No more opportune time for the Celtics to face the Cavaliers than right now.

There may be no more opportune time for the Celtics to face the Cavaliers than right now. We wouldn’t have said that a month ago. At that time, the Celtics would have re-signed Stephon Marbury post-YouTube disaster to earn a high seed.

The Celtics wanted the third seed. They wanted to delay the possibility of playing Cleveland for as long as possible, even if it meant facing Dwight Howard and the Magic. Since then, the Celtics have been injected with a surge of confidence and good health.

They spent the past week beating up on the Miami Heat, making shorter work of Dwyane Wade and the Disappointments than expected. Boston is playing as well as it has all season and is a far more efficient team than the one that barely held on to beat the Cavaliers at TD Garden April 4.

Facing Miami may have greatly helped the Celtics prepare for the Cavaliers more than playing the Bucks. The Celtics spent five games trying to contain Wade, who averaged 33.2 points per game. They chased him. Doubled him. And stood helpless at times when he twisted to the basket.

The Celtics faced a megastar for 240 minutes and that would at least serve as an appetizer for LeBron James, who averaged 36.5 points in four games against the Celtics this season, his most against any Eastern Conference team. So there is no better time — especially with three days off — to take on Iron Man and his sidekicks.

The Celtics and Cavaliers waged an epic seven-game series two years ago. And the Celtics have proved they will be difficult to eliminate as a healthy and precise team. While the Celtics will be the underdogs, they have made it clear they don’t fear the Cavaliers.

“It’s a huge mountain we’re going to have to climb,’’ Paul Pierce said. “But I think this team is ready to face the test. We are playing as good basketball as we have been playing all season long, and we are ready. They are the team to beat right now; they showed it throughout the course of the season. The way they are playing right now, we have our work cut out for us. If we are going to win the series we have to get some games in Cleveland, possibly more than one, and definitely have to defend our home court.’’

The teams played four times during the regular season with each winning two. The Celtics stunned Cleveland Opening Night, when the Cavaliers were breaking in Shaquille O’Neal. The Cavaliers returned to TD Garden nearly four months later and battered the Celtics, 108-88, outscoring the them, 60-32, in the second half.

Cleveland belted the Celtics in Cleveland two weeks later, with James calling the Celtics a couple of adult words following a fourth-quarter layup that sealed the win. James finally acknowledged the teams share a healthy dislike for each other following a trash-talk filled final meeting on Easter Sunday.

So it is only fitting they clash in the postseason. The aging former champions against the MVP chasing his first NBA title in perhaps his final season in Cleveland. The story lines are vast and the Celtics likely convinced themselves, as well as NBA observers, that they were prepared for the No. 1 seed by their impressive elimination of Miami.

The Cavaliers will challenge the Celtics with strong, aggressive defense, endurance, and depth. General manager Danny Ferry brought in as many pieces as the salary cap would allow to make a title run. Even the trainer has a backup.

That depth makes Cleveland the favorite because the Celtics could never solve Anderson Varejao and the 3-point shooting of Mo Williams during the regular season. The emergence of Glen Davis offers the Celtics a counter to the energetic Varejao, who demoralized Boston with his offensive rebounding.

James will makes things extraordinarily difficult. Not only can he take games over by himself, he also does a sparkling job of getting his teammates involved.

The Celtics have to force James into more of a perimeter shooter than penetrator and also reduce the effectiveness of Antawn Jamison and Williams.

It is an ambitious task, one that will test Boston’s depth and mental toughness. They have to avoid the lapses that plagued the regular season and sneaked into Game 5 when they scored 4 points in the final 6:56 of the third quarter. Such a stretch will bury the Celtics against the Cavaliers, who rarely allow teams the luxury of slippage.

This is what the NBA wanted. A matchup that will have no neutral observers and the Celtics appear geared to make this captivating. We couldn’t have said that a month ago.

“If you want to win it you got to play them all anyway at some point,’’ Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “So, you know, why not now? We’re there, we’ll be waiting; we’ll be ready. And I’m sure they will be.’’

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2010/04/28/theres_no_time_like_the_present_for_celtics_to_face_cavaliers/