Celtics Take Down LeBron and the Caveliers

What a team win tonight. The Celitcs buckled down and took care of business at home to send the team to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Doc Rivers and assistant coach Tom Thibodeau had a defensive plan and they made great in game adjustments tonight. The C's held the Cavs to 38% shooting and they forced 22 turnovers. Mo Williams torched the Celtics for 20 first half points, but the team adjusted and held the streaky guard to just two second half points. LeBron James had a monster triple double of 27/19/10, but he turned the ball over 9 times and made just eight of his 21 shot attempts. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Tony Allen combined with timely help defense from Kevin Garnett and others flustered James all night. Not to mention the Garden crowd chanting "New York Knicks" during his twelve free throw attempts, which certainly had to have clouded his mind.

On the offensive end, the Celtics stuck to what worked. What worked was the glaring mismatch KG was for the Cavs. To start off the game, the Cavs put Shaq on KG and Garnett easily hit jumpers over the lumbering center off of the pick and roll. Then when the team switched Antawn Jamison to Garnett, he backed down the soft, undersized defender. Kevin finished with 22 points (11-19 shooting) and 12 boards on the evening.

Rajon Rondo, as he did all series, did whatever he wanted to with the ball. Despite four early turnovers, RR did not give away the rock the final three quarters. He shot 9-15 and continued to take and nail the elbow jumper they gave him on his way to a 21 points, 12 assist, and 5 steal night.

Despite missing all seven of their first half three point attempts, the Celtics went 5-10 in the second half. Paul Pierce nailed three timely three pointers after sitting much of the first half with foul trouble and Rasheed Wallace canned two threes from each corner.

Wallace's three pointers were big en route to his 13 point night, but his defense was even better. He played with a heart we haven't seen up until this point tonight. His passion energized the team in the fourth quarter so much that Doc stuck with him the entire period. Tony Allen (10 points, 3 steals) also filled in admirably. With Pierce battling foul trouble, TA stepped right in and played crucial minutes off of the bench. He had a very good series off of the bench.

Exit LeBron James and the Caveliers. Enter Dwight Howard and the Magic. Game 1 Sunday afternoon at 3:30. Eight more wins...