Author Topic: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?  (Read 5688 times)

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Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« on: April 22, 2008, 12:19:55 PM »

Offline wdleehi

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That's how they got to the Finals last year.  They played great defense in the playoffs. 


Are they cranking up their defense again?

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2008, 12:49:23 PM »

Offline Bankshot

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I couldn't tell if the Cavs were playing good defense or just that the Wiz were playing like chumps.  I'd lean towards chumps though.  The Wizards were AWFUL.  Butler should have been able to destroy Wally, but he let Wally outplay him.... how bad is that?  No way Pierce let's Wally get the best of him.  That being said, I don't think Butler is healthy.  But still, healthy or not, he should be able to take Wally to the cleaners!
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Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2008, 12:51:13 PM »

Offline Big Ticket

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They certainly appear to be... the Wiz have a pretty potent offense, so the Cavs' defense must have something to do with it.


"It ain't about me.  It's about us."  - KG, interview with John Thompson, 2005 All Star Game.

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2008, 12:56:01 PM »

Offline Chris

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That's how they got to the Finals last year.  They played great defense in the playoffs. 


Are they cranking up their defense again?

I think they are playing solid defense, but not great.  Washington just is making it easy for them.  They aren't moving the ball like they had been for the last few months of the season.

Cleveland simply is not that talented on the defensive end, but they seem to be very disciplined.  Teams like that are tough to beat with one on one offense, because when one guy gets beat, there are help defenders to pick up for them.  However, if they are playing a team that moves the ball well, the fact that the primary defenders are not that strong means that they will have to rotate more, and there will be someone left open.

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2008, 01:43:28 PM »

Offline jay_jay54

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Besides Clevland playing some good D(not great),Jamison,was taking to many jumpers,instead of doing his normal creating something inside first.Antoine is the key to a lot of their success offensively,and he came out firing a 3pt shot from the beginning,which is not his usual routine.I think Washington was more out of sync,than Cavs.dominating them defensively.Also,Wally surprised them with some inside play,also they didn't expect Ben Wallace to score in the first quarter as he did.Between Jamison playing out of character offensively,and Wally,Big Ben coming through offensively,kind of threw them off.Wizards were settling for to many 3pt attempts to early in the game also.After their center was ejected,they really had troubles down low rebounding or running much through the paint.But i think,they will recover in game 3/4,and even it up.It will probably go 7,with Washington winning.By the way Arenas  played lousy in game 2,also.

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2008, 02:45:57 PM »

Offline Who

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The Wizards have played awfully. It's more about them than Cleveland.

Their defense has cranked it up though. This has been coming for the past few weeks. I was watching a couple of their final regular season games, the one in Phily stands out, and I just couldn't believe the defensive rotations. They were perfect. They was this one play where they doubled the post, Phily had three shooters around the perimter and Dalembert on the other side of the rim, Andre Miller was in the post and passed it out to the left corner. It looked like the first guy had the shot, not by the time the ball got there, he swings it to the left wing, again no shot, he swings it to the right wing, again no shot. Phily ended up taking a contested three pointer off the dribble to beat the shot clock, there was absolultely nothing they could have doen better. They moved the ball perfectly. Cleveland just made better rotations.

I was sitting their looking at the screen wondering how the heck Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak were doing this? I was flabberghasted.

I gotta give it to Mike Brown. He's hands down the best defensive head coach in the league.

I don't think Cleveland's defense is as strong. Their one-on-one perimeter defense is nowhere near last years level but their team D, their help D, that's pretty good. Their interior D is about the same as last season. Again worse one-on-one, they lose a lot with Ben Wallace, but their help D might be slightly better with him.

Need to see how it holds up against better teams. How exploitable it is. Washington should be able to test them in the next few games.

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2008, 10:26:15 PM »

Offline BudweiserCeltic

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I agree with the people above, the Wizards have just been playing awful offense. For starters, you can't have Caron and Jamison shooting 13 attempts in the night. Ten shots by Caron the game before in 40 minutes, completely unacceptable.

I would begin by sitting down Roger Mason, he's playing awful.  At least he got to the line the other night, but he's taking A LOT of ill advised shots and not moving the ball.

Arenas with the bad wrist doesn't help matters.  It's clearly hurting him, so I would be really careful with him.

The ball is constantly in the wrong players' hands, and it's often one of the players that is not really an offensive threat.

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2008, 11:18:47 PM »

Offline Bahku

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No ... Cleveland is not playing top defense again. As most here have stated, this has been much more about the Wizards playing poorly, than about the Cavs pulling great D out of the ether.
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Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2008, 12:08:49 PM »

Offline wdleehi

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Quote
They have the right formula for successful playoff basketball:

(1) A great individual player in LeBron James who can create offense when nothing's there.

(2) A great rebounding team. They were first in the league in overall rebounding, and second in offensive rebounding.

In their six Eastern Conference playoff series of the LeBron era, the Cavs have outrebounded their opponent each time.

(3) A great defensive team. They weren't great on that end during the regular season, which is one reason they won only 45 games.

I think Broussard is picking up on the same theme.


Quote
If the Cavs continue to improve throughout this series, beat Washington in four or five games and enter their second-round series against Boston (I'm going out on a limb by assuming they'll survive Atlanta) with major momentum, I believe they'll actually have a chance of pulling the upset.

I'm not predicting an upset, but a Cavs team at the top of its game will be a handful for the Celtics.


Though I think the Celtics still handle this series. 

Re: Is Cleveland playing top defense again?
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2008, 12:53:45 PM »

Offline coco

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I think the addition of GAreans to the team creates a paradox.  In theory the Wizz should be harder to defend against.  The Wizz are adjusting their style on the fly.  With G on the floor, the ball movement have suffered and so their defensive intensity.

Back to the question;  Yes, the Cavs are playing better defense but not at the level it was a year ago....that being said, the Cavs are a 4th quarter team and that's what makes the deceiving. You think you got them beat, next thing you know, they are at striking distance.