Time for concern, Cavaliers faithful

It's a new series with the Boston Celtics, ladies and gentlemen. But now it's a best-of-five, and the Celts have home-court advantage. And the questions about LeBron James' elbow are back. Fortunately, he's got three days to rest it, but that helps the aging Celtics too. Beantown manhandled our boys on the way to a 104-86 victory.

LeBron, on the day he formally received his second straight NBA MVP award, made a lot of mistakes and had little impact on this game until the fourth quarter, when the game was out of reach. He scored 24 points, 12 of which came in that fourth period, on 7-of-15 shooting (0-for-4 from downtown). He was able to get the ball inside a few times, and that's where most of his points came from. He wasn't able to hit from the perimeter worth a darn. He turned the ball over five times. He made some defensive contributions, to be sure, but this game was proof that as LeBron goes, so go the Cavs.

The Cavaliers were lacking in defensive intensity in this one. The Celtics had six players in double figures, but the biggest key to their offensive output was point guard Rajon Rondo. His 19 assists tied a Celtics team record for a playoff game — and when you tie a Celtics team playoff record, you know you've done something special. And late in the second quarter, he made one of the prettiest basketball moves I ever saw, dribbling toward the right side of the backboard, then stopping short as he held the ball off to the right, before moving left and laying the ball up. That move faked out not one, but two Cavaliers defenders. Regardless, it's Rondo's ability to create for his teammates that the Cavaliers simply have to find a way to stop.

There is reason for optimism, however. For example, look at the teams' respective outside shooting in this one — the Cavaliers shot just 4-of-21, the Celtics 9-of-19. Neither team is going to keep up that kind of pace. The Cavaliers went 2-2 against the Celtics in the regular season, splitting two games in each team's building. The Cavs' win in Boston was a very convincing 108-88 victory on Feb. 25, in which our guys outscored theirs by 21 in the fourth quarter. And as Tim Legler pointed out on SportsCenter, the Cavs were the best defensive team in the NBA this year. Their lapses in this game were uncharacteristic, and there's no reason to believe they'll continue to play like that. They'll pick it up.

... I hope.