7 Questions about the Cavs-Celtics after 2 games

With apologies to Suns-Spurs, there is not a more interesting 2nd round NBA Conference Semi match up than Cavs-Celtics. After two games in Cleveland it stands 1-1 and seems to have the most lingering questions heading into Game 3 on Friday Night.

1. How hurt is Lebron?- I am an unabashed Lebron James backer, but even I am very confused as to what is truly going on with his elbow. While I am not in the camp that thinks he is faking it or trying to create drama by acting like it is worse than it is, I still cannot figure out his situation is. In both games 1 and 2 he seemed very passive and was in passing mode for most of the first half. In game 1 he stepped it up and lead the Cavs back to win, but in game 2 he never got into a groove and just seemed out of it. If the Cavs have any chance to take a game in Boston they need Lebron in full attack mode from the opening tip. My question is can he do it physically? Is he playing passive in the opening half intentionally or doe she know that his elbow cannot handle the physical style he plays for 40 minutes so he is trying to manage his game accordingly. If the elbow is holding him back this could be a short series for the Cavs.

2. Can Rajon Rondo keep it up? Plain and simple Rondo has been the best player on the floor in this series so far. He is destroying the Cavs off the dribble and getting into the paint whenever he wants. The question becomes are we witnessing Rondo making the jump to elite NBA PG and alpha dog of the Celtics or are we witnessing a hot streak by a good young player? If he is making the leap to elite, than it will be hard for the Cavs to win 3 more games in this series.

3. Will the real Mo Williams please stand up? Williams has been rightfully criticized by his complete no show in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, but seemed to be finding his playoff groove against the Bulls in the first round. In game 1 vs the Celtics Williams single handily kept the Cavs in the game and helped spark the Cavs 2nd half rally. Game 2 however was a nightmare performance that looked awfully similar to his stinkbombs vs the Magic last year. So moving forward it has become very obvious that as Williams goes so goes the Cavs. Lebron creates so many open looks for Williams that when he is hitting his shots it is almost impossible to beat the Cavs. So which Williams will we see in Game 3?

4. Can the Celtics Big 3 handle a long physical series? Its no secret that Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett have a lot of NBA miles on their legs, and this series will be sure to test them. Pierce has been tasked with trying to mark Lebron on the defensive end which is hard enough, but he is also the Celtics go to clutch scorer. To ask a veteran like Pierce to do this for 7 physical games seems like an almost impossible task. Garnett still looks rusty from his knee injuries and is being asked to exploit his match up with Jamison on offense. While Allen looks fresh, the fact remains Cleveland plays him very tough and has historically caused him to shoot poorly from deep. In order for Allen to get open looks he is running all over the court through backscreens, and this takes a toll on any shooter especially a pure jump shooter like Allen. All of these factors combine to make these next 2 games in Boston huge, because if they take both the Celtics are in great position to close it out early. If the Celtics drop one of these home games than the possibility of a 7 game series drastically increases, which begs the question, do the Big 3 have enough in them to win a Game 7 in Cleveland after 6 grueling physical games prior to Game 7?

5. What should Mike Brown do with Shaq? The Cavs got Shaq for 2 reasons the Magic and the Lakers. After watching 2 games in this series two things have became apparent. First, Shaq is struggling to score when he gets the ball in the post and second, the Cavs do not need Shaq in the line up in order to shut down Kendrick Perkins. So the question becomes what do the Cavs do with Shaq? They obviously need him to get minutes to prepare for battling with Dwight Howard and or Pau Gasol, but they clearly are hampered by Shaq when facing a smaller faster Celtics frontcourt. Mike Brown will need to find some sort of balance between these 2 factors or else the Cavs will be in serious trouble.

6. Will Celtics bench give them anything? While the Celtics bench has played decent so far, they clearly are not a deep team. There will come a point in this series where either due to fouls or fatigue that the Celtics will have to trust their bench to come up huge. The Celtics simply cannot rely on their top 5 to carry them 48 minutes a night for 7 games. The bench will get their chance and it will not matter if its against Cleveland's much stronger 2nd unit or against the Cavs starters, the outcome of the bench's performance will play a huge role in the final outcome of the series. The Celtics bench does not even need to outplay Cleveland's bench; they just need to hold their own. Can they do it?

7. How will the 4 day break between games 2 and 3 affect each team? The weird schedule means that game 2 was played on Monday while game 3 would not take place till Friday. Who will benefit the most from this extended time off. Both teams could use the rest because it gives the Celtics time to rest the Big 3, while also giving the Cavs more time to rest and treat Lebron's elbow. However, both teams probably wanted to play game 3 as soon as possible for very different reasons. The Celtics just game off two of their best all around games of the year and stole a game in Cleveland, so they would have loved to carry all that momentum into game 3 as quickly as possible. The Cavs on the other hand, turned in one of their worst performances of the year in game 2 and were probably desperate to get to game 3 to try and erase the feelings of the game 2 beatdown. Will these extra days off give any team an advantage?

I am very excited to see how this series turns out and in my gut I have the feeling that this series goes 7 games. As for a prediction, your guess is as good as mine. With so many unanswered questions the only thing that we can be sure of, is that the rest of this series will be must watch television.