2018 NBA Playoffs: Last time the Cavaliers-Celtics met in the postseason

What happened the last time the Cleveland Cavaliers met the Boston Celtics in the NBA Playoffs?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are facing the Boston Celtics for the second year in a row, and third time in four years. Let’s take a look at how the Celtics have been another playoff victim (alongside the Toronto Raptors) of LeBron James.

In 2017, the Cavaliers took care of the Celtics in five games. Twice, the Cavs won by more than 30 points, with all of their wins by double digits. Meanwhile, the Celtics’ only win was a three point victory that they got in Cleveland.

Just like 2018, Boston had home court advantage. The Cavs don’t care about home court in the East. They don’t need it.

More from Sir Charles In Charge

LeBron did very LeBronic things. He averaged 29.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. Out of those five, only rebounds was where he didn’t lead the team. Kevin Love was the guy getting 12.4 rebounds. In fact, Love averaged a 20 and 10 for the series as he also scored 22.6 points a game.

LeBron, Love, and Kyrie Irving all scored 20+ per game. The Celtics had no one score more than 20 per game. Here’s the thing: Those three players scored 390 of the Cavs’ 602 points in the series. That’s about 65 percent of the points scored just by those three players.

That, ultimately, is what did the C’s in. However, there was a second major factor: Isaiah Thomas. Now, all playoffs long, and this is well documented, Thomas was dealing with the loss of his sister.

Thomas’ emotionally powered engine ran the Celtics to the conference finals, only for him to ultimately fall to injury after game two. With the Celtics getting blown out of the first two games, while losing home court advantage, it seemed easy enough for the Cavs to take care of business.

IT didn’t play well, especially in game two. He only had two points in 17 minutes of action. He went 0-6 from the field. IT did have six assists and three rebounds, though.

People wondered if the Celtics could’ve won the series if IT didn’t got down. They probably wouldn’t have, and that’s probably why the Celtics were ready to pull the trigger on the trade of Thomas for Irving.

In what could be irony for the Celtics, they reached the Conference Finals without Irving anyway, only to face the team who gave them that same player meant to help defeat the very team he was traded from. Wow, that was a mouthful. But also very accurate.

Let’s throw in 2015. Back then, the Cavs swept the C’s right out of the playoffs. Back then, it was the first round of the playoffs The Cavs were the 2nd seed and the C’s were 7th, of course. Even though it was a sweep, the games seemed to go better for the C’s as they lost by double digits only once. They lost by 13. But, then it gets a little weird. The next three games, they lost by eight points each. Interesting number to lose by.

Ultimately, Boston has lost the last eight out of nine games in the playoffs against the Cavs. However, the overall playoffs matchup for the teams has the Cavaliers with 20 wins while Boston has 19 wins. So, before those those series, Boston had a nice lead.

Must Read: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics: The ECF we all expected, but couldn't predict

The teams have met seven times before with 39 games played. Cleveland won three of the seven series which means the C’s won four of them. So, the Cavs have more wins, but Celtics have more series wins. This could be the moment where the Cavs tie things up for the series, while of course holding onto the game victory lead.

Home/Cleveland Cavaliers