BOSTON -- The Cavaliers are one win away from yet another NBA Finals showdown with the Golden State Warriors.
You know, the Warriors. The team which beat them in the 2015 Finals, set an NBA record with 73 wins in 2016, blew a 3-1 lead to the Cavs in the Finals for Cleveland's first championship, and then went out and signed Kevin Durant.
Those Warriors. Maybe the ultimate challenge.
"You can't," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said, when asked if he's begun to think about the probable Finals matchup with the Warriors. "As much as you want to, it's not over. [The Celtics are], like I told you guys before, it's like we're preparing for a whole new team. Like, we didn't know what they were going to run. Isaiah (Thomas) goes down and they're running a totally different offense than we prepared for so it's been tough on us. And defensively, they're a lot better. They don't have a lot of weak links to go to, to go at."
The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to go 12-0 through three rounds. They await the East winner for Game 1 at Oracle Arena in June 1.
Barring a historic collapse, it will be the Cavs. Neither they nor LeBron James has ever lost a playoff series in which they led 2-0. Cleveland holds a 3-1 lead now with Game 5 set for 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Boston.
Dating to the 2009 playoffs, the Cavs have won 12 consecutive closeout games in the playoffs and can set an NBA record with their 13th straight victory on Thursday.
James needs 28 points to pass Michael Jordan (5,987) as the NBA's all-time leading scorer in the playoffs. He's averaging 32.3 points per game this postseason, and is just one win away from reaching his seventh consecutive finals. It hasn't been done since Bill Russell led the Celtics to eight straight from 1959-66.
There is plenty for the Cavs to think about before they can start focusing on the oodles of challenges and storylines a third Cleveland-Golden State Finals will bring. Among them, at least for Lue, is the drawing up of schemes to beat the Celtics first.
Boston changed its whole offense and stiffened defensively after losing Thomas in Game 2. Cleveland's entire scheme was built around frustrating Thomas on offense and exploiting him on defense.
"The stuff they're running, it's harder to defend than Golden State's (offense) for me, as far as the actions and all the running around and all the guys who are making all the plays, so it's a totally different thing," Lue said. "Like, they hit the post, Golden State runs splits and all that stuff but these guys are running all kinds of (stuff). And Brad's (Stevens) got them moving and cutting and playing with pace and everybody is a threat."
Then again, none of Boston's players pose the kind of threats that Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green will present.
But that's another thought for a different day.
Cleveland's business in the East is not yet finished.
"The close-out game is always the hardest, and also you're doing it (on the road)," James said. "And Boston is going to make it even harder."