The Cavaliers are in Boston tonight, one game up in the quest for Eastern Conference supremacy, with the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Celtics on the line (the season series is currently 1-1).
It’s a big one tonight.
If the Cavaliers win, it is going to go a long way towards securing home court advantage in the playoffs. But even if they lose, I’ll take my chances come playoff time if this year’s version of the Celtics match up with this year’s version of the Cavaliers again for an Eastern Conference Finals repeat.
If you go back to the Game 7 that Cleveland lost in Boston last year, by five points, there is no way that you can look at these two teams and not say that Cleveland got extremely better, and Boston – at best – stayed the same.
From a roster standpoint, the Cavaliers have subtracted Damon Jones and Devin Brown from last year’s playoff squad. In return they added Mo Williams and J.J. Hickson. The Celtics, on the other hand, subtracted James Posey, and added Stephon Marbury – huh? – and Mikki Moore – who hasn’t seemed to be able to score a basket since Jason Kidd left him having to create a shot for himself – and I can’t see how that math makes Boston better.
Mo Williams alone makes your team six points better on an off night, no?
If you ask me, Danny Ainge has been smoking all of Red Auerbach’s cigars since hoisting the trophy last year. The East is Cleveland’s for the taking and tonight will go a long way in deciding that.
Mo Williams photo courtesy of AP Photo/Tony Dejak
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JD Shaver is a featured columnist at Midwest Sports Fans who also runs Shaver Sports, where they discuss everything you ever wanted to know about Cleveland sports.
JD Shaver’s contributions to Midwest Sports Fans are sponsored by BigTimeGameBoards.com, the company that helps you tailgate like a champion with our high quality cornhole boards, sets and accessories. And if you don’t know what cornhole is, you aren’t a Midwesterner.
