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I think this series against the hawks was a good preparation for the cavs. Especially defensively. The way we double teamed Joe Johnson and the way we forced him to pass the ball is something we will have to do against Lebron.

What do you guys think? Will this "experience" help us to be prepared from the start, since we already have this defensive scheme figured out? Obviously there will be changes to how exactly we will cover Lebron but I expect the concept to be similar to what we tried against Atlanta and Joe Johnson.

The difference is that JJ is not as good as Lebron and also Lebron has spot shooters to play with. This is a way tougher match up.

See I actually think you want to delay your doubles on Lebron and dare him to be a jumpshooter. Double him early and he'll kick it to Gibson/Wally/West/Z for open jumpers and 3s. I'd rather Lebron score 35-40 but shut down their outside shooters. The biggest fear I have is Pierce getting into foul trouble, as Ray Allen cannot defend Lebron whatsoever. Posey should be our best bet with late doubles hopefully drawing some charges against Lebron.

As Doc said about JJ, not one single player will be the key to stopping JJ (or in this case LBJ). It will need to be a team effort.

Tony Allen and Posey should defend Lebron as much as possible. Let Wally and West shoot.

you defend lebron by making him play defense. when his legs aren't as fresh, his shot might struggle. thats all you can really hope for. i think pierce should take it to him, maybe get him in foul trouble.

Doc should be watching/studying how the Spurs guarded Lebron in the Finals last year.

Let Lebron kill you and guard everybody else. Lebron by himself will not beat Boston, let him go off and limit everybody else. Look at the houston vs Jazz series for an example, Tmac went off for 40 but they still loss.

bceltic55 wrote:The difference is that JJ is not as good as Lebron and also Lebron has spot shooters to play with. This is a way tougher match up.

Joe Johnson is a much better free throw shooter then Lebron is . Especially in the clutch.

We should activate Scal, he could do the job

Banks2Pierce wrote:Doc should be watching/studying how the Spurs guarded Lebron in the Finals last year.

Do you think Doc has the brians for that? It will take him three games before he figures it out.

SonicYouth34 wrote:We should activate Scal, he could do the job

That would be overkill.

Banks2Pierce wrote:Doc should be watching/studying how the Spurs guarded Lebron in the Finals last year.

The only way Doc can learn from that is doing one of two things:

1. Go back in a time machine and redo do the ping pong balls so we get Duncan
2. Go back in a time machine and convince Rick Pitino to sign some nobody named Bruce Bowen to a 10 year deal to stay in Boston for life.

Without all world defenders like Duncan and Owen we need another alternative. We can't replicate the Spurs. Maybe we grab a few things from that series but I'm sure Washington and everyone who has played the Cavs this year has looked at the tape but Cleveland has still won 49 games this year.

We have a KG to match Duncan inside but to stop Lebron from penetrating we must find a way for our guards to harass him on the perimeter.

It will be similar except it will be Pierce on Lebron instead of Ray and Ben Wallace/Varejao are the guys we are going to play off. But instead of making Marvin Williams make wide open 18 foot jumpers, we are going to risk getting pounded on the glass because Wallace/Verejao are not going to have a body blocking them out. Perk will be blocking out Ilgauskas and KG is going to be helping on Lebron, so Rondo/Ray are going to have to help on the defensive boards.

Unlike the Hawks, Cavs have an option down low (Big Z) and various three point shooters on the perimeter.

Guarding JJ was much easier because not only is he not as good as Lebron, but he generally didn't have any 3 pt shooters to pass to (outside of Bibby), nor any options down low to give the ball to. There for it is much harder to double team Lebron and get away with it.


Tony Allen is our best wing defender, but its unseen whether or not his height is sufficient to guard Lebron. I would like to see him get minutes though, because IMO we need him contributing. I was disappointed he didn't get on the floor til garbage time tonight.

Personally, I would like to see KG guard Lebron. The Cavs have solid front court defense, solid enough wing defense, and IMO if PP has to guard Lebron it uses up too much of his energy on the defensive end. I think KG however is agile and versatile enough to guard Lebron - and if that is the case - there is nobody better to put on Lebron. KG's a guy that can slow a damn good player down without needing the assisrtance of double teams or what not. PP can guard Ben Wallace, play passing lanes, and reserve more of his energy for the offensive end.

threrf23 wrote:Unlike the Hawks, Cavs have an option down low (Big Z)

There's this guy called Horford that wants to see you out back.

I actually think guarding Lebron will be a little easier than guarding JJ from a scheme perspective. With JJ, due to Marvin Williams height, you have to put Allen on him who is our worst man defender. Lebron instead has to deal with Pierce who is little bit tougher. In both cases there will be doubles with KG probably getting the nod in this next series. We'll keep our defense tight on their two shooters, I don't think they have more than two of Wally, West, and Boobie in there at the same time and if they do it makes it easier for us IMO because of rebounding. It doesn't help either that while most of the hawks have some jumpshooting ability, Varejao/Wallace are horrible offensively.

Lebron will also be asked to do more defensively than JJ as the rest of the Cav's perimeter defense is just not that good unless Pavlovic is finally healthy. I would just love for them to throw Wally at Pierce for example. As much as people hate Hughes, he would have made this matchup harder for us. Trading away Hughes and Gooden made things easier for us IMO..

As bad as the Hawks can be in their half court offense I just don't see Cleveland being able to do any better. Outside of Lebron they don't really have any playmakers out there. As long as we can tire him out, make it hard on him and be physical, he won't be able to outscore us by himself. That's the one big difference I see between the Cav's and Hawks, as inconsistent as the hawks were, they actually had multiple players they could try running the offense through.

eh. Too much Cavs hype has been going on. They were a .500 team after the trade.

What you do is double Lebron and make the other guys beat you. Yes they will hit a bunch of jumpers - but at times they will miss them and go cold. You have to pick your poison - and you sure the heck don't pick Lebron. Single coverage against him is just suicide.

But this isn't the Hawks. Where we will need to beat this Cavs team is on the OFFENSIVE end. The media is talking about how hard Lebron's Cavs are to stop with the long range shooting. But our entire team except for Pierce should have a field day of the OFFENSIVE side of the basketball.

Rondo can abuse Delonte on offense. Ray Allen should have the edge on O vs. Wally especially quickness wise. KG can easily score over Ben Wallace. The only matchup that fails is PP vs. Lebron. I love PP but Lebron might be the ONLY guy in the NBA that can just make his life miserable. He just needs to quickly pass if Lebron is up on him..

Pete

Bucs80 wrote:Let Lebron kill you and guard everybody else. Lebron by himself will not beat Boston, let him go off and limit everybody else. Look at the houston vs Jazz series for an example, Tmac went off for 40 but they still loss.

exactly, make lebron hurt the team by beating himself.

The Celtics let Johnson out of the box and he carried a 5-game series to 7-games. Does Boston and the coaching staff learn from that and prep for a better player in LeBron?

I hope so, but witnessing Doc Rivers playoff performances in the past, it's doubtful.

GuyClinch wrote:eh. Too much Cavs hype has been going on. They were a .500 team after the trade.

What you do is double Lebron and make the other guys beat you. Yes they will hit a bunch of jumpers - but at times they will miss them and go cold. You have to pick your poison - and you sure the heck don't pick Lebron. Single coverage against him is just suicide.

You can't try and contain Lebron. He is going to get guys in foul trouble. If he really wants to score he will. What you need to do is tempt him to be a jumpshooter. He occasionally catches fire, but he is always effective when driving to the rim.

You slack of him with single coverage and hope he takes the open jumper. If he drives you bring a double late. If you play him close, he will drive (and that is never a good thing for opposition) and if you double him early, he WILL find the open man. Combine that with the fact the Cavs are an excellent rebounding team and it makes for disaster. Lebron will shoot jumpers if give him space and you live with that all day.

The problem with JJ and ATL was two fold. Ray isn't Paul defensively to start with. JJ is a shooter and passer then a slasher, so he can hurt you for being too passive or too aggressive. The Hawks also have a roster of scorers, inconsistent as they may be. So if you double JJ and the open man makes his jumper or gets to the rim you got problems, if not they get beat by 20+.

While many wanted Boston to switch on JJ the problem becomes who does Ray guard? The Hawks only get longer and more athletic after JJ and sitting Ray down really weakens Boston's offense.

Now against CLE while LeBron will be far more difficult to guard as an individual, the match ups are better for Boston and his options are limited as far using his teamates. First of all Lebron is a slasher who will then look to create open shots for his teamates and looks to take jumpers with space. So you play him to drive and throw a second defender at him at the half circle. The Cav's have gone to shooters to open the paint but really haven't diversified their offense. They have perimeter shooters who want open looks and offensive zeroes that are not very nimble so the defense can recover. The killer for CLE is that he doesn't have a game off the ball, nor do they really have anyone that could find him then anyhow so the play stays in front of the defense.

While I agree you have to understand he is going to get his, that doesn't mean you don't focus you defense to take away what he wants to do. You scheme to force him to shoot jumpers and not simply to help after he beats his man. If he is going to kill you from 18-20 ft so be it but you don't let him operate in the paint one on one or against your collapsed defense.

I like Boston's matchups against CLE, it will really come down to Perk against who ever he has in the front court and Posey against Joe Smith. That and just hope that Boobie, Wally, and West don't get hot.