DK NBA PLAYOFFS CONF FINALS

Actually, compared with last year's roster, this Cavs roster has better individual defenders but lack enough offense threats. Last year the Cavs' defense was exposed in several games by teams in the East but their offense outpowered their opponents. After Kyrie left, there is nobody on the Cavs roster besides Lebron that can take the ball and create their own shots to give Lebron some time to rest. Most of their capable defenders (e.g., TT, George Hill, and Larry Nance) could not contribute much on the offensive end. Hence they struggled to score against the Pacers in the first-round. In the second-round, they had a better matchup against the Raptors lineup so they were able to score more. In this series, the Celtics are able to put out many tall, athletic defenders on the court and they are also all capable scorers (some of the lineups even have 5 capable 3-point shooters). This eliminates many possible mismatches on the defensive end and exposed the Cavs' defensive weaknesses to a larger extent.

I'm not saying the Cavs are a good defensive team. I just meant that they have the personnel to play a better defense. However, their overall team defense is still not good since: (1) most of their capable defenders have a negative impact on the offensive end; (2) Lebron has to spend more energy on offense and preserve energy on defense; (3) their most reliable offensive players besides Lebron, Kevin Love and Kyle Korver, are both weaknesses on defense; (4) this team made some big moves at the trade deadline so there is not enough time for them to play together; (5) news says that the Cavs have few team practices (besides the players' individual workouts) in the regular season; (6) Tyronn Lue doesn't have a 'system' and frequently changes their lineups.

Even though the Cavs' current team defense is not good enough to be a title contender, it is at least on par with if not better than last year and there is still room to improve. However, since the C's have many players that can both drive and shoot 3s, for the Cavs it is harder to hide their defensive weaknesses than in the earlier rounds without sacrificing their offense and burdening Lebron more. So the C's are a tough matchup for the Cavs.

BTW, Tyronn Lue mentioned in the pregame interview that they are going to focus more on improving their offense today. They are going to push the pace, control turnovers, and be aggressive at the bigs. So I expect to see the Cavs scoring more in the paint and drawing more fouls tonight. I'm leaning 1H Over and 1H Cavs TTO now. There are also some player props that can be considered.

Good luck DK - gonna continue riding the celts aswell.

Celtics gonna win BOL DK!