Who should cover big "Z" ?

[rsceltic34]

Seems like everytime the C's play the Cavs Ilgauskas has a HUGE game! As we saw he kept them in the game Tuesday nite and almost won it for them.

Who do you believe should cover the big Lithuanian most of the time?


Perk? . Shorter but has the strength to man up on him

KG ? . Has the length but maybe not the bulk...and can you say foul trouble.

Powe? . Too small!!

Baby? . Def has the bulk...If you can remember the jobs he did on Rasheed Wallace and Tim Duncan!

PJ ? . Wiley Vet Has the length as well.

Should we double team him ???

[kmgarnett21]

PJ...he's a fundamentally a good defensive big. he man'd up pretty well against Z in the few minutes he played.

if he's not gonna guard Big Z, why did we bring him in?

[The Rondo Show]

He did have a good game, but at the same time, he was 8-18 from the field. It looked like the gameplan was to pack the middle with Perkins and Garnett to stop LeBron from going 1 on 1 with Posey and Pierce. Any time he got by one of them, at least one of Perk and KG was there to help out and often both of them.

The sacrifice that had to be made for that was giving Z that 16-18 foot jumper that he hits at a solid rate...but that's a sacrifice that I think most would be willing to make. Once Z went inside, Perkins picked him up and played very solid post D.

It also left Ben Wallace uncovered for the majority of the time he was in there, but he's so awful offensively that it didn't make a difference because he can't hit that 16-18 footer that Z (or Joe Smith) can and he doesn't do a good job of moving around inside to get open for a pass or finish his layups/dunks as well as Perkins does.

[ParticleMan]

Perk, without question. Z isn't just tall, he's big, and Perk can at least force him off the block.

Plus that frees up Garnett to help on Bron since Ben is a non-threat.

Off the bench I think PJ does the best job, but Powe and Baby did ok too and bring more offense.

I'll take Z scoring 22 on 8-18 shooting or whatever it was, if we can keep Bron from going off.

[Ed Pinkney]

Ilgaukas disapears quite frequently. He is only an issue if he plays well consistently throughout the series.

[JediSkyWalker]

Something has GOT to give. We gave up tight defense on Big Z to stop LBJ from cramming easy baskets. I think it worked out quite nicely because Big Z will NOT always be this great offensively. He sometimes disapears in games as Ed Pinkney mentioned. I think if we follow the same game plan and continue to prevent LBJ from easily getting easy baskets, we may have a shorter series than many think.

[SonicYouth34]

Any of our bigs except Powe should be sufficient. Perk has the height and bulk, PJ is wiley, Baby has the gerth to mess him up and KG, well, enough said there

[Bad-Thoma]

If the whole team primarily has to score through the jump shot, I don't care who covers Z, just keep him out of under the basket to limit his offensive boards and pack in the D to limit Lebron's dunks and lay-ups. Keep their shooting % down and limit the second chances and things should be fine. As long as we don't turn the damned ball over 25 times a game.

[CeltsfaninDC]

Z likes to pick and pop with LBJ and then hits that midrange jumper. You need someone who can both show in the pick to help on LBJ and then get back to contest the jumper by Z. The person should also be able to defend on the post.

Powe did a fantastic job of this on Tue. There was one play in particular where they isolated him on the box with Z and Z tried to take him down low. It was right in front of the C's bench and you could see Thibideau immediately get up and start yelling for Powe to keep his space and not foul. Powe played him perfectly. It was a great thing to watch.

[Prophet_C]

Baby has actually done well against Z. I'd like to see him play a little more against him.