PREVIEW: Cavs take on Celtics to begin 5-game road trip

3. Dissecting Boston’s defense

For all the drama (Thomas and Jae Crowder’s return, having to face off against Irving, et al.), let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Celtics are the best defense in the league this year. They currently have a 100.8 defensive rating, just besting San Antonio and Golden State.

While matchups are obviously vastly different against the Warriors, the Christmas Day game showed just how much the Cavs struggled against the Warriors’ tough individual defense. In order to be successful on Wednesday, the Cavs will need more production from the bench than they got on Christmas, and will overall need good ball movement to get more guys involved with the offense.

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