By the NBA standings, all that separated the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors was four wins this season. You wouldn’t have guessed that after Sunday, when the Celtics trashed the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals — the same Cavaliers that toyed with Toronto in a four-game series sweep.
Why were the results so different? Boston has only won one game, but they looked dominant, taking the game 108-83 with another one coming at home on Tuesday. One series after LeBron James averaged 34 points on 55 percent shooting, Boston held the world’s best basketball player to just 15 points on 31 percent shooting. It was a seismic difference.
Obviously, one game doesn’t make the entire series. We know James can win on the road, and he has three home games remaining, should the series go this far. (It will go that far.) But Boston exposed Cleveland worse than most people anticipated, one series after Toronto disappointed all their believers in a hideous performance that got their head coach fired last week.
Here’s why.
Toronto had a great defense, but Boston’s is the best.
Numerically, there’s not a huge difference between Boston’s defense and Toronto’s: the Celtics allowed 101.5 points per 100 possessions, while the Raptors gave up 103.4 points per 100 possessions. (That’s the difference between the No. 1 defense and the No. 6 ranked one.) But that two-point gap is bigger than it appears.
The most substantial difference comes from the centers. Al Horford is mobile and switchable, vastly different from the Jonas Valanciunas and Jakob Poeltl combination that Toronto used most games. Horford does so much on that end: he’s a defensive quarterback in the same manner that Draymond Green has become famous for, and he hardly ever screws up. With Valanciunas nearly getting played off the floor and Poeltl never leaving the bench due to their inability to switch, it robbed Toronto of their defensive backbone. Not every team can take advantage of immobile bigs, but Cleveland can — and roasted them. They can’t do that to Horford.
Beyond that, Boston clearly just shows more poise on that end. Their entire roster, from top to bottom, fully understands the schemes and the switches on a constant basis. Toronto too often looked lost.
In retrospect, the Raptors had some real flaws
This season, Toronto’s two best players were, at best, borderline top-15 players. You can’t really argue that makes them different than Boston, though, not with their injuries. Horford might make an All-NBA team this season, but it’s not a lock. (He has been a top-10 player in these playoffs, however.)
Past those two, though, the Raptors had some flaws. As mentioned above, their centers got run off the floor way too quickly for comfort. Losing Fred VanVleet to injury (and then seeing him return while clearly not being 100 percent) was an enormous blow to the bench unit’s ultimate glue guy. They didn’t have a clear wing that stood out from the pack — OG Anunoby wasn’t always trustworthy, Delon Wright was streaky, Pascal Siakam’s lack of shooting forced him off the floor at times, and C.J. Miles didn’t give the team enough defensively.
Together in the regular season, the bench mob was sensational. But when things got tight in the postseason, they didn’t collectively stand out enough for it to matter.
Brad Stevens had a better plan
Boston’s double teams of James in the post made sense, and they clearly bothered him. The Celtics were fearless on offense, and that matters. We all understand at this point that Stevens is one of the best two or three coaches in the league, and that Toronto’s Dwane Casey struggled to make adjustments within the series. It’s especially telling after this Game 1.
Cleveland also just missed shots
They shot 4-of-26 behind the three-point line in Game 1, which just isn’t good enough. Some of them were good looks that didn’t fall. Some of them were forced by Boston’s defense. Overall, more shots should fall the rest of the series.
Cleveland hit 46 threes against Toronto in their four games against them, hitting 41 percent from behind the arc. Especially as shooting and spacing takes over the league, games and even series can be influenced by luck. Some nights shots go down, and some nights they don’t.
In Game 1, some good shots didn’t fall for Cleveland. Don’t assume that will happen all series.