Frankly, it was silly that anyone ever suggested anything different.
Playing the back end of a back-to-back, the Cavs blitzed the Celtics from the onset with James leading the charge, scoring 36 points, pulling down 10 rebounds, dishing out six assists, and doing this in the blowout:
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There were few — if any — moments Wednesday night where it felt as if the Cavs were not in full control of the contest. Even without Tristian Thompson in the lineup for the first time since 2012, it looked impossible for the Celtics to beat the Cavaliers in a seven-game series.
Sure, the Celtics didn’t shoot great from beyond the arc Wednesday — in fact, they missed a ton of open 3-pointers (the Cavs defense wasn’t magically fixed overnight) — but they weren’t much worse than Cleveland. Boston shot 3-of-17 in the first half from behind the arc, while the Cavs were 4-of-19; the Celtics shot 20 percent from 3 in the game, the Cavs were a paltry 30 percent from behind the arc.
Long-distance shooting didn’t swing the game — it was James who manhandled the Celtics.
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That domination is extrapolatable, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t show up when the playoffs start — especially when it already existed in the regular season. The Cavs won the season series against the three next-best teams in the Eastern Conference this year, the Celtics, Raptors, and Wizards.
The Cavs’ defense might be bad, but the rest of the Eastern Conference is much, much worse. Cleveland can worry about their glaring deficiencies on defense and in team depth when they reach their third-straight NBA Finals (LeBron’s seventh in a row).
This Cavs team might not stack up with the iterations of the prior two years, but who in the Eastern Conference is going to beat them?
The Wizards are likewise opposed to defense — do they want to get into a shootout with LeBron? Who would slow him down?
The Raptors might stand a better chance than last year thanks to the Serge Ibaka acquisition, but we don’t know if Kyle Lowry will make a full return, and — again — LeBron will probably go unchecked in that series. (I say that as the nation’s leading P.J. Tucker fan.)
And we know the Cavs have a handle on the Celtics. If Boston plays like they did Wednesday, they’d be lucky to take a game off the Cavs in a seven-game series.
If they play at their best, maybe they can push it to six — there’s nowhere for them to hide Isaiah Thomas on defense and the Cavs clearly know it, but barely took advantage of that Wednesday night.
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And the Bucks, Hawks, Bulls, Pacers, and Heat? Yeah, that’s not going to be a problem for Cleveland.
There’s a reason that LeBron has been to six straight NBA Finals — when he’s at his best, he’s next to unbeatable. And for all the deserved handwringing and concern, that fact reigns supreme: The Eastern Conference just isn’t good enough to
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