The Cleveland Cavaliers eliminated the Boston Celtics from the 2015 NBA Playoffs on Sunday, sweeping them out of the playoffs four games to none. Today, we present you with five statements. Four do not need explaining.
1. The Cleveland Cavaliers are considerably better than the Boston Celtics.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were supposed to win this series and they did. While there was never any doubt, it would have been a boost for the Cavaliers to post a statement game. Sometimes final scores can be misleading and there were a few times where the Cavaliers played out of major deficits. Still, there wasn’t a single game in this series that approached anything that remotely resembled what the Wizards did to the Raptors on Sunday.
2. Kendrick Perkins gets technical and/or flagrant fouls when he is allowed into the game.
Perkins actually isn’t the worst player in the NBA. He just doesn’t serve all that many purposes at this point in his career. Well, unless you need someone to come in and take a flagrant foul, start a scuffle and then throw a cheap jab over a referee into the face on an opponent. I don’t condone the after-the-whistle antics, but it is great for a team to have a little backbone just in case things get out of hand. A lot of people took the Perkins problems in Game 4 as retaliation for the earlier injury suffered by Kevin Love at the hands of Kelly Olynyk. Any old school sensibilities that remain in the game would be fine with that. But taking an unnecessary swing after the whistle isn’t old school, it’s no school.
3. J.R. Smith is a head case who is probably facing a suspension.
Speaking of no school and after the whistle, J.R. Smith decided it might be a good idea to send a wild backhand in the general direction of Crowder’s head – and connected. The blow was directly to the face/head of Crowder and laid him out on the court, the process of which caused his knee to unnaturally buckle. Crowder had to be carried off the court. The severity of the injury has not been determined, but even the Charles Barkley suggested 10-game suspension for Smith seems a bit light given the intentional striking of an opponent in the head.
4. Kevin Love is hurt.
Kevin Love suffered a potentially season-ending injury in the form of a separated shoulder at the hands of Kelly Olynyk. The play by Olynyk was preceded by an arm hook from Love. Just about every center and/or big man in the league runs the same type of action every single trip down the floor. While determining intent in this type of case is a matter of subtlety, there doesn’t appear to be much to it beyond normal big man fighting for a loose ball. I know Cavs fans feel differently, but watch Andrew Bogut for more than 22 seconds of any game and you’ll see a vast array of arm bars similar to what both Love and Olynyk pulled on each other when the injury went down.
5. David Blatt is the most ambiguous coaching remaining in the playoffs.
This is probably the one statement that requires some form of explanation. Do we even know if Blatt is actually coaching this team? Lebron James spent nearly half the season undermining his coach. Now, Coach Lebron has intoned that he calls his own plays and can occasionally be seen giving what appear to be queues for timeouts and play calls to Blatt during games. If we cast a popular vote right now, I think that the general consensus would be that Brad Stevens is the vastly superior coach. Opinions aside, what do we actually know about Blatt’s style and how much control does he really have over his team? Going into Game 4, the average viewer could still give Blatt the benefit of the doubt, but after watching the actions of Perkins and Smith in a victory that was never in doubt leaves some room for questions. Then again, putting Perkins and Smith together is dangerous on any team. Blatt is the first Cavaliers coach to make the playoffs in his first season in charge and set the record for most first season wins for a Cavaliers coach in the process. I guess we still don’t know if that is due to Blatt or in spite of him. Round 2 should give us better insight.
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