Celtics/Cavs Preview

The march towards that 17^th banner starts tonight at home against LeBron and his Cavs. Let's break down what the Celts are up against in this series.

Right now, the starting 5 for Cleveland looks like this:

PG – Delonte West

SG – Wally Szczerbiak

C – Zydrunas Ilgauskas

PF – Ben Wallace

SF – LeBron James

At point guard, Delonte is hardly one of the elite in the league. Meaning Rondo should have his way in this series. I always loved Delonte's game when he was here in Boston, but he's more a role player or nice hard-nosed worker guy off the bench. As a team's starting point guard, that's a weak spot to take advantage of. Rondo has shown he can hold his own with the elite point guards in this league so at this position I give the Celts a huge advantage.

Shooting guard is where Cleveland has two guys. Wally starts but usually only gets up to 20 minutes in a game. Probably due to his always ailing body. Szczerbiak is a smart player with a great shot when he is on. But he plays no defense. His replacement off the bench, Daniel Gibson, gets heavy minutes and will be in the game to either spell Wally or even Delonte. Gibson is a key player in this series for the Cavs. He is a streaky shooter but the Cavs really need his scoring to win. After LeBron and Ilgauskas, Gibson I would say is their next scoring threat. With this position being Ray Allen's man, I see Ray having a big series. Wally sure isn't going to stop Ray. And Ray will have a much easier defensive time on either Wally or Gibson compared to what he just had to deal with in Joe Johnson. So again, I give the shooting guard advantage to Boston and Ray Allen here. Ray had a rough Game 7 the other day so I expect a big Game 1 from him.

At Center it's the steady Ilgauskas against Kendrick Perkins. Ilgauskas is definitely tough and a decent scorer. Along with Gibson, if the Celts can shut the Big Z down throwing Perkins, Powe and even Big Baby his way, Cleveland could have a tough series. The Cavs need Ilgauskas to be big down in the paint. The matchup edge definitely goes to Cleveland here as Z is a seasoned vet, but it will be interesting to watch how the Celts fare here.

At the Power Forward, it's Big Ben Wallace against KG. Big Ben is not the dynamite player he once was but is still a force down low seemingly when he wants to be. He has grown to become a very inconsistent player nowadays. Once averaging 12-15 rebounds a night, that number is down to around 8. He can still rebound and play decent D, but it will be interesting to see how much energy and intensity he has going against KG who never has a problem with that. Obviously the edge here goes to KG as Wallace is an offensive liability most the time, but I do expect Big Ben to step up in this series. KG's attitude seems to fire the opponent up at times so maybe Ben wakes up and has a good series. Even still, the Celts have the edge here. Off the bench will be Joe Smith, one of KG's old teammates back from Minnesota. Smith is still a sneaky good player and one not to forget about.

Finally, we have the well-known matchup of LeBron James against Paul Pierce. Always fun to watch these two go at it and even though you have to give LeBron the edge here, that really doesn't mean anything since Pierce can have some big nights as well. The hardest task the Celts have is guarding this man-child or should I say man-beast. I expect Doc to somehow rotate Pierce, Posey and at times Tony Allen here against James. I would try to use Posey the most as he's long and a great defender and will give LeBron some trouble. Plus Posey still gives you great offense. No matter what, this will be the key matchup all series long.

Cleveland has a couple more stragglers coming off the bench in Devin Brown for their backcourt and Anderson Varejao for their frontline, but there isn't much worry there. All in all, I don't see Cleveland as a very strong team. They have some guys who can put it together for some nights, but overall the Celts are the much better team here. The wildcard is always LeBron and can he put this team on its back and lead them further like he performed last year? The C's have a large task in front of them to knock out LeBron, but I do see the Celts taking this series in 6 games to move on and face what we have expected all year long for a face-off against Detroit.