Hoops 18: Same Old Celtics

Only two NBA champions have been blown out at home as badly as Boston was in Game 2 against the Cavaliers

Ace, James, and Jesse are back amid the second round of the NBA playoffs, where the Finals matchup they've envisioned for months is falling apart rapidly -- largely because the Nuggets dropped the first two games of their series against the Timberwolves at home, and looked completely overmatched in the process, not to mention physically fading.

Meanwhile, the Celtics are still in a safe enough position to believe that they'll survive the Cavaliers, but that's only because we're now all so used to Boston mixing an outright stinker into every series. With the way the rest of the East looks, including the red-hot but also Icy Hot-slathered Knicks, it still feels like the Celtics are the team to beat. Problem is, they keep showing why they're beatable.

That's got James thinking about a team that isn't even in the playoffs, but figures to be a spring fixture again soon enough, the San Antonio Spurs.

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The Celtics’ 118-94 loss to the Cavaliers in Game 2 of their series is the third-worst home loss that a team has taken in this year’s playoffs, following the now-eliminated Clippers’ 30-point drubbing by the Mavericks and the Nuggets’ 26-point shellacking by the Timberwolves earlier this week.

Bad news for both of the teams that have long been assumed to be on a collision course for the Finals: only two teams have lost this badly on their home floor in the playoffs and gone on to win the championship.

One was the 2000 Lakers, who dropped Game 2 of the Western Conference finals to the Trail Blazers, 106-77, roared back to take a 3-1 series lead, and barely hung on to win in seven, rallying in the fourth quarter of the decider to pull it off.

The other time that a team got destroyed this badly at home and went on to win it all, it also was a loss to the Cavaliers: the 1992 Bulls got clobbered, 107-81, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals behind 28 points and nine rebounds from Brad Daugherty, but wound up winning that series in six before taking the second of three straight chips.

One other time, a team has lost by 24-plus at home and reached the NBA Finals. That was another Celtics team that squared off with another Cavs team: on May 7, 2010, Cleveland won Game 3 of the second round, 124-95, led by 38 points from LeBron James. Boston won the next three games by a combined 51 points, then beat Orlando in the conference finals before losing to the Lakers in seven.

That was the end of LeBron’s first go-around in Cleveland. Now we’re looking at the late stages of the playoffs, as James noted on the podcast, without LeBron, Steph, KD, Kawhi… with Giannis eliminated, and Jokić possibly headed to the exit this round, this could be the fourth straight year with a first-time Finals MVP, a run last matched from 2006-09, when Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker, Paul Pierce, and Kobe Bryant each won the award. Previously, there was also a run of four straight first-time Finals MVPs from 1988-91, with James Worthy, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan’s first of six.