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Celtics aim for better series vs. Cavs

May 6, 2008 - 12:05 PM Cleveland at Boston 8:00 pm EDT Eastern Conference Semifinal Game One

BOSTON (Ticker) - The Boston Celtics can't afford to have another letdown with LeBron James coming to town.

The top-seeded Celtics hope for a better effort in Game One of their Eastern Conference semifinal series matchup against James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.

In its opening-round series against eighth-seeded Atlanta, Boston struggled on the road but was able to capture all four home games - including Sunday's 99-65 victory in the decisive Game Seven.

"I really had no doubt in my mind how we were going to come out," Celtics forward Paul Pierce said. "You kind of saw it from the guys after Game Six on the plane, there wasn't a lot of talking. We knew that we let a couple of games get away in Atlanta and I knew we were just going to take care of business."

While the Celtics struggled to get out of their first-round series, the Cavaliers took care of the Washington Wizards in six games.

James recorded his third career postseason triple-double and Wally Szczerbiak scored 26 points for the reigning conference champs, who were swept by San Antonio in the NBA Finals last year.

The 6-8 James had his way with Boston during the regular season, averaging 32.0 points, 9.6 assists and 7.0 in helping Cleveland win two of the three games he played in.

Pierce will perhaps drew the defensive assignment on James.

"You've always got to keep an eye on him wherever he is on the court," Pierce said. "I'm not trying to turn this into a one-on-one. I know that I don't have to get 35 points and 15 rebounds for us to win."

Also of interest is how Boston will fare on the offensive glass with the likes of Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the mix. Cleveland led the league with 13.3 offensive rebounds.

Celtics All-Star Kevin Garnett should be prepared to face several different defenders in this series, starting with former Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace.