Boston Celtics advanced to the conference finals by beating the Washington Wizards last night, and Avery Bradley believes his team will do well in the next round.
The Celtics needed seven hard-fought games to knock the Wizards out, but they seem to be ready for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will be a much tougher opponent. The defending NBA champions will be a good challenge for them, but it is very likely they will knock them out.
One thing is for sure, and that is that Boston players don't lack confidence. They believe in themselves, and there is no doubt that they also think they could be the NBA champions this year.
However, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be extremely tough to beat and beating them four times in the playoffs seems very unlikely.
Bradley believes in Boston
Bradley has averaged 15.8 points per game this postseason, and he's been one of the best Celtics players. His offense is solid, and he is a very good defender, who could create matchup problems for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before game seven against the Wizards, Bradley said he believes the Celtics should play against Cleveland, and also beat them.
Avery Bradley, who had back-to-back 20-point games against the Wizards, thinks his team is capable of winning it all. To do so, they will have to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers who are led by the incredible LeBron James.
James has made it to the finals six years in a row and Boston is his only obstacle to getting his seventh consecutive NBA finals appearance.
So far, the Cavaliers have swept both of their playoff opponents and they've looked unstoppable. On the other side, the Celtics needed 13 games to reach the conference finals and will definitely be underdogs in the series.
Avery Bradley says Cs have to think big: "We believe we should be playing against Cleveland, and beat Cleveland and go to the championship."
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) May 14, 2017
Playoff history between Boston and Cleveland
Since LeBron James was drafted, the Cleveland Cavaliers have faced off against the Boston Celtics three times, and Boston won it twice.
However, last time they faced, which was in 2015, the Cavaliers swept the Celtics and James was unstoppable.
Before LeBron entered the league, the Cavaliers were also 1-2 against the Celtics in the playoff series. In total, Boston has a 4-2 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it will be very hard to make it 5-2. The Cavaliers were 3-1 against the Celtics in the regular season, and even though it does not matter much, it shows that they match up well against them, and we could have a very interesting series.