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.
According to the schedule released by the league, the Celtics and Cavaliers are down to play a Game 5 in this first-round playoff series a week from tomorrow night.
The two key words that follow the listing are “if” and “necessary.”
That caveat may work just fine in other matchups, but as regards this particular duel, it may have been more honest if the league had used a different suffix.
“Ask the Cavs.”
It was abundantly clear here yesterday afternoon that this series will last as long as LeBron James and Kyrie Irving and their wine-and-gold-clad friends decide.
At halftime, the Celts were shooting 52.8 percent from the floor and had thrown 52 points at Cleveland, leading by as many as eight in the second quarter.
And for all of that, they still went into recess down eight points.
Seven and a half minutes later, they were down by 20. The final spread was a modest 13, but the hosts were in Heisman pose holding the Celts at bay from the second quarter on.
The bottom line is the Celtics can play to their full capacity — and even a little above their heads — and if the Cavaliers play with focus and effort, nothing the Bostonians can do will matter.
Boston Herald – Celtics Beat: LeBron James & Cavs imposing their will on Celtics
If you look hard through the clouds and rain out your window this morning you can still see the debris from the crash landing down to earth, captained by First Officer Steve Bulpett.
Unfortunately, I share his sentiments after watching the Cavs take care of the Celtics yesterday afternoon at the Q. The game was a bit of a microcosm of the Cavs entire season: Start slow, play no defense, Lebron observes and facilitates for the new guys, Kevin Love looks lost — It all resulted in a four-point Celtics lead after one quarter that even ballooned to 7-points early in the second quarter. If the Cs were a 15-seed and this was a survive-and-advance game, or a one-game playoff like in the NFL, you could excuse Cs fans for fantasizing about a monumental upset. If it were an NHL series and Kelly Olynyk (heck, he’d be right at home) was a red-hot goaltender, you could see him turning the series in the Celtics favor. If this was the MLB playoffs, the small sample size of a five-game series would open things up to randomness.
But this is the NBA where Social Darwinism almost always wins out. The Cavs got into the same type of groove that led to their torrid second half of the season, Lebron scored when he felt like it and they took game one without really sweating in the second half.
Asking the Celtics to close the deal just once in this series feels like a tall task.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Even with the Cavs stretching their lead to 20 in the second half, the Cs epitomized their no-quit attitude by closing to within six points, 92-86, as Lebron, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving headed to the bench. While they would get no closer, let’s all agree that a game like yesterday (and hopefully three more like it) is far more preferable t0 a performance like the Cs put forth in 2004, when they were swept away with no evidence of any effort put forth.
But please, let’s all promise not to get too upset at our guys in green when this thing wraps up next Sunday at the Garden. Instead, let’s all be ready to send them off with a 48-minute standing ovation.
Related Links: ESPN Boston: Lebron James, Kyrie Irving lead way as Cavs drop Celtics in post season return | CSNNE: Celtics start strong but Cavs pull away in 113-100 win
On Page 2, Might want to emphasize rebounding in the game 2 game-plan
Given all that talent, the Boston Celtics will have a tough enough time stopping the Cleveland Cavaliers when they only get one shot per possession. When they get two or more, as they often did during Sunday, the Celtics will feel pain. They dropped Game 1, 113-110, after surrendering 15 offensive rebounds.
“I think that’s one thing that we didn’t emphasize enough coming into this series,” said Jae Crowder, who had 10 points and five rebounds, all in the second half. “I feel like now that we know what we have to do now, take tomorrow, look at film, see what we can do better in the rotations and blocking those big guys out.”
Generally speaking, Crowder did say he thought the game plan was “pretty good.”
But Cleveland finished the regular season sixth in offensive rebound rate and looked even better in Game 1. When they weren’t gathering buckets in bunches, the Cavaliers rebounded 35.7 percent of their overall misses — a number that would have led the league by a comfortable margin for the full season. And during the 30 minutes James, Love and Irving shared the court, Cleveland’s offensive rebounding was even a bit better.
When Kyrie Irving is going straight-up Uncle Drew on your ass and Lebron is posting up Evan Turner, you have to just take the ball out of the net and live with the makes, but the Celtics could have made this one really interesting in the final minutes if they just cleaned up the glass a bit better when the Cavs didn’t convert.
A lot of the defensive rebounding woes were thanks to the strong individual performances of Love and Tristain Thompson on the offensive glass for the Cavs, but it also seemed that the Cs were so concerned with putting up shots early in the shot-clock, that they were looking to get in transition before the rebound was even secured.
No matter where you look this morning, all will agree that trying to even the rebounding disparity and limiting turnovers are the two ways the Cs can try to take game two. The Celtics can’t change the fact that Love and Thompson are both simply really good offensive rebounders, but they can, as Crowder admits, emphasize rebounding more. Let’s see how that affects other parts of the Celtics’ game plan.
Related Links:
And Finally, Jae Crowder stirs the pot before game 2
The runup to the Celtics-Cavaliers series was almost completely devoid of emotion and nastiness, but perhaps Jae Crowder took care of that after Game 1 on Sunday.
Speaking about the Celtics’ 113-100 loss, Crowder said of Cleveland: “They’re not the best defensive team. They have holes in their defense and we have to expose that.”
CSNNE – Boston Celtics’ Jae Crowder: Cleveland Cavaliers ‘not the best defensive team’
Both Crowder and Avery Bradley expressed confidence in their post-game sound and I don’t necessarily think this fuels the Cavs all too much, but let’s see how closely Cleveland guards early in game two. As heavy underdogs, the Cs have very little to lose by speaking their mind, but if the Cavs hold the Celtics to 80-points on Tuesday night, Jae might want to stay close-lipped until the series concludes.
The Rest of the Links:
Boston Herald: Kelly Olynyk’s cool down hurt Cs | Celtics soundly beaten by Cavs in game 1 | Boston Globe: Isaiah Thomas shines but Celtics starters struggle in game 1 | CSNNE: Bradley: ‘Cavs defenders made it tough on me’ | Mass Live: Brad Stevens was not thrilled with Boston Celtics from start to finish of Game 1 loss to Cleveland Cavaliers
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