Validation

The Cleveland Cavaliers just swept the Atlanta Hawks, the best team in the east for most of the year and the #1 seed in the EC with home court the whole way, just as they swept the Celtics, the #8 seed.


Cleveland vs Boston

Game 1:  113-100, 13 point win for Cleveland.  30 points by Irving, 19 by Love, 20 by Lebron.  45%fg% by Cleveland, 47% by Boston.
Game 2:  99-91, 8 point win for Cleveland.  30 by Lebron, 26 by Irving.  45%fg% by Cavs, 39% by Boston.
Game 3:  103-85, 8 point win for Cleveland.  31 by Lebron, 23 by Love.  45%fg% by Cavs, 44%fg% by Boston.
Game 4:  101-93, 8 point win for Cleveland.  27 by LeBron, 24 by Irving.  40%fg% by Cavs, 39% by Boston.  Kevin Love injured.




Cleveland vs Atlanta

Game 1:  97-89, 9 point win for Cleveland.  31 by Lebron, 28 by JR Smith.  In Atlanta.  Love - DNP.
Game 2:  94-82, 12 point win for Cleveland.  30 by Lebron.  43%fg% for Cavs, 41% for Hawks.  In Atlanta.  Irving - DNP.  Love - DNP.
Game 3:  114-111, 3 point OT win for Cleveland.  37 by Lebron.  41%fg% for Cavs, 41% for Hawks.  In Cleveland.  Irving - DNP.  Love - DNP.
Game 4:  118-88, 30 point win for Cleveland.  49%fg% for Cavs, 42% for Hawks.  Hawks 5-32 from 3.  Irving 16 points on 6-11 in 22 minutes.


No Kevin Love, at all, through out the entire Hawks series, but we had to deal with him for at least 3 1/2 games of the 4.  Irving was a DNP for 2 games in Atlanta series and played limited minutes in a 3rd but he played heavy minutes against us in all 4 games.  The Hawks lost Korver, but that doesn't explain a 30 point beat down.  

So, when we see Cleveland matched up against an unquestionably good team, did we really do so badly, or is Cleveland just on a steamroll?  In the immediate aftermath of the Celtics series it was hard to come to a good judgment because of the pain and because we were the first series and had nobody to compare us to, but now?  Now that we've seen Cleveland do the same but worse to a team that people have been oohhing and ahhing about all season and that has some all-stars and more veterans than us?

Looking through my admittedly Celtic-green goggles, the demolition of the Hawks by the Cavaliers validates the progress our team made this year.  With Danny churning the roster like he was making butter, Brad was still able to pull together a band of ragtag travelers into a team that did no worse, if not better, than the best team in the east.

Cleveland is peaking at just the right moment.  That has nothing to do with us. We're on track, maybe even a bit ahead of schedule, and just 2 years into a 3-5 year rebuild.



bob



.

I'd never take anything away from what the Celtics accomplished this season.  Simply thumbing their noses at the tankmeisters goes down in my mental Celtics scrapbook as one of their rewarding accomplishments.

But I've always felt really good teams that suffer injuries can sometimes become more dangerous overachievers than they were before the injuries.  In the case of the Cavs, I believe Lebron spends much of the regular season holding back on his output (especially his scoring output) in an effort to prove that he's really a team player.  In many of his games, he sort of messes around until his teammates demonstrate that they seriously need help, and then he comes in on his white charter to save the day.  That's what he's been doing in the playoffs—just on a bigger stage.

Sam

I really wish we had faced Atlanta in the first round. We had a real shot at beating them, and we outplayed them starting with our win against them before the All Star break.

And I'm glad they got swept as well. Most of our fellow fans refused to appreciate that we hung with Cleveland in every game, even though we ended up getting swept.

They called our getting into the playoffs a "fluke", and refused to consider that we were as good as any East team not named the Cavs as soon as our final roster came together. Nope, our record with Rondo and Green was the excuse they gave in not giving our team due credit. Just a lousy 40 win team.