BOSTON – The list of successful antagonists in the long history of the Boston Celtics is both short and starry.


 As the NBA’s winningest franchise, the Celtics are the team that’s long filled the role of the immovable roadblock that doused waves of other championship dreams. Dust off those history books and see how many times Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and Isaiah Thomas were left cursing Red Auerbach. [...]

Kevin McNamara

BOSTON – The list of successful antagonists in the long history of the Boston Celtics is both short and starry.

 As the NBA’s winningest franchise, the Celtics are the team that’s long filled the role of the immovable roadblock that doused waves of other championship dreams. Dust off those history books and see how many times Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and Isaiah Thomas were left cursing Red Auerbach.

 But it’s a very short list when you search for the names of players who’ve sent the Celtics packing in the playoffs on a consistent basis. Dolph Schayes and the Syracuse Nats frustrated Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman in the 1950’s but that all changed when a big guy named Bill Russell showed up. Magic Johnson and the Lakers fit the mold perfectly in the 1980’s, although his matchups with Larry Bird’s crew (when healthy) ended in a relative standoff.

 

 That brings us to LeBron James, who may be one win away from cementing himself as the undisputed, certifiably greatest Celtics-killer of them all. First in Miami and now in his second tour of duty in Cleveland, James has frustrated, tormented and extinguished the championship hopes of a string of Celtics teams. Sunday night on the TD Garden’s parquet, he’ll try to do it yet again.

 “For me, I don't put too much added pressure on myself. I just go out and play my game,” James said. “It's a Game 7. It's something that you wish you had when you're done playing, but more than that, it's just basketball for me. I know what I'm capable of doing, and I'm going to trust everything I put into it.”

 James is looking to lead his team into the NBA Finals for the eighth straight season. During this run he’s snuffed out the Celtics four times. He nearly single-handedly put an end to the Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett-Rajon Rondo Era with wins in both 2011 and `12 with the Heat. Back in Cleveland, James led the Cavs to a sweep in 2015 and a walk-in-the-park victory in five games a year ago.

 This series is a very different challenge. This is no championship-driven Celtics team. Ever since they lost Gordon Hayward (ankle) and Kyrie Irving (knee) to injury these Celtics have played with house money. This cast of young guns is unbeaten (10-0) at the Garden in the playoffs and favored slightly to close out LeBron and the Cavs, especially if Kevin Love (possible concussion) can’t post.

 But this moment won’t be about the most unlikely Celtics team to ever make an NBA Finals. It won’t be about the refreshing promise of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown or the steady veteran presence of Al Horford. It may be a sweet story if this cast can overcome a Herculean performance by one of the sport’s all-time great Hall of Famers but everyone outside of New England will tune into Game 7 to watch LeBron.

 

 Does he own anything left in his seemingly endless basketball tank?

 Can he again put his imprint all over a high stakes playoff game like he did on Friday night when he toyed with the Celts with an eye-popping line of 46 points (including five 3-pointers), 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals?

 Can he really will this limited, inconsistent Cavaliers team into The Finals?

 Don’t bet again it.

 That all this is playing out with the possibility of him bolting from his home state once again this summer just adds a layer of drama around a star who’s all but turned the NBA into a high ratings soap opera.

 Celtics coach Brad Stevens can’t be sleeping very much this holiday weekend. He has to wonder what Cavaliers team will show up in a pressurized Game 7. Is it the team personified by J.R. Smith and Jeff Green that fumbles and bumbles over itself when everyone struts into the Garden or the poised group that played off LeBron so skillfully on Friday night?

 

 No coach wants to face a player like James in a winner-take-all scenario. He’s now won 11 of his last 14 elimination games and is 5-2 in Game 7 of the NBA playoffs, including 1-1 vs. the Celtics. He’s averaged 35 points, 8 rebounds and 4.5 assists in those Game 7’s, but will likely have to top all of those numbers to pull this game out.

 James has yet to show up with his `A’ game in Boston in this series. That will have to change, especially if Love can’t post. If King James hopes to add yet another chapter to a run where the Celtics have served as the roadblock to greatness so many times, we had better get ready to witness another vintage performance.