Eastern Conference Finals: (2)Boston Celtics vs. (4)Cleveland Cavaliers

[ehh]

Quote: Originally Posted by z Revis

Did the Warriors even employ a let LeBron get his and shut down everyone else strategy that series? I didn’t watch much of that Finals but I remember reading articles about how the Warriors successfully double teamed Bron and were able to limit his effectiveness. He still got points but it was very inefficient.

This clip gives you a good idea of how GSW played him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xny2NXBZEgw

This was the series where LeBron iso'd a ton. There were hardly any doubles on the catch or on the dribble. Almost no zone or overloading to discourage him from taking a shot or trying to force the ball out of his hands. He gets so deep into the paint when posting or driving before help comes; a good defensive team like GSW only does that by design. There's garden variety help D on some drives but often they let LeBron torture Barnes or Iggy in the paint. Big/Small PNR, GSW sagged Bogut/Festus way off and trailed the screen with the on-ball defender. Small/small they appear to hard hedge but I can't remember if they did that all series.

As cima posted, the stats really tell the story. A player as unselfish as LeBron averaged over 32 shots per game and 11 FTA. That's exactly what GSW wanted to happen. LeBron has always taken what the D gives him, nearly to a fault early in his career, he's not taking that many shots and FTA unless the D is presenting that volume of opportunities. By comparison, here's LeBron through the 2015 Eastern Conference playoffs...

Rd 1 vs BOS: 22.5 FGA, 6.8 FTA
Rd 2 vs CHI: 25.5 FGA, 6.6 FTA
Rd 3 vs 26.3 FGA, 8.3 FTA

This is nearly identical to what Stevens just did against Philly. The let Embiid go 1v1 on the block as much as he pleased, smothered Philly's best shooters and were willing to let Simmons do his thing. The kicker in that series that I think surprised everyone was how well Boston guarded Simmons 1v1. Smart, Morris, whoever did an admirable job.

[cima]

Quote: Originally Posted by BleacherBum2310

Tatum was really shook in their 1st meeting and Lebron will obviously have the better series but I'm not worried about Tatum showing up here. Tatum put up 23.6 points shooting 52% shooting against a potential All NBA D guy in Covington and Embiid in the paint. He did feast on Belli and Cavs don't have that kind of bad defender but they're not exactly a good defense they just outscore you a bunch.

That's Philly though, not LeBron. Completely different beast. Indiana is giving everyone a bunch of false hope. The Cavs' poor shooting and George Hill's absence was an underrated factor for it being as competitive as it was and Indy was the worst matchup for CLE in the entire EC.

Stevens is 1-8 against LeCoach. LeBron owns Boston. Only reason Stevens has 1 W on LeCoach is because LeBron was on some 2011 **** in Game 3 last year and the rest of the team choked the lead away (Cle was up 16 at halftime). It takes a HOF coach (or future HOfer in the case of Kerr) and a bunch of all-stars to take down LeBron in 2018. A healthy Boston might be able to do it. Experience matters once you get to this point and Boston doesn't have much collectively, same reason many of us (myself included) shouldn't have fallen in love with Philly this year.

[ehh]

Quote: Originally Posted by cima

A 2015 Finals strategy won't work against this Cavs team because they aren't trotting out Mozgov, Delly, Shumpert and James friggin Jones out there. The Korver/Love off-ball action is unstoppable right now, Zach Lowe even wrote a piece about it. The Cavs most dangerous lineup this playoffs has been Hill/Smith/Korver/LeBron/Love, which didn't even play together in the regular season. And though Indy was a tougher matchup for Cleveland because Young was giving Love trouble, the ultimate difference was CLE missed WAY MORE open shots against Indy than they did against Toronto.

While Philly has no one in the same galaxy as LeBron, that strategy did just work against a Sixers team that was really clicking and more well-rounded than the corpse of a roster LeBron had in 2015 after Kyrie went down. Their off-ball stuff to get Redick, Belinelli, Elyasova and Saric open threes was working all March/April and against Miami yet it wasn't very effective against Boston.

Also, the lineup with Love at the five, you're going to see Boston put Love in a PnR all night long and Boston will likely have their way offensively.

[jake44np]

Quote: Originally Posted by inkcil

This. Celtics in 7. No one, I mean no one in the 2nd round came anywhere close to putting up the pathetic performance of the Raps. I mean, their whole team ran. The WHOLE team. Blown out by 35 in the elimination game. No one else rolled over like that. I think people underestimate how colossally awful their series performance was...and it's created an inflated image of the Cavs. The Celtics series will be more like the Indiana series. Actually, any team in the playoffs would have done better than Toronto. It's time for the Cavs to actually have to play real playoff games again.

No one and I mean no one played CLE in the 2nd round like Toronto did.
LeBron owns Boston just like he owns Toronto.
You are giving CLE no credit at all for completely manhandling Toronto.
Boston doesn't have the firepower to play with CLE right now.

[AlexBrady]

Quote: Originally Posted by z Revis

Did the Warriors even employ a let LeBron get his and shut down everyone else strategy that series? I didn’t watch much of that Finals but I remember reading articles about how the Warriors successfully double teamed Bron and were able to limit his effectiveness. He still got points but it was very inefficient. Either way though, I agree here. I like to say Indy would’ve won if Dipo played better offensively but only because it’s true with how Cleveland was playing. Cavs stepped up in game 7 though and continued that into the Toronto series. I’ll give the Celtics two games because of home court and Brad Stevens is a genius, but I think the Cavs will be too much. Cavs in 6. Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Kevin Love missed that 2015 Finals round against GSW which wasn't a huge deal since he is an erratic long-range shooter with a limited post up game. Kyrie Irving missing the remaining five games of that series was disastrous though since he could routinely create his own shots with jitterbug quickness.

The Cavaliers, as ever, relied on isolations in the 2015 Championship round. LeBron, by far, got the most solo opportunities but isos were called for J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. Matthew Dellavedova got a few screen/roll chances.

Golden State played LeBron soft at times and let him fire away from the perimeter. Predictably, he made some but missed more because he has an erratic shooting stroke.

Golden State did overplay LeBron at times and send him to a wing where they would then 'allow' him to drive baseline and then double him with a big man before he reached the rim. Golden State was (and still is) one of the few teams that have quick and coordinated rotations behind their double teams. Their forward dropped down to deny LeBron giving a drop pass to a dive-cutting center and then their two outside defenders played LeBron's strong-side passing lanes. The only unguarded Cavalier GSW left open was almost behind LeBron and out of his line of sight which forced him to twist and make a highly complicated pass.

Golden State's game plan in that 2015 Final Round succeeded in that it didn't allow LeBron to completely dominate the action.

[BleacherBum2310]

Quote: Originally Posted by cima

That's Philly though, not LeBron. Completely different beast. Indiana is giving everyone a bunch of false hope. The Cavs' poor shooting and George Hill's absence was an underrated factor for it being as competitive as it was and Indy was the worst matchup for CLE in the entire EC. Stevens is 1-8 against LeCoach. LeBron owns Boston. Only reason Stevens has 1 W on LeCoach is because LeBron was on some 2011 **** in Game 3 last year and the rest of the team choked the lead away (Cle was up 16 at halftime). It takes a HOF coach (or future HOfer in the case of Kerr) and a bunch of all-stars to take down LeBron in 2018. A healthy Boston might be able to do it. Experience matters once you get to this point and Boston doesn't have much collectively, same reason many of us (myself included) shouldn't have fallen in love with Philly this year.

are we under the impression that CLE is better on D than Philly? Like Tatum can be incredible in this series and still lose in 5 because Lebron is amazing and they just outscore you. Lebron does own Boston but that record is really meaningless to me. Boston wasn't close to CLE in talent level so of course that's going to be the record. George Hill is important but I'm not going to treat him like he's some ALL NBA guy either. playing good D on Love hoping for some bad games while keeping Korver/Hill/JR Smith and co in check will be tough but it's a sound strategy. other than Korver those guys are streaky.

again CLE should win but they are ways for BOS to at least extend it.

[ehh]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake44np

No one and I mean no one played CLE in the 2nd round like Toronto did. LeBron owns Boston just like he owns Toronto. You are giving CLE no credit at all for completely manhandling Toronto. Boston doesn't have the firepower to play with CLE right now.

Not saying this to you directly but it's amazing how after the Indy series all anyone was talking about (even SNL) was how LeBron had no help and his supporting cast was awful. Now Boston doesn't have the firepower to match up?

[ProfessaPackMan]

Quote: Originally Posted by ehh

Not saying this to you directly but it's amazing how after the Indy series all anyone was talking about (even SNL) was how LeBron had no help and his supporting cast was awful. Now Boston doesn't have the firepower to match up?

Amazing how things change when you sweep a bunch of frauds, isn’t it?

C’s in 7.