OT: What makes Cleveland so good ?

[DieselCeltic]

Besides having a LeBron what are they doing that is just on another level from any other team right now. Doc Rivers should be already pre-paring for them in my mind. If we beat Cleveland, it's BANNER #18. Book it.

[Hemingway]

Besides being Catholic what makes Benedict a good Pope?

[BillessuR6]

They play great defense, they play like a team, have length and of course Lebron...At his point they are a level above everyone in the east...

But let`s think about them when/if we beat ORL...

[BRUNiNHO91]

LeBron is EXCLUSIVELY THE ONE AND ONLY thing that makes that team good. The guy is unstoppable. The way he dominates night in and night out just never ceases to amaze me. Take him out of that team and they are a 7th seed easily in the east. Put him in the Lakers squad replacing Kobe, and LA goes 82-0 and sweeps their way through every playoff series. He is amazing. Never seen Jordan play, but I don't believe he could dominate a game like LeBron does...could he?

[GuyClinch]

Part of it is the health and continuity a team like that has. The C's playing with mismatched lineups and injuries are just going to have trouble matching a tight focused team like that. That is how we were last year..

[Bad-Thoma]

Wally. He's the magic man.

[DieselCeltic]

LeBron is EXCLUSIVELY THE ONE AND ONLY thing that makes that team good. The guy is unstoppable. The way he dominates night in and night out just never ceases to amaze me. Take him out of that team and they are a 7th seed easily in the east. Put him in the Lakers squad replacing Kobe, and LA goes 82-0 and sweeps their way through every playoff series. He is amazing. Never seen Jordan play, but I don't believe he could dominate a game like LeBron does...could he?

One day LeBron could be better than Jordan, but as of right now Michael Jordan is the godfather of basketball. I doubt LeBron's resume will ever be like Jordans. But LeBron is like a TANK that cannot be stopped no matter what you try. He's clearly the best player in the NBA right now, not Kobe. I'm surprised someone didn't try to take him out, purposly to give him some sort of long, career ending injury. Would never wish this to anyone, but with him in the League, teams have no chance.

[BRUNiNHO91]

LeBron is EXCLUSIVELY THE ONE AND ONLY thing that makes that team good. The guy is unstoppable. The way he dominates night in and night out just never ceases to amaze me. Take him out of that team and they are a 7th seed easily in the east. Put him in the Lakers squad replacing Kobe, and LA goes 82-0 and sweeps their way through every playoff series. He is amazing. Never seen Jordan play, but I don't believe he could dominate a game like LeBron does...could he?

One day LeBron could be better than Jordan, but as of right now Michael Jordan is the godfather of basketball. I doubt LeBron's resume will ever be like Jordans. But LeBron is like a TANK that cannot be stopped no matter what you try. He's clearly the best player in the NBA right now, not Kobe. I'm surprised someone didn't try to take him out, purposly to give him some sort of long, career ending injury. Would never wish this to anyone, but with him in the League, teams have no chance.

Yeah. If every team in the NBA was limited to 1 Super star only, LeBron would win it every year. Only a team like Boston last year can take him out. With 3 superstar....even like that he still took us 7 games and if Paul had not played like a monster in that game 7, Bron would have knocked us out. The guy is a super freak...I thought coming in from high school at the time, that he was going to be the next TMac or Vince Carter..but no he just gets better every year and might become the next Jordan. Wow...true..he doesn't have Jordan's resume yet, but one would have to imagine he will stack up at least 3 more MVP trophy's and about 2-3 titles before he is done with this league. Maybe even more. Give him Scottie Pippen and he probably dominates more than MJ did. Watching him playing is like watching a monster truck running all over a couple of Mini Coopers...unreal.

[MyInsatiableOne]

The refs are a huge factor in their greatness, too!

[DieselCeltic]

What about this philosophy: double Lebron every time he gets the ball... double him for 48 mins. Would this work.

[Celts17Pride]

Playing Detroit and Atlanta. Wait til they play a real team.

[aboubata]

LeBron is EXCLUSIVELY THE ONE AND ONLY thing that makes that team good. The guy is unstoppable. The way he dominates night in and night out just never ceases to amaze me. Take him out of that team and they are a 7th seed easily in the east. Put him in the Lakers squad replacing Kobe, and LA goes 82-0 and sweeps their way through every playoff series. He is amazing. Never seen Jordan play, but I don't believe he could dominate a game like LeBron does...could he?

One day LeBron could be better than Jordan, but as of right now Michael Jordan is the godfather of basketball. I doubt LeBron's resume will ever be like Jordans. But LeBron is like a TANK that cannot be stopped no matter what you try. He's clearly the best player in the NBA right now, not Kobe. I'm surprised someone didn't try to take him out, purposly to give him some sort of long, career ending injury. Would never wish this to anyone, but with him in the League, teams have no chance.

Yeah. If every team in the NBA was limited to 1 Super star only, LeBron would win it every year. Only a team like Boston last year can take him out. With 3 superstar....even like that he still took us 7 games and if Paul had not played like a monster in that game 7, Bron would have knocked us out. The guy is a super freak...I thought coming in from high school at the time, that he was going to be the next TMac or Vince Carter..but no he just gets better every year and might become the next Jordan. Wow...true..he doesn't have Jordan's resume yet, but one would have to imagine he will stack up at least 3 more MVP trophy's and about 2-3 titles before he is done with this league. Maybe even more. Give him Scottie Pippen and he probably dominates more than MJ did. Watching him playing is like watching a monster truck running all over a couple of Mini Coopers...unreal.

I am strong beleiver that if it wasn't for Pippen, Jordan wouldn't have won 6.
As for Lebron, well to me, he is the combination of both Jordan and Pippen. He is missing a rodman, a player to protect him and defend and hussle (too bad ben isn't that anymore).

[humblebum]

You can't double Lebron because he can see over almost any double team, he's an instinctive playmaker, and he's able to make difficult passes with ease and accuracy.

The reason that the Cavs are good is because they're a veteran team and well coached. They're chalk full of solid number two-three options offensively. They're big and strong and physical. They stick to their defensive principles. They limit you to one possession offensively. And Lebron brings whatever the team needs scoring, playmaking, rebounding, defense, etc. on a given night.

Basically, the Cavs don't have any real weaknesses per se. You simply need to outperform them. They won't give it to you like the Bulls or the Magic might. You'll have to take it from them, literally rip the game out of their hands. They're just very, very solid, consistent, clutch.

[DieselCeltic]

So how do you beat them then humblebum ?

[Mahoney_jr]

Besides LeBron, that best damn player the league will have for the next 8 years, they have:

- premier defense (only slightly vulnerable to post offense)
- good coaching
- depth
- great homecourt
- chemistry
- good shooting around James
- hunger

Without James this team won't work. But with him it's a highly motivated, well-oiled machine. Don't look at individuals besides their leader. Great team and by far the most dangerous team to win a title.

[txb_811]

The refs are a huge factor in their greatness, too!

the league want to see KB VS LeBron

[MyInsatiableOne]

The refs are a huge factor in their greatness, too!

the league want to see KB VS LeBron

Well duh...

[GuyClinch]

C's could take them if they were fully stocked and 100% healthy - but this shattered team.. I don't like our chances. We are missing PJBrown, Posey, Garnett and Powe up front.. DA didn't really go for it this year, IMHO.

[lojowo]

Lebron cant be stopped but could be slowed down if the Refs called his game like they do everyone else in the league.

http://sportsbybrooks.com/are-nba-refs- ... bron-23222

http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/smith2_090406.html

They use to call STAR treatment , Bird Calls or Jordan rules. No one in history get more defensive none calls then Lebron.

And Offensively, he gets touched(and sometimes not even) and its a trip to the line.

If they had a +/- stat for calls, plus being calls for and minus, calls against, who here doesnt think Lebron would have the highest differential in league history?

I can barely stand watching his games, its like Pro Wrestling, its seems like the fix is in for him, at least in terms of how the refs call the game. Refs can't control if he puts the ball in the basket.

Maybe if Lebron doesnt win this year, the Refs will call goaltending as the ball leaves his hands.

But honestly, Lebron is an awesome physical player who doesnt need the refs help to dominate a game. I cant figure out why it seems the ref feel like they should help out.

[Red2]

they pretty much have it all- best player in the league, good role payers and decent coaching. They've had a magical year and avoided injury to their main players. If we are fortunate enough to play them we're going to have to do something to disrupt the confidence they have and to me that means we have to take away something from their attack. I remember back in 84 the Lakers looked unbeatable. We were a good team but the Lakers played with such ease and could score all day long. Somehow we hung in there through the 1st 4 games but what really changed that series was McHale taking down Rambis and us turning that series into a grind it out game. Without KG I don;t htink we have enough bodies to grind it out against cleveland. Right now, like it or not the way we're going to win is with speed and offense. LeBron is great at getting back in transition but the rest of his team isn't so I think we need to push the ball the way we've been doing. In case you haven't noticed Doc has quietly retooled this team over the past 6 weeks into a running team. We are not the 74-76 celts that had an undersized center in COwens and an undersized PF in Silas but we could run all day and we had strong guard play. that's where we are now as a team. Cleveland has a lot of size up front but if Perk and baby can get into the bodies of Z and sideshow we can neutralize that size advantage. It would be nice if Mikki Moore would actually learn our defense sometime soon but I don't think we can count on him. Ray and ROndo have to outplay williams and west and Pierce needs to at least be competitive against LeBron. Finally our bench has to play well if we're to have any shot. It's a tall order but you never know what could happen