After Monday night’s 110-102 overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics have won 16 straight games and lead the Eastern Conference standings with an overall record of 16-2. While it’s true that the C’s have played well through the early stages of this season, it sounds like Cavs sharpshooter J.R. Smith isn’t sold just yet.
“Nah,” JR Smith told B/R when asked if he and the Cavs are paying attention to the league-leading Celtics. “It’s too early. Too early. We don’t start paying attention until after All-Star break when you see teams spacing out (in the standings). You start getting your best shot after the All-Star break.”
Smith cautioned, however, the Cavs can’t spend too much time playing catchup or it can come back to bite them in April, May and June.
“Last year we were coming off winning a championship (in 2016) and we got ahead of ourselves,” Smith said. “We should’ve been the one seed but Boston had a good year. We took steps further back when we shouldn’t have.”
As most hoops fans will remember, the Celtics, then led by Isaiah Thomas, came into last season’s Eastern Conference Playoffs as the No. 1 seed. Cleveland finished just behind Boston with the No. 2 seed. The two teams later met in the Eastern Conference Finals, where the Cavs edged out the Celtics in five games.
This season, the Cavs got off to a bumpy start. In fact, they were ranked at or near the bottom of the barrel in defensive efficiency for quite some time, which led to an early four-game losing streak. They’ve managed to rebound since then, however, winning five straight and playing much better on the defensive end of the floor. During their recent winning streak, the Cavs held opposing sides to a combined .444 shooting from the field, including a .313 (47-150) mark from three-point range.
With the 2017-18 season in its early stages of development, it’s hard to say where these two teams might end up. The 82-game regular season is certainly a grind, but there is no doubt that both sides are up for the challenge.