Will The Real Cavs and Celtics Please Stand Up?

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Will the Real Cavs and Celtics Please Stand Up?
Published 5/6/2008 by David Friedman at 20 Second Timeout
The Boston Celtics won an NBA-best 66 regular season games and then almost lost in the first round to a 37 win Atlanta team. The Cleveland Cavaliers made it to the 2007 NBA Finals and then traded away half of their roster, with mixed results thus far. Do we really know who either of these teams are? In about two weeks, one of these teams will be playing in the Eastern Conference Finals and the other one will be trying to figure out what went wrong: Will The Real Cavs and Celtics Please Stand Up?

James' Jam Punctuates Cleveland's 88-77 Win Over Boston
Published 5/13/2008 by David Friedman (noreply@blogger.com) at 20 Second Timeout
... This is a dangerous time for Boston. The series has now been reduced to a three game set. That means that if James can break out offensively and come up with a 40 point game then his Cavs can steal game five on the road and play the series clincher at home, just like they did last year versus Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals. Before the series I suggested that Cleveland's best chance to win in Boston would be game one but even though the Cavs squandered a golden opportunity in game one they have the Celtics so discombobulated that it would not surprise me if the Cavs win ...

Celtics Withstand Big First Half by LeBron James, Take 3-2 Series Lead
Published 5/15/2008 by David Friedman (noreply@blogger.com) at 20 Second Timeout
... Other than James' record setting--and not in a good way--field goal percentage, this series has followed the script that I predicted it would when I said that Cleveland's best shot to win in Boston would come in game one and that if the Cavs lost that game then the Celtics would eliminate them in seven. Nevertheless, it still would be interesting to see the Celtics pushed to the brink for the second series in a row and there is always the chance that James could do something remarkable in that circumstance. It certainly would be anticlimactic for the Celtics to close out the ...

Cavs "Grind it out" to Force Game Seven Versus Celtics
Published 5/17/2008 by David Friedman (noreply@blogger.com) at 20 Second Timeout
... Before this series began, I picked the Celtics to win in seven games, with my only caveat being that the Cavs could triumph in six games if they captured game one. Analyzing this series and considering game seven history--in which home teams have a phenomenal winning percentage--the only logical choice is to say that Boston will win on Sunday and that is what I believe will happen. However, I've never trusted Garnett as a big game performer and James is decisively better as both a player and a closer to Pierce, who is Boston's best closer; those factors mean that if Cleveland ...