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There were 8.4 seconds remaining in overtime on Saturday evening when Brad Stevens called a timeout. Although he was forced to call a second timeout due to the Sixers’ inbounds denial, it was Brad’s second play that gave the Boston Celtics the lead: Marcus Morris delivered a perfect pass to Al Horford, who muscled in a layup, a shot that rimmed in this time. On the following inbounds pass for the Sixers, “Average Al” out-hustled Joel Embiid to get the steal, which indeed stole the game in triumphant fashion for the C’s.
Just a few hours later, one LeBron James dribbled down the court, hung in the air, and deftly floated the basketball off the glass for the game-winning buzzer-beater over the shell-shocked Toronto Raptors.
With these two results, the Celtics and the Cavaliers gained 3-0 series leads, and each goes for the sweep on Monday night. Each group has won in different ways, but one thing they have in common is that they were both underdogs heading into their respective ECSF series. In fact, the Celtics have been the underdogs in each of their 3 games against the 76ers. Here’s how the two teams have dominated their respective opponents thus far…
Celtics
Coaching Advantage
Stephen A. Smith ranted about this topic, but he’s actually spot-on with this take. Even though the Sixers had several additional days to prepare for the Celtics, Boston set the tone for the series by thoroughly whopping them in Game 1; Philadelphia simply looked lost. In Game 2, the C’s continued to pour it on in the final minutes of the 2nd quarter as Bret Brown opted to not call a timeout despite his core of inexperienced players being dominated inside a thunderous TD Garden. In Game 3, not only did Stevens correctly call a timeout to stop the bleeding in the 2nd quarter, but Bret Brown also made a slew of coaching errors down the stretch: He didn’t call a timeout in the final seconds of regulation with J.J. Redick handling the ball, leading to a Terry Rozier steal and Jaylen Brown go-ahead basket. Then, he must not have stressed heavily enough that Marco Belinelli should catch the ball behind the three-point line, as the sharpshooter's feet were on the line when he hit the buzzer-beating shot. Finally, he had Ben Simmons, a player who has struggled with turnovers the entire season and the series, pass the ball in after the Horford layup, and the pass was in fact stolen. Meanwhile, Brad Stevens is a “genius” in the mind of Al Horford, a statement that every Celtics fan rightfully accepts as a fact.
Neutralizing Simmons and Embiid
The dynamic duo combined to average 38.7 PPG, 19.1 RPG, and 11.4 APG; Simmons shot 49.5% from the field and Embiid shot 42.9%. In this series though, it has been quite apparent that the Celtics stifled the two youngsters’ success thanks in large part to tremendous coaching from Brad Stevens and execution from primary defenders on the tandem such as Marcus Smart, Al Horford, and Aron Baynes. On Embiid, Boston has continued to confuse him with the rugged, stronger Baynes and the smarter, lengthier Horford, whereas on Simmons, Smart and Horford have done a great job cutting off his downhill angles, contributing to his horrific -55 plus/minus so far in the series.
Cleveland
LeBron James
This one’s obvious. As Jakob Levin and I have recently written about, LeBron James is really good at basketball. Consider this: LeBron already has four 40-point playoff games this postseason run, already tying his personal record for that mark in a single postseason. He willed the Cavs to a series win against the Pacers (scoring roughly 36% of their points) and turned around to stomp all over the city of Toronto in Games 1 and 2. He’s made 2 game-winning buzzer-beaters in these playoffs and has averaged 34.8 PPG on 41.7 MPG. He is wizard, a conductor, a magician, a performer, and most of all, an all-time great. The systematic way that he controls the pace of the game is a rare art form in today’s NBA.
Newly Discovered Rhythm and Chemistry
For a team that underwent multiple roster overhauls in the last 10 months, the Cavs have never been playing better with each other than right now. From out of the murky waters, Tristan Thompson has emerged and played some surprisingly solid minutes, George Hill has made some nice offensive decisions, and Love, Smith, and Korver have drilled timely three-point shots via crisp ball movement. Their shrinking rotation has been a net positive thus far in the playoffs, as it has expedited the molding process of Cleveland’s key contributors.
An Eastern Conference Finals rematch seems imminent despite last year’s representatives being underdogs to the Sixers and Raptors entering their respective series. If the C’s and the Cavs do square off again, it’ll be fascinating to see how the young star (yes, star) Jayson Tatum fares against LeBron James in that individual matchup, for it may signal the passing of the torch.
(Stats via ESPN)
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