So… everyone loves the Celtics again, which actually scares me a bit. It’s always when everyone hops aboard the bandwagon that the thing starts to get rickety. And oh, LeBron and the Cavs are in town and there’s some animosity between these two teams. Can the Celtics keep living up to this hype and beat the Cavs?
They can, if they follow this plan.
1: Isolate LeBron
This is the time-honored strategy for playing a LeBron team… and I’m not changing it now. In losses, his usage rate is slightly higher, his assists drop by almost two per game, and he’s taking three more shots per game. He’s averaging nearly 30 points a game in losses, and 25 per game in wins.
The more you force LeBron to do everything scoring wise, the less he impacts the other guys on the team. The most dangerous thing about LeBron James has always been his willingness to use his physical gifts to make other players better. He’s always been a passer who could score easily whenever he wanted rather than a scorer who passes from time to time.
It will be a long night if LeBron is racking up assists. Let Jae Crowder do what he does and don’t overreact on defense. Jae’s on his own tonight, and if LeBron beats him and scores a bunch, so be it. The Celtics can withstand that so long as the rest of the team isn’t scoring along with him.
2: Run!
Cleveland is playing at the second slowest pace in the league(95.63). Boston is the fourth fastest (101.25). Boston will have really see that differential in possessions grow to have a good chance to win tonight. Cleveland is averaging 82 FGA a game while Boston is at 89. What I’d like to see is Cleveland below 80 somehow with the Celtics at 95 or better.
The Celtics are really good at defending half court sets, and if LeBron is forced to do a bulk of the scoring, then we might see some panicked passes from teammates looking to get LeBron the ball because they’re cold. That’s where the Celtics can get their steals and run out on the break to pick up those extra possessions. If Cleveland willingly slows things down on their end and the Cs can force the issue, they’ll have a good chance to score points against a stingy Cavs defense.
3: Find Evan Turner
What?
Yep. And other guys who can get into that mid-range area and hit with consistency. The Cavs defense is good, but their one weakness is from 10-14 feet… where opponents are hitting up a league-worst 45.2% of their shots.
Spare me your inefficiency talk.. the Celtics have guys who can hit that shot, and NBA teams used to score tons of points with mid-range jumpers. I know what the league is today, and I’m all for the pace-and-space… but sometimes when a team is good at protecting the rim and you have the ability to take good shots 15 feet from the basket, you take those shots. Remember, this game is all about volume shooting by the Celtics. That pace needs to be pushed and those shots will be open.
4: Keep your cool
All this talk about apologies and whatnot is really not the kind of distraction anyone needs when facing the Cavs. If Crowder can use it as positive motivation, then fine… but if these guys get caught up in anything extracurricular, then we can just forget this game and move on to tomorrow.
The Cavs require your full attention to basketball matters. Execute the plan, do your job, and focus on basketball. The rest is crap and it will only serve to derail what’s happening on the court.
The Cavs are obviously the best team in the East, and with the return of Iman Shumpert, it adds a layer that other teams haven’t had to face. The Celtics have proven they can play with the best teams in the league.. and they can win this game if they do these few things and keep their wits about them.
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