Playoff Live Thread: Cavs @ Celtics, Game 7 (#Everything’sGoneGreen)

If you want a window into my thought process on a game day when I’m contemplating what to toss up for a Live Thread theme… it often correlates to some decades past musical deep cut that sticks in my brain and provides me with an odd but fitting subtitle. Even on the verge of a winner-goes-to-the-Finals Game 7 on the road in the most hostile of territories, this is still the case. Thus, an obscure early 80s track by the new wave group, New Order, gets some unexpected exposure on a website that covers the Cavs.

I had a sneaking suspicion… okay let’s call it overwhelming sense of dread… that once Kevin Love had been officially placed into concussion protocol from the hit he took on Friday night, Ty Lue would invariably turn to his own personal human security blanket to start in Love’s place. Yes, everything’s gone Green… Jeff Green. And, since I already happened to be listening to some New Order on my run this morning, I clicked over to the song in question and the first stanza seemed eerily appropriate…

Help me, somebody help me
I wonder where I am
I see my future before me
I’ll hurt you when I can

It’s no secret that I (along with many of us here at C:tB) have had an uneasy love/hate relationship with Uncle Jeff all season long. Many of us derided his signing in free agency… only to cautiously gain appreciation for his contributions off the bench. He’s perhaps the ultimate trick or treat type of player, who can one minute look like a world class athlete on a drive and slam… and in the very next pull some boneheaded defensive blunder or jack up a wildly unnecessary three.

Yet, of course… that’s essentially what the Cavs’ season has boiled down to in game 100… everything’s on Green. Okay, well maybe not everything. I’m blatantly underselling that the Cavs have the greatest player on the planet at what seems like a new incredible height of his individual powers in LeBron James. You know, the dude who’s just one 40+ point game shy of tying Jerry West for most in a single playoffs (8). Of course, it could very well take that eighth one by James to secure a trip to his eighth straight Finals. I’m also probably giving short shrift to the other Cavs who stepped up on Friday to help force this Game 7. Guys like George Hill, Kyle Korver, Larry Nance, Jr. and even Jordan Clarkson. However, it remains to be seen if they can achieve the same level of success on the road in Boston.

The Celtics are the other reason that everything’s gone Green. Not just because that’s the color that will dominate the broadcast from the TD Garden, but also because this neophyte team has become the epitome of the “youth is served” movement in these playoffs. Aside from old heads Al Horford and Aaron Baynes (both 31), no other Celtic is over the age of 28. In fact, half the team couldn’t even rent a car yet. Young guns like Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum and Terry Rozier are playing the game like seasoned vets, and that’s even in games without the benefit of their parqueted home floor. At home, like they are in this critical Game 7, they draw on the irrational confidence provided by their boisterous Boston crowd. Not to mention, they have a coach in Brad Stevens who is legitimately living up to the years of hype that preceded him. And, if he pulls off leading this mostly star-less squad past The King’s Cavs and into the Finals, even I will have to begrudgingly tip my cap to the President Genius.

I used the word “critical” to describe Game 7 just then… but it’s really not that for the young Celtics. Win or lose, this team has been playing on house money ever since Kyrie Irving’s season ended. With him, Gordon Hayward and whoever else they bring in to bolster this young core, they have a bright future that would seem to offer many more shots at a ring to come. For the Cavs, on the other hand, this is critical. Not just for the opportunity to extend their run to the Finals one more year, but also as a potential defining factor in LeBron’s next weighty decision of “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Even if the odds are against the Cavs to upend the Warriors or Rockets in the Finals… just getting back there would be a major accomplishment for James and his depleted crew. And, even though it’s just the difference of one game, it’s still probably better for his mindset to make the Finals rather than get bounced by an undermanned Celtics team in the ECF.

Which brings me back to the guy who, like it or not, has the best chance of deciding the fate of this game. If Jeff Green plays like the version of himself who filled in admirably for an injured Love in Game 6 (14 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and some tough, switchy defense), then it might be enough to help LeBron get the team over the top. If he plays more like he has in the previous three games in Boston where he turns the ball over, hoists vomit-inducing threes and misses more rotations than shots, then the Cavs are headed for summer vacation.

It’s ironic that Green doesn’t play better in the Garden, where he played for almost half of his nine year career. It’s even more ironic that he very well could be the difference between whether or not the Celtics make it back to the Finals since 2010… and whether or not something else that happened that year gets repeated. To quote the New Order song lyric… “It seems like I’ve been here before…”

On the other hand… like LeBron always says “anything can happen in a Game 7.” We’ve also seen him there before… as recently as the opening round against the Pacers… and, as spectacularly as 2016 on the road in Oakland. As long as he’s wearing the wine & gold… the Cavs have a fighting chance no matter how many All-Stars they lose.

No prediction for me… but I do expect this to be the closest game of the series (which is not hard since the average margin of victory has been almost 17 points in the first six games). I believe LeBron has one more insane game in him… and I desperately want to believe that Jeff Green does also.

Catch all the action starting at 8:30pm EST on ESPN… and, as always keep the conversation going below.

GO CAVS!

(oh, and if you’re not familiar with Everything’s Gone Green… click here for a listen).