Written by Brian Windhorst at ESPN.com
When LeBron James played his first playoff game in Boston, Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown was just 11 years old. Brad Stevens had just finished his first season as a head coach. Tyronn Lue was playing for the Atlanta Hawks.
In short, James has been playing big games in Boston for a long time. And for the past seven years or so, he has pretty much dominated in TD Garden in the postseason. He added another notch Wednesday, setting the tone for the Cleveland Cavaliers with relentless attacks to the basket that methodically broke the Celtics en route to a 117-104 Game 1 victory in the Eastern Conference finals.
With nine days off giving spring to his legs, and worry about rust defining his game plan, James bull-rushed the Celtics early to help the Cavs establish a lead and snuff out any momentum the Celtics might’ve carried over from their Game 7 victory over the Washington Wizards 48 hours earlier.
The Celtics opened with a plan to switch defenders off screens to prevent James from turning the corner on drives. James shook it off, more than happy to set up the Celtics’ big men and beat them with strength, quickness and plain ruthlessness. He seemed to take special pleasure when he was guarded by Kelly Olynyk, a nemesis from his previous playoff vanquishing of the Celtics in 2015, skipping before crushing him on easy finishes. At one point the Cavs were 6-of-6 shooting for 15 points with Olynyk as the primary defender.
“I think it’s the mindset that you have to have when you go on the road for a Game 1,” James said. “You can’t start the game off lax or shooting a bunch of jump shots. That’s my mindset. … I have to be in attack mode and just put the pressure on the defense.”
James went 7-of-7 from the paint in the first quarter alone, and the Celtics’ dreams of catching the Cavs with rust were dashed when they went 0-of-8 on open 3-point shots in the first half.
Eventually the Celtics gave up and let the perimeter players stay on James, and that served only as a further green light. When it was over, he’d piled up 38 points plus nine rebounds and seven assists. It was his seventh consecutive playoff game scoring at least 30 points, a personal record. He did break a sweat, but one could be convinced otherwise.
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