3. The Celtics’ defense isn’t backing down from LeBron James
To be fair, the Boston Celtics went through the best combination of tune-ups a team could face coming into the conference finals. Boston faced three generational talents in Ben Simmons, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.
It’s unfair to compare the three to LeBron James, but it’s hard to ignore just how ready the Celtics looked against the King. Before Sunday’s contest, most believed Celtics forward Marcus Morris made a death-wish when speaking about guarding James.
Marcus Morris is confident in his ability to guard LeBron: "I'm probably the best guy defending him in the league, outside of Kawhi” https://t.co/PLQ2awRtxw pic.twitter.com/tu6pMUILAN
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 12, 2018
There’s a big possibility Morris could still regret his words in what should be a long series, but he did his best to deliver Sunday.
LeBron when guarded by Marcus Morris in Game 1:
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 13, 2018
24 Plays
5 Pts
2-6 FG
2 Ast
1 TO pic.twitter.com/pHRUv3XIfN
Morris went on to explain how easy things looked on film as LeBron and the Cavs breezed through Toronto:
Marcus Morris: “I think in the Toronto series, no disrespect to them, but watching film it just looked very easy at times. ... There was no help, I didn’t see no physicality. I didn’t see any of that. I think that’s something different we’ll bring to the table.”
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) May 12, 2018
The Celtics exhibited every single aspect of Morris’ prediction playing five strong defensively. Nothing was easy for the Cavaliers Sunday. James finished shooting 5-for-16 from the field with seven turnovers as Boston used several defensive different formulas (we’ll get to that later) against The King.
The Celtics stayed physical and aggressive taking the fight to James, and when they didn’t, they used communication and movement to give the rest of the Cavs additional wrinkles to think about.
https://twitter.com/FootBasketcom/status/995770592623300608?s=20
Game 1 at its best showed what standing up to a bully can look like. It’ll be interesting what adjustments both teams make before the next chapter of this series begins.