The Cleveland Cavaliers used a total team effort to beat the Toronto Raptors in four games, but now against the Boston Celtics, it’s back to LeBron James carrying the load for the Cavs.
The rest of the team, besides Kevin Love, is not doing much to help. J.R. Smith sees it, and says if the Cavaliers want to win, they need to stop forcing James to play “hero ball.”
“We have to ramp it up,” said J.R. Smith via ESPN, who is averaging 2.0 points on 12.5 percent shooting in the series. “We’re playing too slow. We’re making Bron play hero ball, which is tough to do, especially in the Eastern Conference finals. We got to help him.
“With that said, we have to give him an opportunity to make him feel confident to give us the ball so we can make the right plays. We got to help him, and he’s got to help us.”
Against the Raptors, the Cavaliers had six players that were averaging double figures, and that led to an easy sweep. Now against the Celtics, the Cavs only have two players averaging double figures, Love and James.
Even though the Cavs are down 2-0 in this series, there is still some reason to have hope. The Celtics have been good at home this postseason having an undefeated record, but on the road, it’s been a different story. The Celtics are only 1-4 away from TD Garden, and maybe the home crowd is just what the Cavaliers need to turn it around.
The Cavs and Celtics will continue their series on Saturday night at Quicken Loans Arena.