The Boston Celtics finally found out who their second-round opponent will be after the Cleveland Cavaliers prevailed over the Orlando Magic in Sunday’s Game 7.
With Cleveland coming to town for Tuesday’s series opener, fans will surely be familiar with their stars, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. The two All-Star guards (typically) provide a fantastic scoring punch for the Cavs. Mitchell has been unbelievable so far in the playoffs, especially in Games 6 and 7 against Orlando, where he scored 50 and 39 points, respectively.
Despite the sheer talent between the two guards, I personally am more concerned with a pair of Celtics villains sitting on Cleveland’s bench.
Max Strus and Caris LeVert have built quite the “fans in Boston should boo us when we touch the ball” resumes for themselves over the years.
LeVert is someone who has earned the reputation of a “Celtics killer.” His career scoring average jumps up nearly three points per game when he plays the Cs. He may be the most average player who just seems to get superpowers any time it’s time to play Boston.
His career-high of 51 points came in a comeback win over the hosts in March of 2020. LeVert shot 17-of-26 that night and drilled five threes in the process of sinking the Cs.
Levert’s Cleveland debut against the Celtics came about three-and-a-half years later. On October 28, 2023, he absolutely spoiled my birthday with a 41-point masterclass for the Cavs. The man, again, couldn’t miss. He buried six of eight attempts from beyond the arc and 12-of-21 for the game.
A few months later, he had yet another strong outing against our boys in green. Fortunately, LeVert’s 26-point outburst in December of 2023 wasn’t enough to get Cleveland the victory.
Though the list of LeVert masterclasses against the Celtics isn’t quite as long as I remembered, I’m still not thrilled that he’s going to have a playoff stage to try and cook this time.
A man who has experience squaring off against Boston on the playoff stage is Strus, the former Celtic-preseason hopeful who found his way to Miami and became a part of “Heat Culture.”
(I’ll tell you what, if I never heard anything about Heat Culture again I’d be the happiest man on the planet.)
Instead, after Boston eliminated the Heat and their culture last week, they’ll be squaring off against the last living (in a playoff sense) example of that mantra.
Strus hasn’t ever been a “Celtics killer,” but I’m sick and tired of watching these Miami 3D-printed Heat Culture guys play against them. He was a key part of the back-to-back grueling Eastern Conference Finals series and certainly will bring a level of experience to a Cavaliers team that lacks it.
The Celtics having to play against Strus after taking out Miami is the basketball equivalent of Eddie Brock leaving a small piece of the Venom symbiote in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before being transported back to his own world in the “Spider-Man No Way Home” post-credit scene.
Boston certainly doesn’t need Strus conjuring up any of Miami’s black-magic voodoo in this second round. In the opening-round series against the Magic, he averaged just 9.1 points per game on 45.% shooting overall and 31.1% from beyond the arc.
It would be the least-shocking development ever if he all of a sudden started hitting threes at a 45% clip for the Celtics series.
As ridiculous as this all is, the fact of the matter is that both teams have talent towards the top of their rosters. The difference comes when you look at the guys rounding out the edges. Boston has reliable figures like Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Sam Hauser (throw Payton Pritchard in too, why not) supporting Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
For Cleveland, the help is far more scarce. However, if Strus and LeVert find their anti-Celtics powers in this series, things will be swung a bit less in Boston’s favor, which, of course, is far less fun.
