Boston Celtics prevented James from being best player on court
The Boston Celtics found a way to make sure LeBron James was not the best player on the court in game one
Going back to the first round, people have doubted the Boston Celtics‘ ability to win a playoff series without having the best player on the court. They managed to get through Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the help he got from Khris Middleton made the talent gap feel real.
Against the Philadelphia 76ers, people thought it would be worse, but the Celtics reinforced the idea that even if you do not have the most established or talented player, you can still have the best player on the court.
The Celtics saw multiple players step up and make sure there was no talent gap with Joel Embiid, and the Celtics made quick work of the 76ers.
Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, everything is much more intensified. LeBron James makes sure his team always has the best player on the court, and he knows how to overwhelm even the strongest rosters by himself.
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James has a way of dragging opponents down, because of how overwhelming he can be in so many different ways. We saw how demoralizing and destructive he can be against a Raptors team that was clearly better top to bottom, but had no response for the best player.
The Celtics, on the other hand, have plenty of options they can try to throw at James, and none of them are scared of him. In game one the Celtics took their depleted roster, and made sure James was not close to the best player on the court.
The Celtics made it clear that toppling James is not going to be about any individuals stepping their game up to match his best, because no one else has that kind of peak. The Celtics do not have a Paul Pierce to go head to head, so the goal has to be bringing down James far enough with defense so that your players can outperform him. And that is exactly what happened in game one.
Al Horford and Jaylen Brown were legitimately the two best players on the court, and some people would say Marcus Morris was even the better player in that game. The Celtics contained his scoring completely, and forced him into all kinds of turnovers.
James had no answer for their relentless and aggressive defense, and Morris backed up his talk that he can do a good job defending James. It was a collective effort but Morris was the primary defender on James, and he limited James to his worst performance in the playoffs.
The Celtics know that they are never going to have the best overall player in this series, but all that matters is what happens on the actual court, and the Celtics made it clear that they are capable of having players perform better than James.
The Cavaliers have almost nothing that can disrupt any of what the Celtics want to do. The top players on the Celtics should be able to maintain their highest level of play. They cannot match the best of James when they pay that well, but the defense was good enough in game one to bring James down, and allow their talent to have a stronger impact on the game.
Chances are the Celtics will never have another game this easy. James is going to find a way to bring down the top talent on the Celtics, and he is going to find a way to overcome their defense. The Celtics will never get this same kind of advantage again, but they now know that it is possible to find a way.
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The Celtics cannot stay complacent, because we know James will have a response. When James comes back with a much stronger and more dynamic performance in game two, the Celtics are going to need more ways to bring him down far enough to repeat their game one success.