In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics surprised the Cleveland Cavaliers with 108:83. It was noticed that the hosts were not only the hungrier but also the much better prepared team. What lessons can the teams learn from this?
It was just a game, the Celtics just defended their home advantage. Indiana had also won their first game in round one, but in the end they did not win the series. The Cavaliers are not a team that can be disturbed by a 0-1 deficit. LeBron James certainly won’t.
And yet – it was remarkable how easy it was for the Celtics in Game 1 to dominate the action. Boston were defensively and offensively the clearly better team, they were obviously better prepared and took the game more seriously than Cleveland. In short, the Celtics were better in all respects and LeBron, the ultimate spectre of the Eastern Conference, looked like a normal mortal against their defense.
The central questions that now arise after this “Mother’s Day Massacre” are these: Why did the Celtics dominate the game so thoroughly – and what factors can be replicated in the upcoming games?
Brad Stevens had obviously presented his team with another fairly detailed game plan. Defensively, he saw that many Pick’n’Rolls were switched – thanks to the inclusion of Marcus Morris for Aron Baynes in the Starting Five, Boston also had the personnel for it. Especially the two-man game between Kyle Korver and Kevin Love, so effective in the Conference Semifinals against Toronto, was taken away from the Cavs as a strength.
Korver and Love had repeatedly placed each other blocks away from the ball in order to get either open threesomes or mismatches for Love in the post against smaller opponents. Boston, however, hardly allowed this – the “smaller” Celtics like Jaylen Brown or Marcus Smart are physically quite capable of holding up in the post, a component that Toronto almost completely lacked on the wing.
And if a real mismatch arose because Terry Rozier had to defend against Love, the help was there immediately, the Celtics defended brilliantly in a team and almost always rotated at lightning speed and right. Of course, this requires maximum concentration – but the Celtics have the defensive potential to keep this up throughout the series.
From their point of view, of course, it would also be desirable for James to “maintain” his performance from Game 1. LeBron made his worst game of these playoffs on Sunday evening, only 15 points at 31.3 percent from the field has not been seen by the King for a long time. Just as little as the devastating plus/minus value of -32, which James put on in 36 minutes of operating time.
The Celtics defended LeBron in an unusual way – usually most teams sink a bit against him to make James a shooter because they fear his drives, but he also uses this to see the court better and set up his passing game. Boston, on the other hand, defended aggressively and close to the man in order to make him more of a ball handler – this also explained his 7 turnovers.
“They had a great game plan,” James rightly acknowledged after the game at the press conference, and also praised the Celtics’ good defensive communication. LeBron-Stopper” Morris also emphasised this: “It wasn’t just me, it was the whole team. We all defended him. “LeBron is of course the best player.”
Indeed, it was obvious how versatile the Celtics are also defensive. Morris as well as Brown, Smart, Jayson Tatum, Semi Ojeleye and Horford are long-armed, fast, athletic and defensive – they were all not helpless against James, on the contrary.
In this game their concept worked out: James only took three throws after Drives in the whole game, otherwise you could see many ball losses or rather uninspired pullup jumpers on the man. After he had sunk it safely in a dreamlike manner against Toronto, only one of eight attempts fell into the basket that evening.
However, two things have to be emphasized: LeBron will undoubtedly come up with something for Game 2 and be less passive. “Game one has always been the game for me to get a feel for a series,” he said himself. And he should also be able to rely on his shooters to give him a little more space in game 2.
The shooting of the Cavs (4/26 3FG) was rarely as bad as in game 1 – it took 14 tickets until the first longball landed in the Celtics basket. For these reasons they are very good in the three-man defence, in the regular season they were the best team in this respect and in principle they hardly allow corner threesomes.
And yet: The Cavs shooting will hardly be that bad again. Korver, Love, J.R. Smith and LeBron themselves are simply too good marksmen for that. There are these games where nothing wants to fall, but from Celtics’ point of view you shouldn’t rely on Cleveland to have three more of these games in this series.
But maybe it doesn’t have to be, if the Cavs don’t find an antidote to the Celtics’ offense. This also followed a clear and logical concept in game 1: The Celtics consistently attacked the defensive weak points like Love and Korver after switches – and they found their way into the zone again and again.
One message that the Raptors did not seem to have reached in the previous series may have been painted red on the Celtics scouting sheet: The Cavs don’t have a ring protector! Love is a great attacking player and defensively better than his reputation, but he doesn’t have the requirements for a rim protector.
Tristan Thompson can’t be either, even though he was able to stand up to the Celtics at least in the rebound. If LeBron doesn’t decide to put more energy into the defense (should he?) or Lue reactivates Larry Nance, the Celtics should have a lot of fun in the zone. Maybe there aren’t 60 Points in the Paint in every game – but if it goes in that direction at least, Cleveland has a problem.
In general, Lue has to come up with a defensive strategy. Just like Boston, the Cavs switched a lot – but in their case more because players had lost their man. LeBron had praised the good communication of Celtics – not least because his own team defended as if they had met for the first time on Sunday morning. And that was also true in the front.
“I’m not worried at all. I wasn’t in college and this isn’t March Madness,” said LeBron after the game, alluding to the fact that it was just one game in a series. The Cavs aren’t as bad as they were in Game 1, the Celtics are probably not as good at the same time, just offensive. Their offensive rating in this game was +115.6, which would be by far the highest value of these playoffs. However, they have not become the best offensive team in NBA history from yesterday to today.
Instead, they were simply better prepared in this game – Stevens had given his team how to play, and the players did a great job of it. Boston dictated the individual matchups and pace, youngsters Brown and Tatum played like ripped-off veterans and at heart Horford kept the whole thing together. Despite their youth, the Celtics don’t look like a team that is scared to death by the situation and the spectre on the other side.
It will be exciting to see which counterattacks Lue and especially James will consider for game 2. It will be difficult for the Cavaliers to appear so badly again. But they will not rest on the other side either.
“Tuesday’s challenge will now be even greater,” Stevens said. “We’ll have to play better there.” Spoken like someone who has a lot of things planned for this postseason.