People are too pessimistic regarding our chances against the Cavs

[Moranis]

Boston can't defend James.  I like Crowder and all, but he will be completely useless against James and he is the best option.  If James doesn't average a 30 point triple double, I will consider it a win.  And yeah Boston can try to hide IT on Smith, but Smith is saavy enough to know how to work that advantage, as our the Cavs.  I would expect all kinds of pick and rolls to force Thomas to switch off Smith and onto James or Irving. 

I think Boston wins game 2 and that is it.  Lebron James is just too good for this team and that really is the bottomline (Bradley is better than Smith but outside of that every other position including the bench favors Cleveland). 

[mspring]

I am interested to see how we do in this series.  I think it is possible we could upset them, but not very likely the way they have been playing.  The one thing that does interest me some is that when we played them in the 1st round in 2015 we played them pretty tough in every game.  Other than the first game (13 point loss) we lost the rest by single digits. 

They had relatively the same core with the exception of Mozgov who started and they now have some different role players.  But we had an even younger more inexperienced team and remember we weren't even starting Isaiah at the time.  In that series we started Smart, Bradley, Evan Turner, Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller!  The main players off the bench were Isaiah, Crowder, Sullinger Olynyk and Jerebko.  We now have Horford and Johnson who are superior to Bass and Zeller.  All this to say, I think we are a much better team this time around...so I am really curious to see how far we can push them this time around.

[Irish Stew]

I'm not pessimistic even though that I believe our possible win range in the series is 0-2.This is just part of the necessary process until we eventually reach and pass the Cavs. What excites me is the massive talent infusion that will hopefully take place this offseason. Just enjoy this series and hope that our level of play catches the interest of guys like Hayward and George.

[PhoSita]

Having home court advantage helps.  I think it gives the Celts a decent chance of pushing this to 6 games.

Realistically, LeBron will win at least one of the first two games and then the Celts will have a really hard time winning one in Cleveland.

After that, the Celts will need to win a home game 5 in order to force a 6th game on the road.


Overall, this Celts team doesn't seem as good as that 60 win Hawks team from a couple years ago.  That team had home court advantage and still got swept.  They were facing a Cavs opponent that was missing Kevin Love.  On the other hand, that Cavs team had much better defensive role players.

[Dannys Chipotle Guy]

Having home court advantage helps.  I think it gives the Celts a decent chance of pushing this to 6 games.

Realistically, LeBron will win at least one of the first two games and then the Celts will have a really hard time winning one in Cleveland.

After that, the Celts will need to win a home game 5 in order to force a 6th game on the road.


Overall, this Celts team doesn't seem as good as that 60 win Hawks team from a couple years ago.  That team had home court advantage and still got swept.  They were facing a Cavs opponent that was missing Kevin Love.  On the other hand, that Cavs team had much better defensive role players.

That Hawks team was a shell of itself by the time it reached the Cavs.

Korver only played 2 games, Carroll battled injury the whole time and Im pretty sure Horford was battling something as well.

Edit: just looked it up, Sefolosha was out, Horford had dislocated his pinkie earlier in the playoffs and wasnt playing well at all, Millsap had injured his shoulder in april and had really struggled offensively.

The team was hobbled. Cleveland was obviously without Love, but while the 60 win Hawks might be better than these Celtics, the version of the Hawks that limped into the ECF 3 years ago, was not as good as our Boston Celtics(obviously thats just my opinion).

[Future Celtics Owner]

I am interested to see how we do in this series.  I think it is possible we could upset them, but not very likely the way they have been playing.  The one thing that does interest me some is that when we played them in the 1st round in 2015 we played them pretty tough in every game.  Other than the first game (13 point loss) we lost the rest by single digits. 

They had relatively the same core with the exception of Mozgov who started and they now have some different role players.  But we had an even younger more inexperienced team and remember we weren't even starting Isaiah at the time.  In that series we started Smart, Bradley, Evan Turner, Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller!  The main players off the bench were Isaiah, Crowder, Sullinger Olynyk and Jerebko.  We now have Horford and Johnson who are superior to Bass and Zeller.  All this to say, I think we are a much better team this time around...so I am really curious to see how far we can push them this time around.

Idk about Amir vs Bass. Bass did help us starting at the 4 to a game 7 against the Heat in the ECF and had to defend Lebron some.

[Dannys Chipotle Guy]

I am interested to see how we do in this series.  I think it is possible we could upset them, but not very likely the way they have been playing.  The one thing that does interest me some is that when we played them in the 1st round in 2015 we played them pretty tough in every game.  Other than the first game (13 point loss) we lost the rest by single digits. 

They had relatively the same core with the exception of Mozgov who started and they now have some different role players.  But we had an even younger more inexperienced team and remember we weren't even starting Isaiah at the time.  In that series we started Smart, Bradley, Evan Turner, Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller!  The main players off the bench were Isaiah, Crowder, Sullinger Olynyk and Jerebko.  We now have Horford and Johnson who are superior to Bass and Zeller.  All this to say, I think we are a much better team this time around...so I am really curious to see how far we can push them this time around.

Idk about Amir vs Bass. Bass did help us starting at the 4 to a game 7 against the Heat in the ECF and had to defend Lebron some.

Yeah, honestly I think it would be great if this time could swap Amir out for ~2012 Brandon Bass.

[Celtics4ever]

Vegas clearly thinks the Cavs are winning.

http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/19395588/cleveland-cavaliers-open-heavy-favorites-boston-celtics-las-vegas

I'll be rooting for us to win every game, but we were 3-1 this year against them.   So I expect it to be hard because LeBron holds a special place in heart for us and denying him all those early titles.

[apc]

Refs and league want Warriors-Cavs rematch.

But I hope the Celtics make sure they work the Cavs. We're no Pacers or definitely the Raptors.

Why do the Refs want that?

[jpotter33]

Having home court advantage helps.  I think it gives the Celts a decent chance of pushing this to 6 games.

Realistically, LeBron will win at least one of the first two games and then the Celts will have a really hard time winning one in Cleveland.

After that, the Celts will need to win a home game 5 in order to force a 6th game on the road.


Overall, this Celts team doesn't seem as good as that 60 win Hawks team from a couple years ago.  That team had home court advantage and still got swept.  They were facing a Cavs opponent that was missing Kevin Love.  On the other hand, that Cavs team had much better defensive role players.

That Hawks team was an overachieving regular season team that greatly benefited from a really hot-shooting month and we're hobbled up in that series.

They also were a really poor matchup against Cleveland where we actually matchup pretty well with them outside of Lebron (not that any team really does). Our perimeter defense is lightyears better than that Hawks perimeter defense, which will be a major difference in the series. I also don't think that Atlanta had anyone of IT's offensive caliber, so I see us as a much better matchup against Cleveland than that Atlanta team.

[celticsclay]

Boston can't defend James.  I like Crowder and all, but he will be completely useless against James and he is the best option.  If James doesn't average a 30 point triple double, I will consider it a win.  And yeah Boston can try to hide IT on Smith, but Smith is saavy enough to know how to work that advantage, as our the Cavs.  I would expect all kinds of pick and rolls to force Thomas to switch off Smith and onto James or Irving. 

I think Boston wins game 2 and that is it.  Lebron James is just too good for this team and that really is the bottomline (Bradley is better than Smith but outside of that every other position including the bench favors Cleveland).

Wow man you got to get off that Cleveland tap water. It is making you think everything is better there. If you think Horford is worse than Tristan Thompson (both teams starting centerx) I don't know how anyone can begin to take you seriously.

 

[droopdog7]

Hell, even the OP is hedging.  You say people are being too pessimistic about beating the Cavs, then the best you can muster is "all of this isn't saying that I think the Celtics will necessarily win the series". 

There is almost no chance we beat the Cavs.  That's not pessimistic, that's realistic.  Are people being too pessimistic that we can win a game or maybe even two?  That's seems to be the argument you are making, not that we actually have a real chance of beating them.

Perhaps you should read the post again.

I never said people are pessimistic for thinking Cleveland is the favorite to win. That's a completely rational and correct viewpoint.

I said at the beginning of the post that I was referring specifically to those saying we're going to be swept or not give them a challenge. That's a completely different argument than what you're implying that I said, and it's s completely rational and valid argument.

Yes, but the title talks about our chances against the Cavs, which I take to mean our chances of beating them.

[celticsclay]

Having home court advantage helps.  I think it gives the Celts a decent chance of pushing this to 6 games.

Realistically, LeBron will win at least one of the first two games and then the Celts will have a really hard time winning one in Cleveland.

After that, the Celts will need to win a home game 5 in order to force a 6th game on the road.


Overall, this Celts team doesn't seem as good as that 60 win Hawks team from a couple years ago.  That team had home court advantage and still got swept.  They were facing a Cavs opponent that was missing Kevin Love.  On the other hand, that Cavs team had much better defensive role players.

That Hawks team was a shell of itself by the time it reached the Cavs.

Korver only played 2 games, Carroll battled injury the whole time and Im pretty sure Horford was battling something as well.

Edit: just looked it up, Sefolosha was out, Horford had dislocated his pinkie earlier in the playoffs and wasnt playing well at all, Millsap had injured his shoulder in april and had really struggled offensively.

The team was hobbled. Cleveland was obviously without Love, but while the 60 win Hawks might be better than these Celtics, the version of the Hawks that limped into the ECF 3 years ago, was not as good as our Boston Celtics(obviously thats just my opinion).

Yea that team was completely decimated by injuries and suspensions.

[kozlodoev]

That Hawks team was an overachieving regular season team that greatly benefited from a really hot-shooting month and we're hobbled up in that series.

And we are different how?

[jpotter33]

That Hawks team was an overachieving regular season team that greatly benefited from a really hot-shooting month and we're hobbled up in that series.

And we are different how?

We matchup much, much better with Cleveland. Pretty simple. That iteration of the Hawks at one time had a 13 game or so losing streak against that Cavs team, so it's pretty clear how bad of a matchup they really were for them.

We're also pretty much as healthy as we've been all year.

And we had one sustained hot streak, but we were pretty consistent throughout the year in beating the teams we should and bring competitive in the tough games. That's quite different from the Hawks who literally had a perfect month of like 17-0 (iirc).