J-Speaks: The Stakes of Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals

When the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics take the TD Garden floor in Boston, MA on Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. There will be a lot on the table besides a trip to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals of 2018. For the Cavs, there reign as three-time defending East champions is on the line, but the future of their four-time league MVP who has been the one constant for them this entire season. For the Celtics, they have an opportunity to reach The Finals for the first time in eight seasons, but they are trying to be the first team to deny the best player of this generation another chance at the Larry O’Brien trophy. 

The Cavaliers are in this position in large part due to four-time league MVP and perennial All-Star LeBron James, who authored another masterpiece in an elimination game with 46 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in leading his squad to a 109-99 win in Game 6 versus the C’s on Friday night to tie the series 3-3. 

How good was the 33-year-old from Akron, OH in his 15^th NBA season? He scored or assisted on 14 of the Cavs points during a 20-4 run in the first half that gave them control of the game and improved his career mark to 10-3 at home when his team is facing elimination at home. 

“He was huge and that’s what you expect out of the best player in the world,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue, who team improved to 8-1 at home this postseason said after the win during his postgame presser. “You expect games like this on elimination night.” 

After trailing 25-20 after the first period, James scored 17 of his 25 first half points in the second quarter, playing all 24 first half minutes. He nearly out scored the entire Celtics team in the period 18-17 as the Atlantic Division champions of 2017-18 were just 6 for 19 from the field in the quarter as the Cavs outscored them 34-18 to take a 54-43 lead into intermission. 

In the early stages of the fourth quarter when the Celtics were making their surge, forward Larry Nance, Jr. blocked a shot of Celtics’ rookie forward Jayson Tatum, but in the process of coming down collided with the right lower leg of James. He limped around for a little bit but stayed in the game. 

“I would’ve had to literally have a real, real, really bad injury to come off the floor with the opportunity that we had to be able to force a Game 7,” James, who was 17 for 33 from the floor and 7 for 11 from the charity stripe said during his postgame presser. 

When the dust settled and the Cavs punched their ticket to Game 7 at the C’s, James played all but 1:54 seconds of the elimination contest and authored the highest scoring game in a possible win or go home game, which was also his 7^th game of the 2018 postseason of 40-points or more. Only the Hall of Famer and the NBA logo Jerry West has more games with 40 or more in a single postseason. 

James saved his best for last scoring or assisting on 16 of the Cavs final 18 points, which included hitting two straight three-pointers in the closing minutes of the game, at the tail end of the shot clock and an and-one bank shot on Tatum in the final minute to seal the game. 

“Our team is built on me being out on the floor. To be able to make plays not only for myself but [to] make plays for others and its just the way we’ve been playing and we’ve been successful with it. I was able to play 46 minutes today and I got my couple of minutes I guess,” James said about the small breather he got during the game.”

As great as James was, the reason he individually improved to 5-0 in games with the season on the line against an Eastern Conference opponent over the last eight postseasons is because he got some help from a couple of his teammates. 

Starting lead guard George Hill had 20 points on 7 for 12 shooting. Forward Jeff Green had 14 points off the bench, while Nance, Jr. had 10 points, seven boards and two steals, going 5 for 5 off the pine.  

Of all the players on the court of Quicken Loans Arena on Friday night that understands how James can rise up and deliver the kind of performance that he did with the Cavs season on the line is Hill, who when he was with the Pacers saw their season’s end at the hands of James while he was with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013. 

“I thought the best was when he always put us out, but to actually see it when he’s on your team and things like that, I mean I can’t put it into words,” Hill said. “Sometimes I just think, ‘How did he make that shot or how did he make that move, or when did he see that pass?’” 

“Just night in and night out, just making big plays and big shots, and people always listing him as not a shooter, but he’s making big shots down the stretch. If it’s three-pointers, layups, dunks, passes. He can do it all.” 

Seeing all those plays and shots being made by James, particularly on him was Tatum. James when being guarded by the rookie out of Duke went 6 for 8 shooting in Game 6, including 3 for 3 from distance with as mentioned two coming in the final moments including the and-one banker that sealed the win. 

“I mean it was just two great shots,” Tatum, who had 15 points on the evening said after the loss. 

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens called James after his performance the, “Best player in the game. So, special night tonight…I can’t say enough good things about him.” 

Speaking of the Celtics, the fact that they are in a position to be one win away from the NBA Finals is remarkable.

Think about, they have been without All-Star Gordon Hayward since minutes into the start of this season with a serious ankle injury. They lost All-Star lead guard Kyrie Irving, who the Celtics acquired back in the off-season from the Cavs because of knee surgery back in early March. 

They are in this position because the youngsters on the squad in Tatum, Marcus Smart Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier and veterans Al Horford, Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes have stepped during the postseason. 

While they have gone just 1-7 on the road this postseason, they are a perfect 10-0 at home this postseason and all-time in Game 7s the Celtics are 23-8 overall, which includes a 20-4 mark at home. They have won their last three home games in Game 7, which includes a 112-96 win in the Quarterfinals versus the Milwaukee Bucks on Apr. 28. 

If the Celtics plan to be victorious in Game 7 tonight, they will need to somehow contain James, whose has averaged 34.9 points, which is the highest all-time in Game 7s in NBA postseason history with a minimum of two games. That is higher than the 33.7 average of the great Michael Jordan, the 33.0 average of perennial All-Star forward of the Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant and the 32.5 average of Hall of Famer and 2001 league MVP Allen Iverson. 

On top of that, James has the highest points per game average in NBA postseason history when facing elimination with the minimum of five games at 34.1 in 22 games. That his higher than the 31.3 of Jordan; the 31.2 in five games by Irving and the 31.1 of the late great Wilt Chamberlin, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. 

“We know that he’s going to make tough shots. We know he’s going to be aggressive, but that’s no excuse for him to just let him score 40 and try to stop the other guys,” Rozier, who led the Celtics with 28 points in the Game 6 loss. “We’re trying to stop him too but you know just show length and make it tough for him as much as we can. We’re trying to make him exert as much energy. So, it’s going to be important.”

As much as James will need to be his out of this world self in Game 7 on the Celtics’ home floor, they will need the likes of JR Smith, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver, Jordan Clarkson, Green, Hill and Nance, Jr. to rise to the moment unlike their first three chances in Boston. 

There performance will be even more critical as All-Star forward Kevin Love will not play in Game 7 because of a concussion he sustained in the first quarter of Game 6. 

To illustrate the level of concern many Cavs fans have about their team entering Game 7, in their eight road games in the 2018 postseason, the Cavs have gone just 3-5, scoring 97.8 points and allowing 105.8 points to the opposition. Since losing their first home game in the opening round versus the Pacers 98-80 on Apr. 15, Cavs have won their last eight to improve to 8-1 at “The Q,” scoring 105.8 points and allowing just 97.1.  

Host of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” which can be seen weekdays at 3 p.m. Rachel Nichols said on the Friday night’s edition of “Sportscenter” that why both teams in this series have struggled in the opposing team’s court is the fact that in the case of Celtics they have young players and role players that have not stepped into their own into this series, how the opposing crowd rattles them or how offensively they take shots early in the 24-second clock. 

“All those clichés are magnified when you have players in this series who kind of fit those descriptions,” Nichols said to John Anderson. “That being said, it’s going to be very interesting in Game 7 to see who jumps out with that first quarter lead.” 

“If the Celtics are the ones who do that, they are going to ride the crowd. They are going to be confident and they can ride that all the way to the NBA Finals.” 

“If the Cavs are the ones who are able to jump out early and that Garden crowd starts getting nervous and those young players start getting nervous you can see a much different result.” 

Which makes the LeBron James factor even more important on both sides. In his seven Game 7 appearances, James is 5-2 all-time, winning his last five in succession and in his last seven elimination games, James including his prior mentioned performance on Saturday night has either authored a triple-double or scored 40-plus points. 

In Game 5 of the 2016 Finals James had 41 points on 16 for 40 shooting with 16 rebounds and seven assists in leading the Cavs to a 115-101 win at the Warriors to close the series deficit to 3-2. In Game 6 back in Cleveland, James 41 points on 16 for 27 from the field with 11 assists and eight boards in the 115-101 win to tie the series at 3-3. In Game 7. James finished with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists as the Cavs won the game and their first title in franchise history 93-89 at the Warriors. After the win, James expressed his emotions of delivering the city of Cleveland’s first pro sports title in nearly six decades by saying to ABC’s Doris Burke, “Cleveland, this is for you!” Besides authoring a triple-double James had a key block of a shot by 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala late in the fourth quarter that made a huge difference and Irving hit the game-clinching three-pointer that also made the difference. 

With their season on the line in the 2017 Finals, James had another triple-double of 31 points with 11 assists and 10 boards as the Cavs won 137-116 versus the Warriors to cut the series lead to 3-1. In the 129-120 loss versus the Warriors back at Oracle Arena in Game 5, James had 41 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists as the Warriors won their second Larry O’Brien trophy in the last three seasons. 

In Game 7 of the opening round of this year’s playoffs, James had 45 points, going 16 for 25 from the field with eight rebounds and seven assists in leading the Cavs to a 105-101 versus the Pacers to advance to the Semifinals, where they swept the No. 1 Seeded Toronto Raptors 4-0.

"I don't think there's anything that they can show us on the floor as far as X's and O's that we haven't seen in six games," James, who is looking to advance to The Finals for the eighth straight season said on Sunday afternoon.  

There will be a couple of guarantees when the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics tip-off for Game 7 at TD Garden in Boston, MA at 8:30 on ESPN tonight. There will a full audience of Celtics fans on hand and many more watching on television at home or at many restaurants and bars across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

The team though has to play to the level they did in the first three games of the series where they beat the Cavs by an average of 17 points. The Celtics though expect a knockout drag out fight and as Marcus Smart said to ESPN Celtics’ reporter Chris Forsberg after the Game 6 loss, “You’ve got to be able to get down and get dirty.” 

“We’ve got to be ready to come out with out nose bloodied, our mouths bloodied. We’ve got to come out ready to fight.” 

Rozier echoed those same sentiments by saying to Forsberg, “We can’t just rely on being at home. It’s not going to be easy.” 

Coach Stevens said that his team is “resilient” and simply said, “We’ll be ready.” 

He added, "If you don't have fun with this, why are you doing it, right?"

The other guarantee is that LeBron James will show up and be ready to play. How well he plays, as well as his supporting cast as mentioned earlier will dictate if the Cavs will be in the game to the very end with a chance to win or as has occurred the prior three visits to Boston this series be blown right off the floor. 

“We know what this man is capable of. Boston, they are full aware. The city, the fans, the team, the organization, everybody. They’re full aware of what he can bring to the table,” host of ESPN’s “First Take” Stephen A. Smith said on the Friday night edition of “Sportscenter” about the Cavs chances in Game 7. 

“But because of how awful his supporting cast has displayed itself to be on the road on too many occasions in these playoffs and you couple that with the lower leg injury, the elements of fatigue that he’s [James] displayed you got to wonder about Game 7.” 

“It’s one thing to concede like Toronto does because we just have to bow at the alter of LeBron James. In Boston’s case they recognize what he’s going to do, but they make him work for everything and if he has to do that in a Game 7. As tired as he looked in Game 5, 15 years in the league, 33 years of age, all those minutes he logged. He logged 46 minutes in Game 6. Forgive me if I’m wondering how much he’s going to have in Game 7?” 

“He’s got the perfect excuse in the world to lay down and die in these playoffs. I’m not saying he will do it. I’m saying if he does there’s a whole bunch of LeBron lovers out there who will surely understand.” 

We will see what unfolds later tonight in Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Boston Celtics in Game 7 for the right to go to represent the East in the NBA Finals at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN. 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/26/18 1 a.m. edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter,” with John Buccigross and John Anderson; 5/26/18 6 p.m. edition of WABC 7 “Eyewitness News,” with Joe Torres Sandra Bookman, Jeff Smith with weather and Anthony Johnson with sports; 5/26/18 6 p.m. edition of WPIX 11 “News at 6,” with Ayana Harry, Andy Adler with sports and Craig Allen with weather; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/bos/boston-celtics; and www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/cle/cleveland-cavaliers.