The Celtics beat Cleveland twice in the last week of the season — twice in three days — and a lot of NBA types rolled their eyes.
Cavaliers coach David Blatt gave his stars generous rest in both games, helping the Celtics nail down the Eastern Conference’s seventh playoff seed. As Celtics coach Brad Stevens admits, not a lot from those two games was put in the scouting report for the first round playoff series that starts today in Cleveland.
But the second-seeded Cavs, the East’s best since the All-Star break, don’t require a lot of diagraming or video breakdown.