NBA Playoffs: Cavaliers Challenge Celtics for East Crown

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00:00Boston has the championship pedigree.

00:02The Celtics are a minus 150 favorite for the Eastern Conference crowd.

00:06And yet they will not have home for advantage.

00:08It's going to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

00:10It is going to be the Cleveland Cavaliers in all season.

00:12They're 62 and 16.

00:14And again, we're still doubting them only because it's the Boston Celtics

00:17and the championship pedigree and how strong that lineup looks

00:20when it's fully healthy and intact.

00:21We'll see if that lineup, by the way, is fully healthy and intact tonight here

00:24going up against the New York Knicks.

00:26But in the playoffs, I don't want to doubt the Cavaliers.

00:28And I don't want anything to say, like, because their season start was so phenomenal.

00:32And as you said, they're 62 and 16, which is crazy.

00:35But I think people are looking like, oh, only six and four in the last 10,

00:38lost their last game.

00:39They're rounding in the form for the playoffs.

00:41I don't put a lot of stock in unless those seeding purposes games,

00:44particularly out in the Western Conference, are going to, like, angle up.

00:47The Cavaliers don't worry about winning games.

00:49They're going to be the number one seed.

00:50They're not going to lose four games out.

00:51They'll have number one overall.

00:52And the most important thing is don't get there with a Donovan Mitchell sprained ankle,

00:55quad injury, or a groin injury at that point.

00:57That's all I'm looking forward to.

00:59But I got to tell you, like, yes, everybody should be worried about the Celtics.

01:02Celtics are 58 and 20, though.

01:04They're not like the Dodgers were expecting to go 162 and 0.

01:07They lose two games.

01:07Oh, my goodness.

01:08What's wrong with them?

01:09I actually believe, like, the Cavaliers, 33 and 6 at home,

01:12and also 29 and 10 on the road.

01:14They should beat the Boston Celtics.

01:16But until we see it, people are going to doubt it.

01:18It's the way it is.

01:19They are not going to be favored to do that if that is the projected

01:22Eastern Conference Finals matchup.

01:24We keep hammering the point, but Boston won't be inside TD Garden

01:27like they were last year on their way to winning championship banner number 18.

01:32Maybe it doesn't matter for this year's Celtics team.

01:34They're 32 and 7 on the road.

01:36It is the best away from home record around the entirety of the association.

01:41Four games, though, between Cleveland and Boston this year,

01:44split to a piece and split in the home and home.

01:47Both teams lost once at home, and both teams, of course,

01:49then won once on the road against that opponent.

01:53And Boston is going to be the two seed.

01:55They've got an eight-game advantage over the New York Knicks.

01:58The Knicks at home tonight against the Celtics.

02:00Not only a big game, DRS, to try to wrap up the number three seed

02:03in the Eastern Conference, but really a proven spot for New York,

02:07who will play both the Seas and the Cavs down the home stretch

02:10in the final week of this NBA regular season.

02:13As it has been well reported, New York is 0-6, both straight up

02:17and against the number, against both Boston and Cleveland this year.

02:21It is why there is such a large distinction among those top two teams

02:25in the Eastern Conference, both standings and odds boards.

02:28No, and again, proof is in the pudding, as we like to say.

02:31Like, you can beat every one of those, you know, smaller teams

02:33across the league yourself and say, yeah, we're going to beat those up.

02:36But when you start to play the upper echelon teams,

02:38we are going to look at that record.

02:39Because even if you struggle, let's just say, with the bottom six teams

02:42and they have only three and three against those teams,

02:44but you do have wins against the Boston Celtics and the OKC Thunder,

02:47you can sort of level that advantage.

02:49That's a big game tonight in the Garden.

02:51Not because it changes seeding purposes or if the Celtics is,

02:54oh, no, are they not right for the playoffs?

02:56It's just that one of those, file it away.

02:58We beat the Celtics down the stretch.

03:00Our guy is back in the lineup in Jalen Brunson.

03:02Now we're ready for the playoffs.

03:04You know, it'll be a bad look.

03:05Brunson comes back, nothing changes.

03:0610-point loss at home to the Celtics.

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