Celtics look to keep LeBron and Cavs in check
All the talk coming from the Cleveland camp has been about LeBron James and how injured his elbow is and of course it will be the main focus of tonight’s game.
Well, it will be the focus if he continues to struggle and shows signs of the injury actually bothering him. However, if he has shrugged the injury off, as latest reports indicate, game three between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics should be about basketball not an elbow.
Basketball is what the Cavaliers need to focus on because if they don’t they are in real danger of losing the series which is evenly balanced at 1-1, and arguably it’s been the Celtics who have been the better team in both games.
And it seems as if James wants to just concentrate on basketball rather than how his elbow is feeling.
"I've got to play with it. It could be a recurring thing through the whole playoffs, if we continue to win and continue to be in the playoffs it could be a recurrence, and it may not be better until the offseason,” James said.
He’s going to have to learn to play with the injury and quickly if the Cavs are stand any chance of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, and as game two showed the Celtics are good enough to take advantage of any weakness Cleveland show.
"If it's hurting throughout the game, there is no way it can stay off your mind. You want to be conscious about it, but at the same time I need to find a way to help the team no matter if it's hurting or not. There is no way you cannot think about it,” James added.
The Celtics, too, have injuries to two key players. Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins sat out practices earlier in the week but both should be back for Friday night’s game.
"It was a good two days of treatment and I’m good, it was a very solid day and I'm looking forward to [Friday's] game,” said Garnett.
Perkins too was feeling upbeat
"It’s a little sore, but nothing I can't play through, it feels a lot better since the last game on Monday. I feel a lot better, coming in and getting treatment with Ed Lacerte. It felt great [Wednesday], improved today, so it's getting better.”
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