Boston Celtics Cannot Survive Inconsistent Shooting Against Cavaliers

There may only be one solution to being competitive against the Cleveland Cavaliers, shoot the ball well

Overall, the Boston Celtics evened out as a good overall shooting team this season. They were improved across the board, and proved that they can be trusted to hit their shots with a lot of dynmiac options on the court. In the playoffs, we are getting a microcosm of what their shooting actually was like. All season long they were a streaky shooting team. They could go on runs where they shoot teams out of the building, but too often descended into the kind of shooting they had to start game one against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Celtics did this same thing in the two previous series. They suffered far worse losses to far inferior teams. The Celtics started the game shooting 1-14 from three point range. That was something a good second half may have been enough to overcome against the Wizards or the Bulls if they started making mistakes.

Against the Cavaliers, even one quarter of shooting like the Celtics did in the first half is a death sentence. LeBron James is too overpowering in every way he attacks, and there is enough talent around him that someone will step up like Levin Love and Tristan Thompson did.

Against the Wizards, it was turnovers that absolutely killed games for them. When the Wizards were going in transition, no amount of shooting would have been enough from the Celtics. But, if they limited their turnovers, they could survive stretches of good shooting, as long as it did not last the whole game.

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Against the Cavaliers there will be similar results if the turnovers become a problem, but just avoiding that is no where near enough. The Cavaliers are always going to find ways to score, the Celtics cannot be ineffective on the offense end and hope that James will start making the mistakes that he hasn’t made at any point in the playoffs.

The Celtics got a good idea of what kind of monster this Cavaliers team is and any kind of standard they may have been holding before will be drastically different now.

In the last two series, the Celtics had games where they just did not show up, similar to what happened in game one. The Celtics gave games away because they felt their inconsistent shooting to throw them completely off their game.

The Celtics pushed the limits of their inconsistencies in the first two rounds, but there is no margin for error in this series. The Celtics have already through one game away with their poor play. Even if the Celtics play at their very best, the Cavaliers will be tremendously difficult to beat. The Celtics know they will have to steal games if they want to make this a series but that will never happen with the way they played in game one.

The Celtics have been a make or miss team all season long and that is going to be their only hope in this one. No amount of ball movement and no amount of back cuts are going to save the Celtics on their own. They have been the most prolific three point shooting team in the playoffs, and that is not going to change in this series. The Celtics will need to keep functioning at tat highest level, but it needs to be a lot more than just that.

If the Celtics do not start hitting at least their open shots, the Cavaliers will continue to walk all over them. If the Celtics can at least hit the easy ones consistently, then they may have the opportunity to keep the game close. At this point, the best the Celtics can hope for is a chance to win it at the end.

The Celtics are confident in their ability to generate open looks against the Cavaliers. The offense was running well for the majority of the game, but no one was able to hit their shots until the game was out of reach.

To stay with the Cavaliers it will need to be a collective effort. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Al Horford and Kelly Olynyk have all proven that they should be able to hit their open shots. Too often they are taking turns with who is shooting well. Against the Cavaliers it will have to be everyone.

The Celtics will not be finding a magic answer that will slow down James, and they were getting all the open looks they wanted for Kevin Love and Kyle Korver. The Cavaliers set the bar far too high for the Celtics to be off for any extended period of time

James is right to say the Cavaliers did have areas to improve in from game one. The Celtics need to hope that the Cavaliers are not able to get everything together. If that happens, there is not much they will be able to do. They had their share of players step up, but that team still has talent that was not seen in game one. The good news is that the Celtics have more talent that was not seen in that dreadful first half.

If the Cavaliers do not hit their stride at once, then the door can be opened to some competitive games if the Celtics come together the way they know is possible. The Celtics need to make sure they keep playing the right way and the reality of the situation is that the only way there is any hope is if all the shooters are hitting consistently.

The Celtics did not play anywhere near their capabilities in game one, and the Cavaliers will not be perfect all the time. The Celtics need to make sure they are always at the top of their game in order to be ready for those rare occasions when the Cavaliers can be caught off guard.

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The Celtics were able to get life from that one run to end the third quarter. They need those kinds of runs in each quarter of the game to have a chance. It is only a small glimmer of hope, but the Celtics’ chances hinge on doing something that has proven to be their biggest problem all season long, shoot consistently.