LeBron James reminded the Celtics who he is

LeBron James claimed he couldn’t get excited by a regular season game after taking his team to six straight NBA Finals. Not even a huge game in Boston in April with the No. 1 seed on the line.

LeBron finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists as Cleveland blew the doors off of the Celtics.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Celtics were inexplicably lethargic and uninterested in playing their typical team basketball. With the win, Cleveland takes a one-game lead in the race for first place and captures the head-to-head tiebreaker. That essentially gives the Cavaliers a two-game lead: Boston has to be a game better than Cleveland in the final standings to claim the No. 1 seed.

What does the No. 1 seed mean? Well, because of the complete unrest in the Eastern standings, it doesn’t mean avoiding anyone in particular just yet. But it does mean home-court advantage should the teams meet in the East finals.

MIA 112, CHA 99
TOR 105, DET 102
OKC 103, MEM 100
DEN 104, HOU 110
CLE 114, BOS 91
LAL 102, SAS 95
GSW 120, PHX 111
DAL 101, LAC 112

Russell Westbrook had 45 points, 10 assists and ... nine rebounds against Memphis. One board short of setting a new record for triple-doubles in a season. More importantly, he had another one of those incredible fourth-quarter takeovers in an OKC win.

In related news, I wrote about Westbrook’s personal motto, the growth mindset, and why we can all be inspired by Number Zero.

Austin Rivers might be a wizard as he (kinda) predicted Westbrook would “go Oscar” once Kevin Durant left the Thunder.

Tom Haberstroh on ending the 82-game season without losing revenue.

Here’s Whitney Medworth on Lance Stephenson’s bizarre, fascinating return to the Pacers.

The Lakers won again! Unbelievable!

Oscar Robertson thinks Westbrook is the MVP.

Only the Warriors can turn that into this.

Speaking of the Warriors, they clinched the No. 1 overall seed for the third straight season and became the first team ever to win 65 games in three straight seasons. Sheesh.

An incredibly deep dive into Milwaukee’s defense from former Sixers exec Ben Falk.

Kyle Lowry is BACK. Not “back from injury” — though he is — but “back hitting those nasty crossover.”

James Dolan is beefing with Knicks fans again.

The Basketball Tournament is going to employ intriguing new endgame rules for some of its preliminary games, and Zach Lowe reports the NBA will be watching with interest. The general idea: at the first timeout with less than four minutes left, the game clock is turned off and the first team to reach [leading team’s score plus seven] wins. This will prevent intentional fouling and endless endgames. I see some issues (like a massive advantage for whichever team has possession in a tied or very close game) but it’ll also be nice to see it actually play out in competitive basketball.

Klay Thompson credits the beautiful spring weather in the Bay Area for his insanely hot shooting. I totally buy it.

Remember Thabo Sefolosha’s lawsuit against the NYPD after officers broke his leg in 2015? He apparently settled. No word on the amount.

St. Anthony is closing.

And finally: some days we are all Kevin Love, taking a basketball to the face while preparing for our jobs. Pray that we will have a J.R. Smith there to catch us.