The Cleveland Cavaliers rolled through the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Finals series with a 117-104 road win. The Cavs are now 9-0 in this year’s playoffs and have yet to really seem tested by anyone in the East, aside from a game or two in the first round against Indiana. Boston’s lack of scoring options to take advantage of Cleveland’s lone weakness, defense (if that’s even the case anymore), left them unable to withstand the Cavs’ offensive onslaught in Game 1.
Cleveland appears to be well on their way to another Finals appearance, their third straight, as it will take a dramatic turnaround from Boston to be competitive in this series. While the Pacers, Raptors, and now Celtics have appeared to be no match for LeBron James and company, that doesn’t stop Wizards guard Bradley Beal from playing the “what if” game after Washington fell a game short of the Eastern Conference Finals, losing Game 7 in Boston.
Beal spoke with CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Chris Miller for an interview on Thursday, and expressed his feelings that the Wizards, had they gotten past the Celtics, could’ve given Cleveland problems and even suggested the Cavs dropped to the 2-seed to avoid them.
“Cleveland didn’t want to see us,” Beal said. “I always said that. I felt like that’s the reason they didn’t play us in the second round. They didn’t want to see us in the second round. If they were going to go down, they were going to go down in the conference finals. They didn’t want to go down in the second round.”
Beal might not be wrong about the Cavs dropping to the 2-seed to set up a second round meeting with the Raptors, who they were more than comfortable facing in a playoff series. That said, considering Washington’s struggles on the road against the Celtics, losing all four games in Boston, it’s hard to imagine that they would fare significantly better than the Celtics in a seven-game series. Washington is a better shooting team than Boston, so maybe they would provide a stiffer test, but with the way James and the Cavs are playing, there really isn’t any team in the East that can compete with them.
