The Boston Celtics held home court advantage on Sunday by taking Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals in blowout fashion. The 108-83 win was a huge opening salvo in a series where many worried who would stop LeBron James.
As it turned out, the Cavs could do little to stop Boston’s hot shooting and never found a lineup that allowed James to get space against the Celtics defense. Crowding James proved effective, as he was well off of his 34-point-per-game average this postseason with just 15 points and both teams had reserves in for the late stages of the fourth quarter.
The early-series deficit doesn’t phase James, though. He told reporters after the game that he’s not worried about going down 1-0 no matter how bad the deficit was in the game itself — much like his response to losing Game 1 in the first round.
LeBron: "I have zero level of concern at this stage. I didn’t go to college, so it’s not March Madness. You get better throughout the series. You see ways that you can get better throughout the series."
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) May 13, 2018
It’s always sort of charming when James reminds reporters that he didn’t go to college, as he’s used it to casually dismiss the absurdity of the one-and-done rule in the past. But this time he’s making a different point entirely: it’s not a single-elimination tournament. Losses are inevitable, and the score doesn’t carry over from the previous game on aggregate.
James is going to be confident facing the Celtics in Game 2 no matter what happened in the previous game. He’s a quick study, and it seems he thinks he’s learned something about what Boston wants to do when defending him.
LeBron: “I got a good sense of how they played me today, and how I need to play going into Game 2.”
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 13, 2018
If James’ confidence is to be believed, we’re in for a long series. Hopefully one that will be a bit more compelling than the first game was.
