these Cavs are good.
No, they aren't. They're a poorly coached team with very few plus defenders. They have LeBron and they have Kevin Love. Apart from that, mostly trash.
However, the Celts are a young, inexperienced team with inconsistent shooters that tend to perform poorly on the road. Even at home, the Celts aren't a great offensive team by any means. So that spells a seven game series where the Celts defend home court and it comes down to whether LeBron can dominate enough in a do-or-die game on the road.
Was the team that swept the Raptors not good or is Toronto just a bad team (that won 59 games with a +7.8 Diff)? Just bad timing? Bad match ups? Raptors choked? Cavs defend fine enough when they want to as they showed last night and in the Toronto series.
TOR has a history of choking in the playoffs. In the last 5 seasons, they've always been a top 4 seed:
- Lost twice in the 1st round (Nets and Wizards), twice in the 2nd round, and once in the ECF.
- Swept 3 times including once in the 1st round. Have never swept a series or won in 5 games.
- Has lost to 3 lower seeds. Has never beat a higher seed.
Derozen had his worst three plus/minus games of the season in the last 3 games in the 2018 playoffs against CLE: -22, -23, and -29. Lowry on average has played well below his season's performances in TOR's playoffs over the years.