Celtics vs Cavs: how do we match up?

[Ogaju]

too soon people, come on show some respect to the opponents before you.

[Ogaju]

I'm all into beating the Wiz because the C's do not match up with Cleveland.  They might win one game but I'd bet on a sweep.

A sweep seems a bit much. Chances are Cleveland wins at least one game.

 

TP ... SOMEBODY get this fellow a cold beer.

[CelticsElite]

I'm all into beating the Wiz because the C's do not match up with Cleveland.  They might win one game but I'd bet on a sweep.

A sweep seems a bit much. Chances are Cleveland wins at least one game.

 

Lol
TP ... SOMEBODY get this fellow a cold beer.

[the TRUTH]

I may be in the minority here, but it doesn't bother me for fans to look ahead. Players, staff and coaches obviously can't, but I don't see any reason why we can't. That's what this forum is for.

To answer the OP, I'm a little torn here. I love the way this team competes, stays together and believes in itself. And we have homecourt advantage, which is a perk. I also think that we may be the best-suited team to guard the Cavs perimeter players (including LeBron) in the entire league. Smart, AB, Rozier, Crowder and even Jaylen Brown can give us good minutes guarding Irving and James. As others have said, the Cavs aren't great defensively, so scoring shouldn't be a major issue as long as we're shooting well.

What concerns me the most is the other end of the floor. I think we have the players to make the Cavs work on offense, but they're loaded with sharp shooters. When those guys are on, which is usually the case, it's basically pick your poison. I know others have said that the Cavs aren't as good as Washington inside, but Love and Thompson scare the heck out of me on the boards. Cleveland is tough enough to force into a miss as it is, so any second-chance points we give up will be crippling. This is where I think we're in trouble, as rebounding is a major weakness of ours.

I think our best chance for success defensively is to force James into long 2's and/or 3's (in other words keep him out of the paint), don't let their role players get open looks from outside, play phenomenal defense on Irving, and rebound like our lives depend on it. I think we can do those three things for stretches, but can we for 48 minutes?

Lastly, I've brought this up in other threads, but when you're playing against a team with LeBron on it, you have to account for the officiating factor. Not only will we likely get completely screwed by the refs in every game in this (still hypothetical) series, but it'll likely resemble a WWE match due to the absurdity. Welcome to the NBA of the 21st century. So just being as good as the Cavs (which I'm not sure we can do anyway) won't cut it - we'll have to be significantly better than them on four separate occasions. While it's possible, I don't like our chances. As of today, I'd pick Cleveland in 5 or 6.

[JSD]

We are going to lose the last 2 games of this series. Losing was going to happen before this post so don't worry about it.

[Somebody]

I'm all into beating the Wiz because the C's do not match up with Cleveland.  They might win one game but I'd bet on a sweep.

A sweep seems a bit much. Chances are Cleveland wins at least one game.

 

TP ... SOMEBODY get this fellow a cold beer.

You called me? I only have whiskey  (btw I'm still underage lol)

[Somebody]

We'll match up prefectly btw: I'm expecting a 6 game series that might even swing in the Celtics' favor, giving us our first finals appearance in 7 years, where we may win our 18th banner. GO CELTICS!!!

[JSD]

We'll match up prefectly btw: I'm expecting a 6 game series that might even swing in the Celtics' favor, giving us our first finals appearance in 7 years, where we may win our 18th banner. GO CELTICS!!!

If the C's do somehow get past the Wizards, they will be lucky to win 1 game against the Cavs. We're playing with houses' money.

[Csfan1984]

If the refs favor the C's I could see an upset. But team would still need a big 3 player from Cavs to be KO'd out (pun intended).

Here's a few possibles in our favor.
-IT gets some favorable calls all series against Irving, Smith and Shump. Irving at least two games sits early for fouls.
-AB gets in Smith's head a few times by having solid games out playing Smith. Smith tries to out score AB and Cavs chemistry takes a hit Smith is benched at one point. Then Smith never returns to front leading form.
-Smart shuts down Korver and Rozier kills Williams in their off the bench match ups.
-Crowder, Brown, Green and KO (yes KO) body LeBron all series. LeBron plays less than 32 minutes in two out of the last three games of the series.
-Horford out hustles Thompson
-KO out plays Love two games at home in which C's win.

All possible to lead to a C's upset in the series.

[Celtics4ever]

Quote
If the refs favor the C's I could see an upset

I don't think that is going to happen.

[Tr1boy]

The only way we beat cavs

1) outscore them in an offensive gunslinging match
2) prevent/slow down lebron from getting into the paint.... Then all they can do is play hot potato around the perimeter

For a good part of the game you need jaylen on lebron and ab/rozier/smart locked into Irving

You have crowder or smart on lebron for long stretches forget it...

[Granath]

Never mind the Wizards and Cavs, how are we gonna stop the Warriors?   

Actually, we match up better with the Warriors than we do the Cavs. GS isn't a big team - their top 6 guys are all 6-9 or smaller (with 4 of those guys 6'7" or shorter) - and where they are strong we have some good defenders. We can put Smart and Bradley on Curry and Klay. That's not an advantage to us but there are few teams in the NBA who can put defenders that good on those guys. Crowder can try to use his strength against Durant - as if anyone can really defend Durant anyway - and Horford is probably one of the best matchups in the league on Green.

Again, it's not advantage Celtics or anything but it's a reasonable approach. We've played them closely the last couple of years for a reason.

Cleveland is a problem. If we get that far then that's a touch match up. Thompson-Love-James is simply a front court that's too big. Add in back court guys like Korver (6'7"), Smith (6'6") and Shump (6'5") and we're just at a disadvantage all the way around.

But let's get through Washington and we can worry about it then.

[BudweiserCeltic]

too soon people, come on show some respect to the opponents before you.

Nothing about respecting the opponent or not, but it's all about jinxing it.

[Moranis]

poorly

[celticinorlando]

Boston lacks the consistent #2 scoring punch. I think Cavs win in 5 or 6