The Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers have one of the all-time great NBA playoff rivalries. Where does B/R rank the matchup among the greatest rivalries of the last 20 years?
Since LeBron James has entered the league, one team has been battling with him in every step of the NBA Playoffs. That, of course, would be the Boston Celtics.
James and the Cs go back all the way to his days as a Cavalier in his first tenure, when Boston regularly dominated the uncrowned “king” and eventually forced him to join up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami to overcome the “Big 3” era Celtics.
After two playoff exits in three years at the hands of the Cs, James’ Heat got their revenge in 2011 in a rather uncompetitive five game series. That gave way to one of the all-time conference finals series rematches in 2012, the penultimate step in James’ first championship journey.
That said, it is the Boston Celtics-Cleveland Cavaliers rivalry that was named the fourth best rivalry of all time by Bleacher Report’s David Kenyon:
"In two stints with Cleveland, LeBron made the playoffs nine times. He squared off against the Celtics in five of them. Early on, Boston enjoyed the upper hand. The Celtics survived a seven-game series with Cleveland during the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals and a six-game set in the same round two years later. Boston reached the NBA Finals both years, winning in 2008.But after LeBron returned to Cleveland from Miami, the Cavs controlled three postseason matchups. Cleveland earned a sweep in 2015, a five-game triumph in 2017 and seven-game victory in 2018. However, although the Cavs reached the Finals each of those years, they only won the championship once, when they defeated the Warriors in 2016."
Sure, James won the last three times the two teams played in the postseason. That said, this rivalry stands as one of the all-timers because of series’ like their 2018 seven-game Eastern Conference Finals classic.
If James’ Heat were included–with James and the Boston Celtics being the primary matchup ranked–the Cs-LeBron pairing could very well be even higher on the list ahead of the Spurs/Mavs rivalry. Even still, it is important to remember just how much of an impact Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and the Doc Rivers-led Celtics of the late 2000’s have had on the recent history of the league:
They forced the “king” to vacate his hometown crown in Cleveland to share one in Miami with Wade.