The Celtics have to come out with the mindset that yes, we can beat Lebron. Forget what's happened in the past, and focus on what is today, and that's a huge Game 7, at home, with a trip to the Finals on the line. With Kevin Love out, I'm sure CBS has some adjustments figured out and we have got to make life hard on their role players. Lebron can go and put up 40+, but if we contain their role players like we did in all our other home games this series, we'll be fine. And please, for the love of god, don't let Jeff Green go off on us. If Lebron does, so be it, but it better not be Jeff Green.
Horford is going to have to have the game of his life tonight. He was putrid in Game 6, and as a result the rest of the team looked sluggish most of the game (which doesn't surprise me, as Horford is our leader and impacts the overall team in so many underrated ways). Hope they got adjustments made for when they double Horford, but we also need to design plays to get Horford going with open looks early. The wild cards tonight will be Morris and Smart. I expect Scary Terry, Jaylen and Tatum to play well, but the two Marcuses are our wild cards. If they are inconsistent, shoot poorly and/or make bad decisions all over the court again, we're doomed. But if they play well and make all the right decisions, I really like our chances. Truthfully, I'm already expecting Lebron to put up 40+ on us tonight and have a godly performance, so if we lose, it will be more because we shot ourselves in the foot too many times and let their role players get red hot with too many open looks and bad defensive plays. We also HAVE to limit our turnovers and actually hit FT's tonight.
The TD Garden crowd will no doubt be loud, and I hope even when we are down or when Cleveland goes on a run, the place is still buzzing. It will be a long night IMO, and we'll just have to weather their runs at times and then go on runs ourselves. Even with no Fosters/Brothers tonight (thank god!), my biggest fear is one of Morris or Brown get in foul trouble early while defending Lebron, or something like that. Have to be a bit careful, but stay physical with them. I think not having Love on the road will actually hurt them on the offensive end more than they realize, and we got to smother them on defense. I'm super nervous, but also feeling cautiously optimistic we win this, probably by 8-12 points (though I'd prefer we blow them out). Start off fast, get the crowd into it and rattle their guys early on, and we got this! Game 6 was sluggish like Game 4, but this is our second chance to knock Lebron out of the playoffs, and we've got to take advantage while they also don't have Love.
LETS GO C'S!!