The entire hardwood history of one of the leagues original teams – and even now circa the 2008 "Boston Three Party" of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce - awaits the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"It's a different game when you are on that, what's it called - parquet?" questioned Cavs head coach Mike Brown after Monday's practice at Cleveland Clinic Courts.

"This team is very, very, very aggressive. The pressure we faced in Washington, we're going to face three times that type of pressure."

While it took six games for the Cavs to dispose of the Wizards – and all their lip service - Boston had their hands full with the Atlanta Hawks, who took the best defensive team in the league with the best regular season record to seven games.

Boston finally advanced.

Cleveland steadily prepared.

Brown said he and his coaching staff broke down the Hawks-Celtics series and "watched how Atlanta defended their shots and some of their players," in preparation for their second round foe, noting Cleveland "may use some of Atlanta's ideas."

So despite many favoring the Celtics as odds-on favorites to win the title ever since Garnett and Allen came aboard last July, Cleveland actually learned a quick lesson watching Boston struggle against the upstart Hawks in the first round.

"We definitely saw some things," said reserve guard Devin Brown. "They (Boston) had that arrogance about them all season because they won all those games, and you didn't want to see them. But after seeing what we saw, we are ready to go."

As for the regular season, Boston and Cleveland split four games and both teams took two contests on their own floor. Those four games were hard fought, easily a preview of what many determine as must-see-TV come this playoff series.

"It's going to be a battle. It was a battle during the regular season," Devin Brown continued.

"It's going to be a war. We just have to be ready for the intensity the first two games and see what happens.

For Coach Brown, he remembers the regular season match-ups as extremely "competitive" and explained Boston's roster embodies a certain respect, particularly when it comes to defending Garnett, Allen and Pierce.

"It's going to be tough. It's like (Antawn) Jamison," Brown said about trying to contain Garnett.

"You can't always play him straight up. KG is a terrific passer especially out of the double team, but in order to keep a great player like KG off balance we'll have to mix in some double teams no matter who is guarding him."

Brown also plans on playing Allen and Pierce straight-up and likely flash double teams at times. But it's not only the "Big Three" the Cavs have to worry about. Rajon Rando, Kendrick Perkins and James Posey will not be taken lightly either, and that goes for Doc Rivers' entire team according to Brown.

"You can't give any great player or a good team a steady diet, because if you do they're going to get a rhythm."

When the ball is tossed in the air for the start of Game 1, it will be the fourth time the Cavs and Celtics have met in the NBA Playoffs. Boston defeated the Cavaliers in six games (4-2) in the 1976 East finals, and in four games (3-1) in the first round of the 1985 playoffs.

Maybe this is the time for Cleveland to exorcize some Celtics ghosts in Boston, with a little help of some more recent history.

The Cavs eliminated Boston in seven games in the 1992 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Check out the 2008 Playoff Weekly Stats Leaders Here

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