After dispatching the Miami Heat in 5 games, the Celtics have been waiting for the Cavs and Magic to settle their series, which finished with a Game 7 on Sunday. The Celtics have been off for 5 days healing and resting up while the Cavs have had just 1 day off since closing out their first round series. The Celtics had a week off before Round 1 as they waited for the Heat to finish up in the play-in tournament.
The Celtics won the series 2-1 between these two teams in the regular season. The Celtics won 120-113 on December 12 in Boston and they won 116-107 once again in Boston on December 14. The Cavaliers won 105-104 on March 5 in Cleveland, after coming back from a 22 point 4th quarter deficit. Dean Wade scored 20 points in the 4th quarter to lead the Cavaliers to a win that would break an 11 game win streak for the Celtics.
This is the first meeting between these two teams in the post season since 2018 when the 4th seeded Cavaliers beat the 2nd seeded Celtics in 7 games. In 2017, the 2nd seeded Cavaliers beat the 1st seeded Boston in 5 games. In 2015, Cleveland beat the Celtics in the 1st round in a sweep. In 2010, Boston won in 6 games in LeBron James last year in Cleveland before moving to Miami. In 2008, when the Celtics won the title, Boston won in 7 games in the 2nd round. Previously, they met 3 times with Boston winning in 1976 and 1985 and Cleveland winning in 1992.
The Celtics will be without Kristaps Porzingis at least to begin this series, and possibly for the entire series as he deals with a calf injury that he suffered in Game 4 of Boston’s first-round series against the Heat. They went on to easily beat the Heat in Game 5 without Porzingis with Al Horford getting the start in his place and Luke Kornet picking up the back up minutes. I expect Horford to start in this game as well. The Celtics are 22-4 without Porzingis, including the playoffs.
The Cavaliers have already ruled out 3 players and have a 4th listed as questionable. Dean Wade, who was the hero of the Cavaliers lone win in the regular season, has been out since March 8 with a knee sprain and will remain out for this game. Ty Jerome is out as he recovers from ankle surgery. Craig Porter, Jr has missed 7 games with an ankle sprain and is out for this game.
Jarrett Allen played very well in Cleveland’s first 4 games against the Magic averaging 17.0 points, 13.8 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks. He took a hit from Franz Wagner in Game 4 and sustained a rib injury…
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