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The Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers face off in the Eastern Conference Finals in a repeat of last year's showdown at the same stage. Both teams sport a very different look, as fresh faces have come into both teams. Surprisingly enough, none of the players involved in the offseason trade last August are slated to play in this series - Crowder is now in Utah, Isaiah Thomas spent the last part of the season with the Lakers while Kyrie Irving is out injured.
This marks the first time since 1988 that the Celtics have made back-to-back Conference Finals series. Going into the series and given the present rosters of both teams, the Cavaliers are the clear favorites to win another Conference title and advance to their fourth Finals series in a row.
But the Celtics have proved all of their skeptics wrong in making it this far into the postseason, whereas many thought that their season was beyond salvage following the announcement that Uncle Drew would play no further part for the Celtics this season due to knee injury. Their victories in both rounds have come against tougher opposition than the Cavaliers have faced, and their role players have stepped up big-time to deliver the goods.
We examine 5 reasons why the Celtics are a good bet to make the Finals for the first time in 8 years in the following slides.
#5 They have homecourt advantage, and they make it count
In 7 postseason games played at the TD Garden in the 2018 Playoffs, the Boston Celtics are 7-0. This is despite the fact that they faced a generational superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo with an elite swingman in Khris Middleton supporting him for 4 games, and then they played two generational superstars in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
While LeBron James is better than either Giannis or Embiid, Kevin Love has been suspect this playoff season, and there is no way one can place them above the 50-points-per-game duo of Giannis and Middleton or Simmons and Embiid over Love and James based on their postseason performances.
Luckily for the Celtics, they have homecourt advantage for this series as well, since the Cavaliers finished 4th in the regular season standings for the Eastern Conference. Unlike the Toronto Raptors, who have a mental block against James and were clearly underprepared and ill-equipped to play a Cavaliers team firing on all cylinders at the Air Canada Centre, the Celtics have proved throughout the course of this basketball season that they are clutch performers.
When the stakes are as high as the Conference Championship, expect the Boston faithful to be the best supporters in the league against LeBron James. Also expect the Celtics' players to come out swinging at homecourt, buoyed as they will be by the crowd.
#4 All of their crucial rotation pieces have the ability to make plays
Whichever way you look at it, this Celtics team has players who know their roles on both sides of the ball well and are capable of making plays to affect the game - especially in clutch situations. They don't wilt under the pressure of double teams - as Victor Oladipo was prone to in the first round and Kyle Lowry to a certain extent in the Conference Semifinals.
Doubling any Celtics player would be a recipe for disaster for the Cavs, as every member of the team is just uniformly a good playmaker in general and knows how to play through traps.
In addition, every single player in their rotation is a threat from all 3 ranges - 3-point territory, mid-range and at the hole. Even Aron Baynes has knocked down crucial 3-point shots, while the rest of their major rotation pieces have combined to shoot 131 3-pointers in 12 playoff games for an impressive average of roughly 11 made 3s on an above-average 36% clip.
This ability to make the right decision in every situation enables the Celtics to be competitive on both sides of the ball.
#3 They have an elite defense as a team unit
Through the course of the 82-game regular season, the Boston Celtics boasted of the league's best defensive rating. They were also second in opponent field goal percentage, and first in opponent 3-point percentage.
While the Milwaukee Bucks' series featured volume scorers Giannis and Middleton having their way and averaging efficient numbers, the Celtics did a commendable job against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Conference Semifinals. The young Philly squad was held to 42.6% conversion from the field and 30.9% on threes by a Celtics defense that is elite all the way up.
Unlike last season, when Isaiah Thomas was a sieve defensively, this iteration of the Celtics does not have a single weak link to exploit. Unlike Toronto, whose defensive frailties led to Kevin Love's improved numbers, the Celtics will make the Cavaliers earn every point.
The Pacers outscored the Cavaliers by 40 over 7 games by being physical and with worse defenders. A Celtics team with All-Defensive team caliber players like Smart, Horford and Brown will be an even worse matchup for the Cavs.
#2 Their offense will pose tough questions for the Cavaliers' defense
So far, the Cavaliers have faced a team with individually good offensive players (the Pacers) and beaten them. They've also beaten an offensive system with 2 All-Stars in the Raptors, although it was quite clear that Toronto was unable to click on either end of the floor.
The Celtics combine the best of both worlds, as far as Eastern Conference teams go. They share the ball quite well given the abundance of playmakers they have in their lineup, but they also have the ability to dump the ball into the hands of Rozier, Jaylen Brown, Tatum, Horford or Marcus Morris and ask any one of these players to go iso when their passing breaks down.
The Cavaliers' defense does have chinks in its armor, and the Celtics are eminently capable of exploiting them. The Cavs gave up enough open looks in both series to suggest that the Celtics can hold their own from downtown in a shootout. The likes of Kevin Love and Kyle Korver, who have given effort but are done in by quick offensive maneuvers in one-on-one scenarios, can expect to have a tough time guarding the Celtics.
#1 They have the better coach
Tyronn Lue has typically been a better coach in the playoffs than in the regular season. Evidence for this can be found this postseason as well, as his adjustments in both the first round series against the Pacers as well as the Semifinals series against the Raptors were astute ones and yielded tangible results.
For all of his merits, however, he does not hold a candle to Brad Stevens, who has emerged as one of the 3-4 best coaches in the league - especially over the past 4 seasons he's been in charge of the Cs. Not only does he write far and away the best ATO (after-timeout) plays among all coaches in the league, he has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to strategize and turn his opponents' weaknesses into tangible advantages for his own team.
The way the Celtics defended Ben Simmons in the Conference Semifinals is just another example of this facet of his coaching.
Expect him to throw out all kinds of obstacles in LeBron's path to the Finals, starting with neutralizing his dominance in post-up situations and inside the paint - just like he did with Simmons and Embiid. Even if LeBron averages north of 30 points a game (as he has so far in the playoffs), expect Stevens to take away the free points that the Cavaliers garnered against the Raptors.
Guess the Lakers players!
