They’re the underdogs…again. They don’t care and neither should you.
This Boston Celtics team is one of the most resilient teams we have ever seen in Boston. That’s high praise for an organization that has won 17 titles and a city that has won ten titles in the last sixteen years overall. The Celtics are in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year and no one outside of Boston thinks that they should be there. There’s no star power. All that’s there is a bunch of guys who play to their max potential and player together as a team. That’s just not good enough in the NBA, right? Well, there’s going to be a changing of the guard in the next two weeks. The Cleveland Cavaliers are about to learn what the rest of the country is starting to figure out. This Celtics Team is on their way to their 18th NBA title.
The Boston Celtics will defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games. Here are our five reasons why the Celtics will beat the Cavs.
1. Kyrie Irving is not walking through that door. A lot has been made about the fact that the Celtics don’t have Kyrie Irving in this series. Do you know who else doesn’t have Kyrie Irving? The Cleveland Cavaliers. While Lebron James has always been the Cavs best player, they always had Kyrie to take over anytime Lebron had an off night. They no longer have that. Going from Kyrie Irving as your #2 player to Kevin Love is a huge difference. Kevin Love cannot take over a game. The entire Cavs season is on Lebron. He can’t have an off night.
2. The Celtics are the hungrier team. The Celtics are said to have nothing to lose. Yet, they play like they have everything to lose. This teams wants it badly. The Cavs? What’s the incentive? To get to the Finals and lost to the Warriors in five again? Is that really worth fighting for? Will is not the only factor. Talent outweighs will. But, the reality is the overall talent between these two teams is not that far off. This bring us to…
3. The MATCHUPS.
George Hill vs. Terry Rozier. EDGE: CELTICS
Kyle Korver vs. Jaylen Brown. EDGE: CELTICS
J.R. Smith vs. Jayson Tatum. EDGE: CELTICS
LeBron James vs. Marcus Morris. EDGE: CAVS
Kevin Love vs. Al Horford. EDGE: EVEN
Bench: EDGE: CAVS
Coaching: EDGE: CELTICS
4. Brad Stevens. Yeah…we get it. NBA games are won on talent, right? The best player in a series wins every time. Giannis? No. Embiid? Nope. LeBron??? Brad Stevens knows that it’s not about shutting down the best player. It’s about the overall team. Stevens focused on shutting down J.J. Reddick last series. He’ll do the same with Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith this series. Stevens won’t let the secondary players beat the Celtics. One player can’t beat a team.
5. It’s time. “Their time is over”. – Herb Brooks, 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Head Coach. Brooks was right. It was time. Every great team has an end to their run and that’s the case here. This is not a great Cavs team! In fact, they were less than 20 minutes away from losing in the first round to the Indiana Pacers. The Cavs are done. The Celtics are the new face of the Eastern Conference…and this is just the beginning of a run that will last many years.
It all starts in Sunday at 3:30 PM.
The beginning for the Celtics…
And the END for the Cavs.
Love this. I picked the Celtics, too. I think next year is definitely their year with Irving and Hayward healthy.