5 Reasons why the Cleveland Cavaliers will stomp the Boston Celtics in the East Conf. Finals
The Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers face off in the Eastern Conference Finals in a repeat of last year's showdown at the same stage. Both teams sport a very different look, as fresh faces have come into both teams. Surprisingly enough, none of the players involved in the offseason trade last August are slated to play in this series - Crowder is now in Utah, Isaiah Thomas spent the last part of the season with the Lakers while Kyrie Irving is out injured.
The Cavaliers are making a concerted bid to reach their fourth Finals series in 4 years, and one would be hard-pressed to find a single basketball fan who would put money on the Celtics to advance past them.
Not only did they sweep the top-seeded Toronto Raptors, they plainly demoralized them and sucked the wind out of their sails in the series. Looking at their play over the past month, it is plainly obvious to anyone that they are favorites to succeed in their Finals bid even this time around.
The following are the top 5 reasons why that is so:
#5 The Celtics lack unguardable players
The Cavaliers' lone Achilles heel as far as advancing from the Eastern Conference playoffs is the fact that they no longer have a specialist defensive stopper. Fortunately for them, however, the Celtics do not have any player who will make them regret the decision to trade Iman Shumpert instead of nursing him back to full health and fitness.
With their current roster, and given the fact that Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward will only be watching on from the sidelines instead of playing a part on court, the Celtics do not have a consistently efficient volume scorer. They have gotten by so far based mainly on a combination of tough-as-nails defense and by moving the ball around on offense, but the Cavaliers are much superior to them at putting the ball through the hoop.
The Cavs got into top offensive gear against the Raptors, scoring 105 twice and 128 twice in 4 quarters. When their offense gets going, few teams in the league can stop them from romping to victory.