With Mr Kyrie Irving in the team do they have a chance.......
The Boston Celtics went through some changes in the offseason swapping the number 1 pick in the 2017 draft via Brooklyn to Philadelphia for a future 1st round pick and the number 3 pick in the 2017 draft (looking like a smart trade for Boston at the moment) and used that pick to draft Jayson Tatum at number 3 in the draft. While Tatum has been great for Boston in his rookie season and looks like he can become a star in this league the major move was when Boston traded Issah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and Brooklyn's 2018 first round pick for Kyrie Irving. Gordon Hayward was all snagged from the Utah Jazz in preseason after his all star season being the main centre piece in the Jazz's playoff run.
Hayward would immediately go down to a season ending injury really early into the start of the 2017-1018 season which most pundits said at the time was a awful injury.
When the Celtics pulled off the Kyrie Irving – Isaiah Thomas trade, it was thought to be mostly a wash on defense. Irving was regarded as bad a defender as Thomas. The only difference, most thought, was that Kyrie was taller and could at least get a hand in the face of opposing team’s shooters. We’ve come to find out that Kyrie can be an excellent defensive player at times, much to the upset of Cleveland fans.
Proof you may ask? Kyrie helped limit standout Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr to 4-of-16 shooting and made a key steal from behind down the stretch to preserve a Celtics win earlier in the season.
As for that tiny matter of guarding LeBron James, the Celtics obviously cannot completely stop him. But they do have the personnel to at least slow him down some. LeBron said last year that Jaylen Brown was one of the sneaky good young defenders in the NBA and Stevens tends to agree as he often puts Brown one-on-one with LeBron. Obviously Brown will need help and that may come in the form of Marcus Morris. Morris helped hold LeBron to a season-low 16 points last year when he was a member of the Pistons and Detroit had decent success against the Cavs overall last year, going 2-2.
Can they beat the Golden State Warriors?
Brad Stevens is the coach with the most success against the Warriors, and now the Celtics have the player with the most success against the Dubs in Kyrie. Kyrie was the difference-maker in the 2016 NBA Finals when the Cavs rallied from a 3-1 hole to upset Golden State .You obviously can’t bank on injuries, but the Warriors are due for some bad luck in June one of these years. The Cavs endured costly injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie during the Finals trilogy.
It’s crazy to say considering the Warriors unreal collection of stars, but the Celtics actually match up better with Golden State than Cleveland. Boston has been built to compete against a sharp-shooting, guard-heavy squad like the Warriors. The hope for Ainge during this whole process was that LeBron would either get old or would bolt to the Western Conference.
So....... Can they do it? The way that the Cavaliers are playing at the moment means that in a matchup between Boston and Cleveland you would say Boston would win in 6 or 7 games, what about the Toronto Raptors the top team in the East? could go either way, however if they do get past Cleveland and Toronto then can they beat Golden State or Houston..... maybe just maybe.