Kevin Love needs to be contained by Boston. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
The Cavaliers and Celtics open their Eastern Conference finals series Sunday in Boston. We’ll have live analysis throughout. Get all the info you need below.
Schedule | Pregame reading | Comments section Q&A
There has been plenty of talk about how the Boston Celtics are going to try to stop LeBron James in the Eastern Conference finals. Celtics Coach Brad Stevens altered his starting lineup for Game 1 by replacing Aron Baynes with Marcus Morris.
But if Boston wants to beat Cleveland, and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in eight years (which was the last time James lost to anyone in the East, by the way), the focus should not be on stopping James. Instead, it should be on neutralizing Kevin Love.
Just take a look at how the first two rounds of the playoffs have shaken out for Cleveland. Against the Indiana Pacers in the first round, Love was all over the place. He never scored more than 19 points – and scored in single-digits three times – while shooting 33 percent from the field and taking 14 free throws over the course of the entire series (six of which came in Game 4). Not coincidentally, the Pacers forced that series to go seven games, and gave Cleveland all it could handle.
Compare that to how Love played against the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinals. He had a rough Game 1, scoring seven points and taking no free throws in Cleveland’s overtime win. But in Games 2, 3 and 4? Love scored 31, 21 and 23 points, took a combined 20 free throws (going 18-for-20) and shot 47.5 percent from the field. Again, not coincidentally, the Raptors were swept out of the playoffs by Cleveland for a second straight season.
The difference between the Indiana and Toronto series, in a nutshell, was that James was a solo act against the Pacers and part of an ensemble against the Raptors. When Cleveland’s “others” are cooking, and knocking down shots from the perimeter, the Cavaliers go from being a very good offense to an unstoppable one – only on par with the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets in terms of their ability to score in bunches.
Love is, by far, the most talented of Cleveland’s supporting cast, a deserving all-star and versatile offensive weapon who can score from the post to the three-point line. Boston needs to do whatever it can not to stop James, but to make Love play closer to how he did against Indiana than how he tore up Toronto.
If the Celtics can succeed, they have a chance to make this series competitive. If not? It will be time to start preparing to travel to Cleveland for the fourth straight time in June.
Schedule:
- Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
Additional reading:
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