Rule by royal decree
King James, Cavs take Garden court
Well that didn’t take long. Any lingering doubts that “anything can happen” in the Eastern Conference finals came to a crashing end by halftime of Game 1 last night when the Cleveland LeBrons took a 22-point lead over the Boston Isaiahs and never looked back.
Truth be told, it would have been 25, but Thomas managed to finally hit a 3-pointer from out around the Half Shell at the buzzer to make it, well, not close but closer. Slightly.
Actually the Cavaliers did look back to be fair. They kept looking back at the poor Celtics, who seemed both star-struck and stunned at the way Cleveland came into their gym and made a simple, declarative statement.
Simply put, it went like this: “You have been a nice story this season, Isaiah, but your team is the first seed in the East only because we didn’t care to be nor needed to be. You are finished.”
In theory the Celtics had home court advantage last night at the Garden, but they could have played that game in Danny Ainge’s back yard and it would have made no difference. The LeBrons were well rested after a 10-day wait for the Celtics and the Washington Wizards to get done with their foolishness, but they were not ill focused. They were ill tempered.
When that is the case with the Cavaliers, it is not long before the crowd becomes what they were last night at the Garden. They become ill at ease, then they become a disappearing act, using the excuse “Hey, love to stay but I’ve got work tomorrow.”
So do the Celtics after the beating they took, but the truth is no amount of work in the next 24 hours is going to do much to alter the advantages the Cavaliers have over them. They are, as we feared, better. Not better as in they have an edge. Better as in the Marines against the Boy Scouts.
When both sides regroup for Game 2 tomorrow night after last night’s 117-104 beating, pride being one thing this group of Celts have in abundance, it is unlikely it will be the same kind of wipe out. But any thoughts anyone was laboring that there will be some titanic Game 7 in this series melted the way most New Englanders did earlier in the day when the thermometer approached 90. Too hot for us, folks.
A friend in Dallas texted before the game “Cavs in 5.” At the end of the first quarter he texted “Cavs in 3.” By halftime he tweeted “Cavs in 2.” At that point LeBron James had not only the Celtics’ number but his own. He had 23 points and a plus-minus of plus-21.
Worse for the Green, Kevin Love had a plus-25. The Celtics, to a man, had a minus plus minus, as you might expect when you’re shooting 34 percent from the field and your opponent is shooting 55.3 percent and hell-bent on improving on that as the game progressed.
Despite what happened in Game 1, the Cavs will not win this series in two or three games, as my friend in Dallas suggested, unless he’s talking psychologically. In fact, they still might finally lose their first game of this year’s playoffs, although one now highly doubts it.
What was essential last night for the Celtics to be competitive against a superior opponent in this series was that they do what they have done much of the year. They had to hit 3s. Instead their 3s hit the rim, with a clanking sound.
By halftime they were a collective 2-for-16 from beyond the arc, a shooting percentage of 12.5 percent and an obituary being written. Considering the C’s were second among playoff teams in 3-point shots made going into this series, it was obvious they had to continue on that track. They did not. To be fair, Cleveland was first in that playoff category and went 2-for-9 in the first half, so it wasn’t like they were lighting it up themselves.
But they didn’t have to because they were blinding in every other aspect of the game.
In the early moments of the third quarter, the Cavs continued to dominate, going up by 30 in only two minutes. At that point Celtics fans had two choices. They could leave or they could begin chanting “No. 1 pick! No. 1 pick!”
The night before, of course, the Celtics had finally won the draft lottery, landing that first pick courtesy of the largess of the Brooklyn Nets. One last time Paul Pierce had paid off big-time for the Celtics, Brooklyn’s interest in him costing them what became that pick.
But the truth is, not even The Truth would have made much of a difference last night. The King had reigned and his court had rained down on the Celtics like a hurricane.
Will it be different tomorrow night? It is difficult to imagine it won’t be, but not as difficult as it is to imagine the Celtics can come back from last night’s pummeling with the belief that they can do anything about LeBron James’ march toward his seventh straight visit to the NBA Finals in a week or so — but watch it.