Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Kawhi Leonard scored 25 points and the San Antonio Spurs dismantled the ailing Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-74, on Monday night in a showdown that turned into a major letdown for the defending NBA champions.
LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol added 14 points apiece for the Spurs, who won their fifth straight.
Cleveland (47-26) dropped its second in a row, set a season low for points and fell a half-game behind the Celtics (48-26) for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Boston has the best record in the east three years, eight months and 27 days after trading Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets, and six years and five days since the last time they led the Eastern Conference.
Now: Consider that, so far, the only contributor on this team that can be traced back to that trade is Jaylen Brown.
Boston is the number one seed in the east right now, and very little of that success can be traced back to the Nets trade. Most of the Celtics’ success right now comes from trades (IT, Crowder, Jerebko, Zeller), free agent signings (Horford and Amir), and the Celtics’ own picks (Bradley, Smart, Olynyk).
I’m looking at Cleveland right now, and I’m wondering how much they’ve got left in the tank. Love is injury prone, LeBron is, well, he’s not getting any younger, and what do you have left after that? A lot of money that was spent to extend LeBron’s prime, and which will be sitting on that team like a ton of dead weight in a couple years. And Kyrie Irving.
And look at it from LeBron’s perspective: He lost to the C’s and lost to the C’s and lost to the C’s and went to Miami and dang near lost to the C’s and then he got four years off, and now, he’s on the downhill side of his career, and who’s he going to be battling the rest of the way? The C’s. And instead of trying to outgun Pierce, he’s going to have to fight his way through Crowder and Brown until he retires.
Page 2: Where UMass invited Micah Shrewsberry back for another interview
What he most likes about the UMass position is the opportunity to turn around a program that has made the NCAA tournament just once since the 1997-98 season.
“For me, it’s just a chance to get back (into the college game) and build a program,” said Shrewsberry. “That’s the main thing I want to do, and there’s that opportunity with this job.”
But the subject of UMass’ former success did not come up in the interview, he said.
“What’s important is that you go in and be yourself,” he said. “You have to do it your own way. Chris Holtmann (current Butler coach) is not doing things the way that Brad did it. You have to be true to yourself.”
Well, it sounds like it’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ Micah heads back to the college game. On the surface, the UMass gig seems like a good one. If the facilities are solid, then you’re in good territory for recruiting, and the past is completely irrelevant. No one Shrewsberry would recruit was even alive when Cal was there making messes and setting the program back a decade or more. It seems, on the surface, like a good opportunity to, as Shrewsberry says, ‘build a program.’
Page 3: Where ESPN breaks down possible opponents
Who should Boston hope to match up with in the first round of the playoffs? BPI simulations suggest it really doesn’t matter. pic.twitter.com/NmGOhU1Ylt
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) March 27, 2017
There are only 17 days left in the 2016-17 regular season, yet the muddled mess in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture means there are still seven different potential opponents the Boston Celtics could see in the opening round.
While waiting for more clarity, Celtics fans are likely to immerse themselves in the race for the No. 1 seed, particularly in advance of the final head-to-head meeting with the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 5 in Boston.
I believe there are people who call themselves Celtics fans but who cannot bring themselves to cheer for the Celtics right now because they spent a lot of time asserting that this rebuild strategy was flawed.
If you spent the earlier part of the season griping about how the Celtics could only beat teams that were worse than them, and you are now going to speculate that Boston won’t make it out of the first round, there is a flaw in your logic. Boston is the #1 seed in the East. If ‘they can only beat teams worse than them’, well, who in the East is better than them right at the moment?
Boston has played a tougher schedule than Cleveland up to this point and they have a better record.
In a playoff series? It’s hard not to pick Cleveland. But that takes nothing away from what Boston has accomplished so far this season. By and large, they’ve beaten the teams they were expected to beat. They will enter the playoffs with home court advantage, expected to advance. Barring a crazy injury or injuries, that should be what happens.
Finally: A toddler thinks a water heater is a robot.
This little girl thought a broken water heater is a real life robot. It's just not fair how cute it is pic.twitter.com/TLbuKKEEbY
— Ben Tolmachoff (@bentolmachoff) March 27, 2017
The rest of the links
Boston Herald: Celtics notebook: Defense makes late-season charge
CSNNE: Jaylen Brown steps away from social media to prepare for playoffs
Boston Globe: Celtics plan 10th-anniversary fete for 2008 championship team
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