The Celtics are smacking the Cavs around

Is LeBron James even good at basketball?

The answer is obviously yes, but is his team? Sure. Of course they are. It's just the Celtics are a lot better than them. It's pretty impressive honestly.

The C's beat them by double digits in the first two games of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals. That's not a safe lead by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have to make you feel good. The chances of them making it to the NBA finals now are over 50 percent. Would anyone would have thought that in April when the team wasn't playing great basketball and was loaded... with injuries? Surely, some of you crazy cats did, but not everyone.

The C's defense has been something to marvel at during the series; Cleveland hasn't put up more than 94 points in a game while the Celtics have put up over 100 in both contests. But what about the balanced scoring effort? That's not being talked about enough.

In game two, the Celtics had six players who finished the game with double-digit point totals: Marcus Morris, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart. When you get Marcus Smart contributing on offense--and there's incentive to keep him on the floor--good things are going to happen on the other side of the ball, so that's great news.

The downside for the C's now is that they have to do two games on the road. They were fortunate to build some momentum at TD Garden early in the series, but they're going to LeBron's home state. There's a clear disadvantage to being in that kind of an environment.

Still, the Celtics have the edge in the series now. They've gained some momentum early in the series, so perhaps it will carry over. That'd be great, wouldn't it?