LeBron James had an all time first quarter against the Boston Celtics, but they found a way to use that against him in a game two victory
LeBron James responded to his weak game one performance with one of the best playoff quarters of his career. He took over the game in every way possible, and utterly dominated the Celtics on all three levels. It did not matter what the Celtics did on defense, James was just hitting shots threw everything, and it looked like he would once again do everything to win a playoff game.
James’ ability to take over in such difficult situations like that can often destroy a team. He can make you feel helpless, with all kinds of pressure to make a play every time you are around the ball, to account for the impossible load he is carrying.
The Celtics, on the other hand, knew they could not treat him like that. The Celtics actually played phenomenal defense in that first quarter, and they made sure to maintain that same kind of pressure.
James was hitting a lot of difficult shots, so the Celtics embraced that as much as possible, and waited for James to eventually come back to earth. Those hail Mary three pointers as he is twisting in mid air cannot change your defensive approach.
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The Celtics made it clear that they were not going to adjust because of his unbelievable start, so that led James down the path of trying to maintain it for the entire game. The moment James commits to taking difficult shots, you get one of the few available advantages.
The Celtics made sure things got more and more difficult on James throughout the game, but allowed him to take these difficult shots, without changing how they defended him. James still managed to do almost everything in this game, but it is too hard for one individual to completely break this defense.
James might have an even better game in him, where he continues to take and hit the difficult shots all game long, but if you panic and force adjustments because of it, you will be making things much easier on him. Because of the success he had early on, he did not make the necessary adjustments to respond to the great defense the Celtics were playing, and he never recaptured that first quarter success.
The Celtic are always able to throw a lot of different looks at a player, and will put all kinds of pressure to make sure they are uncomfortable. In the first quarter, it did not matter how uncomfortable James was. He was hitting the most difficult shots, but the Celtics knew how unsustainable that was.
You always need to adjust in order to get by the Celtics defense, otherwise they will always be ahead. Brad Stevens always has an option for whichever way James is trying to attack, and they are not going to get worked up over James hitting difficult shots with great defense.
The Celtics are going to continue to look for their defensive edges, and make the adjustments like finally closing out on Kyle Korver properly. Korver was a huge part of their great start, and the Cavaliers did not make any adjustments when the Celtics started guarding him more.
Next: Boston Celtics handle the best of the Cleveland Cavaliers
If early success in difficult situations means that James and the Cavaliers will take the hard route, and not make the adjustments to ease the situation, then they will be able to keep control of this series.