Are the Cavs defense underrated for their success in 06-08?

[microfib4thewin]

In that span of three years, people thought Lebron was leading a bunch of nobody and manage to make the Cavs overachieve because of his greatness. While I won't dispute that he did all he could under the circumstances, is it really just Lebron that pushed the Cavs to unexpected finishes in the postseason? In 06, they had a heated battle against Detroit and finally gave out in game 7 due to a lack of talent and cohesion compared to the Pistons. In 07, they unexpected beat Detroit and got swept by the Spurs even though Duncan was rendered ineffective by the Cavs defense. In 08, they went up against one of the strongest champion in the last decade and only lost the series when Lebron missed the layup with 30 seconds left on game 7. After that, they got Mo Williams, Lebron became an All-Defense player, and that huge trade they pulled off in 08 seem to be paying off with Big Ben and Wally World becoming solid contributors. They have one of the most efficient offense and one of the best defense in the regular season, and it seem like they will win it all or at least make it to the finals in 09. Then Orlando happened, despite Lebron's 38/8/8 performance they couldn't stop the bleeding in the frontcourt against Dwight and Rashard. Fine, this is the first time they underachieved, that shouldn't count against the Cavs or Lebron since they usually end up better than playoff predictions from the 'experts' and the general public.

Now we get to this year, they got Shaq to counter Dwight when the time comes, and they got a scoring punch up front in Jamison which they lacked since losing Boozer. They were the only team that you can call consistent in the regular season, and it looks like they can really win it all this time. Yet, what I am seeing in this series is one of the worst perimeter defense I've seen from the Lebron Cavs. Rondo looks like Magic against the duo of Parker and Mo, no one is chasing Allen off screens, KG and Perkins is open on nearly every pick and pop, both Jamison and Shaq are letting the Celtics feast in the paint. Now, I am not going to pin this on any particular individual or event, because how the Cavs fortified defense turned to mush the last couple of years is a mystery to me, but seeing the Cavs possibly losing twice as the favorites really remind me of how gritty their defense was when they were still the underdog.

I guess the lesson is, no superstar can go anywhere without a good team defense, GOAT included.

[Kunta Kinte]

[kookie_819]

[bl2k]