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Playoff Preview: Cleveland vs. Boston

April 28th, 2010

Boston Celtics (50-32) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (61-21)

2010 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals

 

Game 1- @ the Q…Saturday, 8p.m. (EST)on TNT

Game 2- @ the Q…Monday, 8p.m. (EST) on TNT

Game 3- @ Boston…Friday, 7p.m. (EST) on ESPN

 

After closing out a young and stubborn Chicago Bulls team, the Cavaliers will now have to take on a Celtics team steeped in experience, chemistry, and trash talk. They’ve also gotten older, slower, and crankier since the epic 2008 conference semi-finals, where the Cavaliers, after a mid-season roster overhaul, lost in seven games after failing to defeat Boston at the Garden.

Stairway to the Conference Finals

The Path Gets Tougher

This series will only get as tough as the Cavaliers let it. I’m sure Lebron James remembers play-by-play that game 7 in 2008, where he and Paul Pierce traded bucket after bucket ala Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkins. (See: #4 dunk on Larry Bird if you REALLY dislike the Celtics). The Cavaliers lost that game 97-92, and back then their starting five consisted of Wally Szcezerbiak, Big Z, Delonte West, James, and Ben Wallace.

Things clearly have changed.

The Celtics went on to win the 2008 championship, and their big 3 have gotten rapidly older through injuries, or, at least in my opinion, through contentment. As much as the Big 3 talk about how hungry they are, winning a championship, particularly after spending your entire NBA career praying for one, has got to slow down  your speedometer a bit. Compare their situations to a novelist who publishes a first novel and sales just go bonkers. The writer gets awards, is declared a living genius…what then? Pierce, Garnett, and Allen have their rings, they have the respect of the basketball establishment, they will all be entering the Hall of Fame…no matter how driven they sound to the media, no matter how much they scream or talk during games, they are slowing down. And that’s natural. Unless you are a Grade-A obsessive carnivore like Jordan or possibly Kobe, you will become slightly satisfied with what you’ve accomplished.

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, find themselves in a similar situation to the 2008 Celtics. They have a team with at least three (four to be exact) key players in their mid-thirties: Shaq (37), Jamison (33), Anthony Parker (34), and Z (34). That, accompanied with the maniacal paranoia that Lebron might leave after this season and you have a ‘win-now’ mentality that acts as a built-in engine to every game they play. The 2008 Celtics knew their best chance of winning was that year, and the same goes for Cleveland in 2010.

Starting 5 Matchups:

-Mo Williams vs. Rajon Rondo

At times during the Chicago series it was difficult to watch Mo try and keep Derrick Rose in front of him. Rose is in an incredible athlete with a sweet fifteen-foot jump shot. Rondo is an unorthodox alien who reminds me of Gumby, one of his many nicknames. The good thing about Rondo is that he is incredibly uncomfortable shooting threes and long jump shots. The bad news is that he can break a defense down with drives about as good as anyone in the league. He can also get you offensive rebounds, since he usually ends up so close to the basket after passing the ball off to a perimeter-sitting Ray Allen or Paul Pierce.

Mo will have to make sure he tests Rondo’s transition defense. Like any guard who gets a higher than normal rebound average, Mo will have a lot of chances to exploit Rondo and get the ball upcourt as fast as possible.

This will be a tough matchup for Mo, but I like it better than when he was guarding Rose.

Anthony Parker vs. Ray Allen

If you watch any Boston game, you’ll see Ray Allen running along the baseline, ping-ponging his defender off two or three screens so he can get open. It irritates the hell out of me, and reminds me instantly of the kind of offensive sets Reggie Miller used to get open.

Anyone who guards Ray Allen is going to be running. A lot. That means they have to basically forget about their offensive output and commit themselves totally to shutting him down. That will have to be Parker in this series. Can he annoy Allen enough? Or will the Cavaliers have to put someone longer, perhaps Jamario Moon, on him.

Lebron James vs. Paul Pierce

Ah, the main event. The revenge duel. The payback moment.

Lebron will have fire in his eyes this entire series. And, with the exception of a possible game-3 home-team leaning officiating crew, he’ll probably have his way with Pierce (unless his right arm injury turns into something very serious), who to me seems like a creaky player whose only move to the basket is shooting over smaller defenders. Over the years I can’t tell how much my friends and I despise the Pierce’s style. It’s ugly. His jump shots are line drives, and he’s always finding a way to fall down in dramatic fashion. But he gets the job done, and Lebron will have to take the high-road and not sink to his level. During the regular season, Lebron blocked a few Pierce drives that had me on my feet going nuts. Pierce will have to rely on switches in order to get a smaller defender to shoot over.

Lebron, meanwhile, needs to obliterate this team from the inside-out. Attack, let that swarming defense try and swallow him, and then kick it out to…

Antawn Jamison vs. Kevin Garnett

These two know each other very well. They battled for years in the Western Conference, but, fortunately for the Cavaliers, Garnett’s knee has him bound to the earth a little more than usual. This should favor Jamison’s unorthodox style. Jamison’s legs, knock on wood, are just fine, but I also see Jamison bringing Garnett out of the paint to guard the 3. So hopefully Jamison’s three-point attempts will go up, forcing Garnett out of the fight for rebounds.

Personally, I could live with Garnett shooting wide-open 16 footers all day. He’ll make 50 percent of them, but, like Rose, they do nothing more than add two points. There’s no foul trouble, no three-point risk, and if he misses, it allows the Cavaliers a chance for some fast-break opportunities.

 

Shaquille O’Neal vs. Kendrick Perkins

 

Man, I’m looking forward to this! Kendrick Perkins, aka, The Man Who Gets Mad at His Breakfast, has not smiled since 1998, and having Shaq’s 350 pound body crushing his will to live will be fun to watch. I expect a lot of complaining…even more than Brad Miller, who always seemed to get knocked out while guarding Shaq.

If there’s one thing I want out of this series, it’s Shaq dunking two handed on Perkins, sending him to the floor, followed by him complaining woozily to the refs about being elbowed.

I expect Shaq to have a couple big games…maybe a 20-8 performance at the Garden. Partly because of the mismatch, but also because I think he wants to send a message to that Orlando team over on the other side of the bracket. I’ve still got it. You might have to double me.

Rasheed Wallace will be a more difficult match-up for Shaq, but they, like Garnett and Jamison, know each other pretty well that I expect it to go 50-50…hopefully with Sheed chucking a few thirty footers, which almost clank off the rim so hard it leads to an instant fast-break. Shaq wants a ring a little more than Sheed does this year, and it will show immediately.

The Bench (Big Z, J.J. Hickson, Jamario Moon, Anderson Varejao, Delonte West… vs. Rasheed Wallace, Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Nate Robinson, and some other guys)

I think it’s obvious, after watching Joakim Noah for 5 games, that Anderson Varejao does not like seeing his shadow. Like the Highlander, in the end there can be only one. Varejao is an energy guy, and in this series Boston does not have anyone similar, anyone just as smart like Noah, who will offset Varejao’s talents. Glen Davis will try, but he’s simply too short and relies more on brutality.

Prediction

This is a perfect series for this year’s Cavaliers. They have a habit of playing down to lower-level teams, but rise up and play beautifully against the ‘elite’. Boston, despite its weak regular season finish, still has the polish and image of a championship team. I expect the Cavaliers to dismantle the Celtics with speed and aggression in game 1, followed by a tough win in game 2. Game 3 in Boston will be the hardest of the series. But I can’t see Cleveland losing inspiration like they did against the Bulls in Round 1. This one could go only 5, but I’m still a little intimidated by the Celtics on their home floor, simply because I’m a Cleveland sports fan and give way too much credit to the team we’re playing.

Cavaliers in Six…

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Shaq, Nate the Great, and Legacies

April 19th, 2010

As the playoffs rage on, and a slimmer Shaq continues to dominate players, I couldn’t help but marvel at his transformation. The man knows how to flip the switch. Seeing him play now, diving for loose balls, after watching him play himself into shape during the regular season, I wondered who else in Cavalier history Shaq might resemble.

I’m starting to see Shaq as having a Cleveland career similar to another former Cavalier legend: Nate Thurmond.

Between 1975-1977, the legend Nate Thurmond played a grand total of 114 games for the Cavaliers. His statistics, in contrast to his incredible career, were nothing to party about. He played around 19 minutes a game, had a field goal percentage hovering around 41 percent, and made just over 50% of his free throws. All in all, Nate the Great averaged five points and six rebounds in a Cleveland uniform.

Yet, if you attend a Cavaliers home game and look up at the rafters, there you’ll see his number 42 hanging on a curtain of immortality. The Cleveland Cavaliers retired his number in 1977. And why’s that? For 5 points and 6 rebounds a game?

To start with, you can just hear someone say: ‘He’s Nate fricking Thurmond. Of course his number should be retired’. Very true. Thurmond did produce some of the most insane point-rebound averages in NBA history. The man averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds for his entire career. Almost all of that production came with the San Francisco/Golden State Warriors. And, rightfully so, they retired his number 42 as well. So, with that idea gone…what compelled the Cleveland Cavaliers to reward a two-season bench player?

After a 6-11 start to the 75-76 season, Thurmond helped turn the Cavs into a more well-rounded force, giving the team a quality 20 minutes a game. That season they ended up 49-33, and defeated the Washington Bullets in ‘The Miracle of Richfield’. (Watch that video and marvel at how much the crowd got into it).

I cannot express the immensity of that series. Before TMOR, the Cavaliers had not been able to put a ‘success story’ into their history books. They were jesters in a league of knights and kings. But Thurmond, along with Bobby Bingo Smith, Austin Carr, Jim Chones, and Dick Snyder, gave the city of Cleveland something to smile about.

Enter Shaq.

The man has already established himself as a legend, much like Nate Thurmond. His very presence alters the psyche of the other team. Although he starts over Z , they share the same position—slightly similar to the way Thurmond complemented Jim Chones.

Shaqtus has burned a few bridges in Orlando (leaving for bigger money), Los Angeles (an ego feud with Kobe Bryant), Miami (coaching issues?) and Phoenix (team chemistry). But with Cleveland, Shaq could end his career on a high, giving a city a championship they’ve been wanting for over forty years. All it takes is one miracle season (hopefully this one), the ability to compromise his stats for the greater good, and Shaq could see his 33 retired, and a city that unconditionally loves him.

Nate Thurmond, a native of Akron, knows the feeling well.

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Playoffs: Round 1

April 16th, 2010

Playoff Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers (61-21) vs. Chicago Bulls (41-41)

TV Times:

Game 1—Saturday, 3p.m. (Eastern) on ABC

Game 2—Monday, 8p.m. (Eastern) on TNT

Game 3—Thursday, 7p.m. (Eastern) on TNT

The Journey Begins

Like a group of bears who have been hibernating, the Cavaliers will attempt to shake off the slumber of the last week and a half and rejuvenate the chemistry they found throughout the season.

The Chicago Bulls, meanwhile, have absolutely nothing to lose, and that goes for Del Negro too. It’s a very dangerous mindset to face, because anomalies can arise anywhere and everywhere.

To start with, Del Negro has to like where he’s at. He has survived a titanic losing streak early in the season, a humiliating, record-breaking loss to the Sacramento Kings where they were up by 35 points and still blew the game. He’s even survived a frustrated and fighting VP named John Paxson, who became maniacal after Del Negro didn’t use Joakim Noah wisely after an injury. Yet, here he is, and here they are, the Chicago Bulls, after a ridiculously dramatic season, 41-41, scars and all, ready to try anything to win.

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are, quite literally, sleeping giants at the moment. Mike Brown has locked down Lebron James, Shaq, and at times Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, to the point that I worry about their ability to gel quickly once they are on the floor together.

The Cavaliers have played like a chameleon throughout this season, and succeeded brilliantly. No Mo Williams? Whatever, let’s go 11-0. No Shaq? Ah well, let’s speed the game up and blow people out like we did last year. It seems, thanks to Lebron’s steady hand at the point-forward position (and a hugely underrated Delonte West steadying the back-ups) that the Cavaliers can have practically any combination on the floor and still find a way to win.

Here is the matchup breakdown for the series:

PG- Mo Williams vs. Derrick Rose

I fully expect Mike Brown to switch Anthony Parker onto Derrick Rose in order to nullify Rose’s drives to the lane, which open up jump shots for Hinrich and Deng. If Parker takes on Rose, that will give Mo a better chance to create on the offensive end, perhaps sliding to a corner for a three, or pushing the tempo in order to keep Rose and Hinrich honest. If the Bulls keep Rose on Mo, it would be wise to run Mo off screens and make Rose work on the defensive end as much as possible. In the epic Boston-Chicago first round series last year, Rose had a field day with Rondo, and vice versa. Parker needs to turn Rose into a mid-range shooter, and Mo needs to look for his shot every chance he gets.

SG-Anthony Parker vs. Kirk Hinrich

To get ten points a game out of Parker would be equivalent to me winning the Pick 3. Brown uses him for three reasons, and three alone. 1) He’s a solid on the ball defender. 2) He’s taller and can annoy smaller guards. 3) He keeps his turnovers down and sets excellent screens to get other players open. In short, he’s the under-the-radar guy (UTRG).

Hinrich, meanwhile, might enjoy it when Mo is guarding him. He can shoot over him, and he’ll let Rose do more of the dribbling so he can perhaps exhaust Mo on the defensive end. With this being said, I don’t have much fear when it comes to Hinrich. He’s a good shooter, great passer and defender,  but with Rose being the focus, I’ve seen Hinrich lose focus. They are, essentially, two point guards, so the ebb and flow between Rose and Hinrich should favor Parker and Williams, as long as the Cavs work together on screens and pick and rolls.

SF- Lebron James vs. Luol Deng

Deng can enter grooves that are hard to stop, but as long as he has someone bigger and taller on him, I don’t see him being a true threat in any game. Lebron will do his thing offensively, meaning obliterate and abuse anyone who tries to guard him. But it will be his fourth-quarter lockdowns on Chicago’s purest shooter that will ultimately decide how close these games will be. Deng, at least from what I’ve watched, seems to stand as a modest, polite scorer. He’ll give you a quiet fifteen points a night at a high percentage.

Lebron, meanwhile, should take some time this series to make sure everyone is getting some touches. Against the Bulls, he could, if he wanted, score 40 a game, but that would set the tone for a more difficult 2nd round series. Even if he has to sacrifice a game to do it, I think Lebron has to make sure everyone realizes how important they are. That starts with Round One.

PF- Antawn Jamison vs. Taj Gibson

This matchup is getting touted as one to watch, but I think it will be pretty one-sided. Jamison is one of the most awkwardly successful scorers in NBA history, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to make Gibson’s head explode at least three times a game with his under the basket loop-de-loops and cannonball threes. Gibson, meanwhile, doesn’t really have the game to exhaust Jamison on the defensive end. Personally, I see Jamison scoring 20 a game in this series easily. Let’s just hope he’s prayed to the Free Throw Shooting Gods enough. The percentage drop is due, in my opinion, to a personal realization of how close he is to a lifelong goal: A championship. In other words, ‘Success Pressure’.

C-Shaquille O’Neal vs. Joakim Noah

Ignore the stats on this one. Noah doesn’t have enough post moves to get Shaq into foul trouble, and that’s pretty much the only way you stop Shaq. That or you foul him, and watch him shoot free throws the same way Andre the Giant threw rocks at Wesley in The Princess Bride. Look for Brown to run some post patterns for Shaq early in the first and third quarters. Then, check and see if he’s getting doubled. If he doesn’t get doubled, he’ll get fouled. If he does get doubled, he’ll dish off and the Cavs will go around the horn looking for threes or open lanes to the basket. This is why Shaq gets the ball early in quarters. Either way, something good will happen: Open looks, or Chicago will get into foul trouble.

Bench: CAVALIERS: J.J. Hickson, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao, Jawad Williams, Jamario Moon, hopefully Daniel Gibson

BULLS: Brad Miller, Flip Murray, James Johnson, Jannero Pargo, and some other players the Cavs can’t properly prepare for because there’s nothing to see.

As we’ve realized during his injury, Varejao is the secret weapon to any meaningful Cavaliers victory. Like Parker, he does three things incredibly well. 1) He will set ‘real’ picks and screens, not those touch picks you see from J.J. from time to time. 2) He cuts to the basket exactly when he’s supposed to. Varejao runs on momentum, as does Lebron and Mo. And 3) He’s a stupendous annoyance on any player slightly confused about his own team’s spacing around the basket.

Which leads me to the most important thing that must happen in this series.

X-Factor: Anderson Varejao must school Joakim Noah.

You see it. I know you do. Joakim Noah is Varejao’s evil cousin who got beat up one too many times in school and ended up liking paintball too much. They do the same things. Here’s the only difference: Noah doesn’t know subtlety. And that’s what Varejao needs to do in order for the Cavs to earn a sweep. Varejao, off the bench, needs to quietly steal Noah’s ability to sneak around players for rebounds. No Noah rebounding, no 2nd chance points for the Bulls.

Prediction

As much as I loved the first two rounds last year, and how we destroyed the Pistons and the Hawks, I’ll be watching for synchronicity, togetherness, and, most of all, patience. I don’t need a sweep in this series. It’d be nice, but I’m finding it hard to believe that the Cavaliers, after the long layoff and the reorganizing of the starting five, can win the first three games of this series. I see game 1 as an absolute pile-drive of energy, enthusiasm, and dunks. Lots of dunks. Lots of J.J. hanging on the rim, and a lot of fast breaks. I see game 2’s first half as a struggle, and then a refocusing in the 2nd half and a tougher than anticipated win. However, with the series in control at 2-0, I see the Cavs experimenting slightly with their playbook, defensive sets, and that will allow Chicago to have their ‘Giggle Game’.

A Giggle Game can only be explained through an example. Remember when you were young, on a playground, shooting hoops, when this one kid comes from out of nowhere and starts hitting shot after shot. Of course, you’re the king of the playground, so you say: “Are you serious. Please. Try that again.” And then they do, and it works, over and over, until you’ve machoed yourself out of a chance of winning the game. After that, other kids say to you. “You might be awesome, but that kid beat you that one time.” That’s what is called a Giggle Game. And it’s going to happen to the Lakers in the first round after Durant goes for 50 one night (I’ll predict game 2).

The Cavaliers shouldn’t fear the Giggle Game. All they should fear is hubris. They avoid that, they’re in good shape.

Cavs in 5.

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Before the Fame

April 10th, 2010

“You have to know the past to understand the present.” –Carl Sagan

Before the playoffs start, and Lebron begin playing like a superhuman, I thought it would be a good idea to perhaps share with fans some ‘highlights’ of who he was before the 40-8-8 stat lines. Lebron had a childhood, and he was good enough to share a fair portion of it in his book Shooting Stars, co-authored with Buzz Bissinger.

It’s a great read, and if you’re from the area of Akron, you’ll enjoy imagining the spots in the city mentioned in the book. Plus, you’ll find a few facts that humanize Lebron and, as a result, bring him to life more.

Here are a few:

–In order to raise enough money to travel to Salt Lake City with his 12 and under AAU team, Lebron and the rest of the team sold duct tape door to door. That’s right, not boxes of candy. Duct tape. I had a hard enough time selling Reese’s Cups, but they were able to pull together enough money to go to the national tournament.

–That trip to Utah was Lebron’s first time on a plane in his entire life. According to the book, he “cried like there was no tomorrow, scared out of my wits, my ears an impacted mess because of the altitude.”

–In order to get away from the craziness of his team’s ever-growing popularity, Lebron would hang out in Coach Dru’s basement and play NBA Live with his teammates for hours. His favorite team? The Bulls.

–His favorite burger joint was Swensons, where he’d sometimes get “a burger (with everything), fries, and Cherry Coke on a tray that was attached to the window of your car by a goofy-looking teenager still dealing with acne.”

–The man loved Akron, and wanted to someday make it famous. “With a population of about 225,000 when I was growing up, it was still small enough to feel intimate, a place you could put your arms around, a place that would put its arms around you.”

–His first high school game as a member of St. V was against Cuyahoga Falls, where I graduated high school a year before Lebron started. They ripped us 76-40, and Lebron had 15 points and 8 rebounds. The beginning of a journey.

So, as we watch these playoffs, and we see Lebron—now a twenty-five year old father of two, at peak physical condition, and the team leader of the best team in basketball—dominating games, perhaps knowing a few of these tidbits might enhance what we are trying to fathom. Sometimes we forget that our heroes had pasts somewhat similar to our own, and that, by forgetting, we risk losing a connection to the players we love.

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