The Boston Celtics did what they could. Despite missing their two best players on paper, they took LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals. But in the end, LeBron won out again.
"He's unbelievable," Celtics coach Brad Stevens told reporters after Cleveland's 87-79 win Sunday, before reminding them of how long each of James' eight straight seasons going to the NBA Finals have been.
"I think we've played now until May 25 and May 27 the last two years, and we started on Sept. 25. That's every day," Stevens said. "Every day that you're totally focused on this, and he's gone past that eight straight times. It's ridiculous, and he does it at this level and with the pressure, with the scrutiny - doesn't matter. It's just unbelievable."
Dragging this banged-up, mediocre Cavs squad to another Finals appearance has many observers sealing James' "GOAT" status, and he conceded it's been one of the most challenging seasons of his 15-year career. In between tough, seven-game series against Boston and Indiana, the only real break Cleveland had in the playoffs was driving over the speed bump that was the Toronto Raptors.
The Cavs' shortcomings behind James were the focal point of the Celtics' strategy of attack in the series, but as Stevens said, the best-laid plans go to waste with LeBron on the floor.
"Our goal going into the series was to make him exert as much energy as humanly possible and try to be as good as we can on everybody else, who are good players," Stevens said. "For the most part, I thought we were pretty good at that. Multiple games now in TD Garden (we) held them under 100, three games in the 80s - but he still scored 35. It's a joke."
