Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers Preview

The Boston Celtics are facing off against the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time since their playoff series and those four games still appear to be on everyone’s mind. While Kelly Olynyk reached out to Kevin Love they never appeared to fully reconcile the situation. J.R Smith, on the other hand, has made it very clear that he has no interest in apologizing to Jae Crowder, despite a much more egregious and intentional hit on his opponent, but that will not bother the Celtics in the slightest.

The Celtics’ style of play makes it easy to get agitated by them and when there is already animosity existing, you can expect a tough battle. The Celtics will be looking for a bit of redemption after being swept and the Cavaliers will want to reassert their dominance. This, however, is a much different Celtics team.

They have emerged as a top team in the east and after hanging around and pushing the Warriors to the limit, there is no doubt in their minds that the Celtics can compete with everyone. The Cavaliers will remain without Kyrie Irving and it is hard to imagine any Cavalier guard having success against the Celtics’ back court.

The problem is that the Cavaliers really do not depend on offensive success from their back court. The defensive focus will have to be on their two active superstars in LeBron James and Kevin Love.

James is the toughest matchup of the game but the Celtics have two of their strongest defenders to matchup with him. Crowder will get the majority of the responsibility but Evan Turner will certainly get some time covering James. The Celtics will need to find a way to disrupt James because he is the biggest challenge that Crowder or Turner have had to defend this year.

Feb 23, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jae Crowder (99) high fives guard Evan Turner (11) against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. The Celtics defeats the Suns 115-110. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The other issue is Love but that will be much more of a collective effort. Love is arguably the best stretch four in the league and while he will certainly be a problem, the Celtics have done a great job of closing out on three point shooters. The Celtics’ hustle and defensive movement limits the opposing team’s open shots and if the Celtics focus on closing out Love then they should be successful. Even Stephen Curry, who has maybe the quickest release of all time, was bothered by the Celtics’ ability to close out on him and get in his space.

Overall, the Celtics should be able to generate a fair amount of steals against the Cavaliers who average 14.3 turnovers per game. With 22.9 assist per game the Cavaliers depend on solid ball movement and the Celtics should be able to disrupt their offensive flow throughout the game. The Celtics will need to depend more on their ability to steal the ball because it may be a struggle to generate offensive rebounds.

The Cavaliers are the best team in the league in limiting their opponents offensive rebounds. The Celtics still do not finish well enough to have enough offensive success without additional opportunities and the Celtics will have to find other ways instead of offensive rebounds.

With the offensive talent that the Cavaliers have this game cannot be won on the defensive end alone for the Celtics. The Celtics have been a much improved three point shooting team and that is where they need to attack the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers rank 13th allowing their opponents to shoot 34.2% from three. The Cavaliers are far from terrible but defending the three is one of their weaker areas.

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The Celtics have been playing their best basketball of the season because of how balanced they have been. A much improve offense is starting to catch up to a top defense and the Celtics will need to be at their best on both ends if they want to beat the top team in the eastern conference and pull within just one game of the Cavaliers in the standings.

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