Surely Paul Pierce would have liked the whole party. That the withdrawal of his 34 joined the victory of 'their' Celtics to show who holds the supremacy of the East. But LeBron James was not for parties. Well, it was only for his party, to verify that the passage through the workshop in the player market has considerably improved the image of his team.
LeBron, who starred in the night's scare with a kneeling crash after which he had to retire, led his team to a more than convincing victory, 99-121, at TD Garden. A victory that gives hope to the followers of the Cavs to see them fighting for the ring.
The coming-of-age of the 'new' Cleveland Cavaliers ended with a valuable victory at the home of the Boston Celtics (99-121). Valuable for the sensations, that discovered a rebound of attitude in a team consumed by the reluctance and the bad atmosphere. For the rival, some Celtics who aspire with the Toronto Raptors to divest LeBron James of the East throne for the first time in eight years. And for the day, on the night that the proud greens chose to remove the dorsal of their last legend, Paul Pierce. No more incentives were needed for the Garden to wear the atmosphere of May, but there were.
LeBron James is the great enemy of the Boston Celtics in the last decade. He was the executioner of the last winning project and it is the roof that is presented before this new one directed by Brad Stevens. And of course, is the companion who wanted to separate the new reference of the green fans, Kyrie Irving. In that electrical scenario, the first ones to hit were the Cavs. And like a hammer.
Although they will still need time to fit a rotation that has changed half of their pieces, the staging was impressive. In addition to the age and bad environment, the Cavs had been filled with specialists in an NBA that demands versatility. And with the arrivals of George Hill, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson, the Cavaliers are younger, more versatile and more athletic than a week ago. Since the start in Boston found a rival with much better attitude on defense and although the result was slow to arrive (it fitted 32 points in the first quarter), it ended up deactivating the attack of the Celtics, who are going through the first significant blip of their season.
Not only Cleveland managed to survive the minutes without LeBron (he gave the shock after knee-to-knee collision with Aron Baynes), but on his return he nailed the first stake: James scored 10 points in less than two minutes (finished with 24, plus 8 bounces and 10 assists) and the distance shot up to 11. And from there it did not go down again. With the Celtics blocked and erratic when they got good options from the outside, with the Cavs drunk with that amazing comeback, what should have been a big party in Boston ended up with an imposing punch on the table: if they want to conquer the East, they still have to go through above LeBron.