't as good a shooter as he sometimes thinks he is.

 

[Sam Ray Not]

Hill was a decent defender early and into the peak part of his career. However he is 32 with a lot of NBA miles on him. His lost step or two renders him ineffective against players who are faster and/or stronger. The only thing keeping Smart from completely abusing Hill is that Marcus simply isn't as good a shooter as he sometimes thinks he is.

Stephen Curry is not as good a shooter as Marcus thinks Marcus is.

 

[jaytftwofive]

And that came ed:three years after the bigger Game 1 blowout against Philly in the ECF.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/198205090BOS.html[/Q Yes the Mother's day massacre. I don't even have to look up the scores, I have them memorized -121-81 and three years later 148-114.

 

[Sam Ray Not]

When Rick Robey drops 19 in 19 minutes, you know it's not your night.