Despite the Boston Celtics’ recent skid, they still are the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference. And that presumably gives them one of the best chances to dethrone the Cleveland Cavaliers come playoff time, although “best chance” probably still is pretty slim.
But let’s just go out on a wild limb and say the Celtics remain the No. 2 team in the East and face the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. Do they really stand a chance against LeBron James and the defending NBA champions?
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently posed that question to multiple NBA scouts ahead of Wednesday’s game between the Cavs and C’s at TD Garden, and the answers he received were mixed.
“When you watch the Cavs play now you see how much confidence they play with. It’s a huge difference from two years ago,” a Western Conference scout told Windhorst. “It’s going to be really hard to crack that. When they get in close games, they play like they expect to win. That would be a big hurdle for the Celtics to have to clear. They’d have to shake them, and I’m not sure they can.”
But an Eastern Conference scout said: “They don’t care about any of that. These guys play fearless, and they fight every game, no matter the circumstances. I’m a believer in them. Would I be shocked if they pulled an upset on Cleveland in the playoffs? No.”
So you’re saying there’s a chance?
The recent history between the two teams understandably has been all Cleveland, as the Cavaliers have won eight of their last nine games against the C’s, including their four-game sweep in the 2015 playoffs.
But there is some good news for Boston, at least according to one of the scouts Windhorst chatted with.
“Boston rarely beats themselves,” the scout said. “If you’re going to figure a way for them to beat Cleveland, that is a place to start. They have the occasional sloppy performance, but typically, they make you beat them. And they’re very well coached, they get baskets out of timeouts late in games and they squeeze points out with coaching moves. If you’re looking for a team that has the package to pull an upset, they’re it. But they’d need help from Cleveland probably.”
Them and (most) of the rest of the NBA.
Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images
