DEFYING THE ODDS

CELTICS, CAVS REACH FINALS AMID TRADES, INJURIES

CLEVELAND – Boston playoff star Jayson Tatum and Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue are cousins. The Cavaliers and Celtics might as well be.

The Eastern Conference’s top two teams have been intertwined for more than a year – from a summer blockbuster trade, from opening night, from afar.

Although there were long stretches this season when it seemed at least unlikely, and maybe impossible, that the Celtics and Cavs would reach the conference finals, they’re back again and meeting in the playoffs for the third time in four years.

The series everyone wanted. The one few expected to see.

And yet here they are: the odds-defying Celtics, guided by baby-faced coach Brad Stevens and prospering without injured stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, versus the Cavs, who despite a massive roster makeover in February are rolling as 33-year-old LeBron James enhances his legend with every game.

“There’s been a lot that’s happened throughout the season with us and for them,” Cavs forward Kevin Love said Thursday as Cleveland prepared for Sunday’s series opener in Boston. “Both teams have raised their level of play and been through it, but are here now and have to lay it all on the line.”

It’s hard to process how much has changed for these teams since they played last May. Major moves, injuries, upheaval. After the Cavs beat the Celtics in five games in last year’s conference finals to advance to their third straight NBA Finals, there were no hints the two franchises would ramp up their rivalry with a trade that caught their entire league, well, off-guard.

The Cavs succumbed to Irving’s trade demand – he was tired of playing in James’ shadow – and sent the All-Star to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, a first-round draft pick, forward Jae Crowder and center Ante Zizic. The 5-foot-9 Thomas had bravely carried the Celtics in the 2017 postseason despite a balky hip and broken heart following his sister’s death in a car crash.

With so many subplots, the league scheduled Boston at Cleveland in the season opener.

However, Irving’s awkward reunion with James was quickly overshadowed by Hayward, Boston’s big free-agent signing, grotesquely breaking his ankle just feet from the horrified Cavs bench. As Hayward left on a stretcher, the Celtics’ season seemed to be riding to the hospital with him.