Celtics Doing Something the Pistons Can't Do... Defend LeBron

By Craig Kwasniewski

This ain't Tayshaun Prince running away from LeBron!

It's no secret that LeBron owns the Pistons. Literally any time he faces the once vaunted Pistons defense, LeBron flies down the lane for uncontested layups and thunderous dunks. The infamous Game 5 from last season proves a point, LeBron's in their head. As a basketball purist, it's really frustrating to see a team that once thrived off of their defensive reputation simply give up. Embarrassing!

Well, big ups to the Boston Celtics for putting on a defensive clinic on LeBron last night, forcing him into the worst game of his career. And it really didn't take brain surgery, just hard work. The C's were always closing the lane on drives with multiple players, they were always in LeBron's face contesting every shot and the were quick to recover off the help defense, challenging jumpers whenever LBJ dished.

Mix in the thoroughly uncreative offense from Cleveland and you have one of the one of the league's best shooting a preposterous 2-18 from the field with 10 turnovers. Seriously, Mike Brown needs to wake his ass up on offense. The TNT crew and especially Charles Barkley were losing their minds watching LeBron struggle in their 1-4 set down the stretch. Basically it's LeBron at the top of the key and the rest of the Cavs spaced all over the floor opening lanes for LeBron to dive. This works against teams like Detroit, who don't challenge LeBron once he gets to the paint. But against the C's, LeBron's expending a ton of energy just to get a shot off, which explains those blown layups in the last 45 seconds... LeBron was simply gassed.

Brown needs to find a way to create easy shots for LeBron. How about running LBJ off some curls to get the ball on the wing or posting him up? Take the pressure off LBJ by not having him run the point so much. The Cavs have the talent to beat the C's, but they need their closer to have the energy down the stretch.

BTW - Mike Brown deserves every bit of blame for his uninspired offense, but I'm not calling him a bad coach. We all look at these Cavs as a modern day version of the Doug Collins-led Chicago Bulls with LeBron and his supporting cast. But Brown's done a fine job getting his team to buy into the LeBron-first offense, play hard and win (not an easy thing to do in the game today... dudes want to score and not be role players, which explains Larry Hughes being shipped off). But Brown's also done a fine job at making the Cavs one of the best defensive teams in the league. It's no fluke that both Paul Pierce and Ray Allen had their career worst games last night. Sure, some may argue that they both were tired from playing defense against LeBron, but we're talking a COMBINED 4 points from two of the big three.

Anyway, not a lot of teams have the talent make up of the Boston Celtics to defend a LeBron James like last night. But the Pistons do! Flip Saunders (or more like Joe Dumars), are you watching?

Even if LeBron splits KG and Parker Posey he still has Kendrick Perkins waiting to close the lane... textbook defense.

Comments

[JL]

You're absolutely right about Mike Brown. While his offensive coaching is lacking, he deserves recognition and praise for his ability to get that Cavs team to play defense. He took a rather uninspiring roster last year (except for James of course) and turned them into arguably one of the best defensive teams in the league. This year, he's managed to make Wally world, a notoriously poor defender, seemingly adequate defensively.

All Brown needs is a top-notch offensive mind for assistant coach...and some offensive talent that isn't named Lebron.

[Jim]

I wouldn't get too cocky after one game. Lebron played extremely well against the Celtics all year...much better then he played against the Pistons. Yes, Lebron completely owned Detroit in Game 5 last year and that is the most amazing performance I have ever seen. The way I see it, Lebrons bad night ends up cancelling out the Pierce/Allen bad night. It didn't happen last night, but I would take Lebron over KG in the last 5 minutes of a close 4th quarter game any day of the year. I'd be worried if I was Boston, b/c this game went down to the final posession in Boston and Lebron had a terrible game. In the 1st round Boston crushed Atl. by an avg of 25 at home yet still lost all 3 road games...if you squeak by Cleveland when Lebron has a terrible game, what will happen when you play in Cleveland?

[Murcy]

Jim, I agree that whis wasn't a convincing win, but take into account the fact that the player who is 9 times out of 10 the celtics' best scorer had a 2-14 night, and ray allen didn't make a goddamn field goal!!! if they hit just half of their shots, this would have been a blowout, not a close game. (sam goes for lbj of course). neither of these 3 terrific scorers will have nights like these again I think.

[Israel Rico]

The Celtics pretty much took a page out of Popovich's 2007 Finals defense on LeBron, one thing for sure is that HE CAN NOT BEAT YOU ALL BY HIMSELF (only a team like Detroit).....the Cavs screwed up two seasons ago by letting Carlos Boozer go, his offense would have kept the pressure off Lebron, Wallace however has no game, sure he's a great rebounder, but never a factor.
Mike Brown has a big job ahead of him, but the Cavs are gonna need their role players to step up.

Dan Patrick also mentioned that Lebron is not Overrated....to an extent he is, sure he got Cleveland to the Finals but don't you think viewers would have watched the Finals because of Lebron? But NBA fans are so Gdamn hypocritcal, Sure you have small market teams but if you have the "Face" of the NBA in the Finals, and no ones watching...you got a problem with your marketing staff....plus networks as well they...crap shit down your throat everytime ESPN, ABC is on the air (ie stupid ass promos, tv time-outs) JUST PLAY THE FUCKING GAME!!!!!!!

The NBA wants to relive the "Glory Days of CBS and NBC", but with so much access to media Internet, blogs, blackberrys, cell phones, it's just a diffrent era....the last ratings have not been good since Jordan left....but the internet was in it's infancy to at that time how the last 10 years have made a difference. Even if if there is a Celtics/Lakers Series the ratings wont be high as the 80's was. Personally I don't care for those two teams any way...but ill tune in a bit here and there.

In final Cav fans pray that LeBron dosen't leave C-town, cause you can count your team to be in the cellar of the East Central.

[Ben]

Jim, you're right on. This series will come down to the wire, especially now that things are going to Cleveland.

As far as the LBJ skeptics, you probably felt the same way last year around this time when the Cavs were going into the conference finals and Lebron ended up schooling the Pistons. So I don't really buy your arguments. Yes, Lebron was cold in game one, but is capable of exploding at any time. I think he can carry this team back to the Finals.

(I didn't see last night's game, but know they lost by a bigger margin than the first game.)

[10starpicks]

The Celtics cannot defend Lebron tonight.

[10starpicks]

The Celtics cannot defend Lebron tonight.

[Ben]

Posey DEFINITELY tried to TACKLE LBJ. He should have been rejected upon the officials reviewing the play.

[Replica Jerseys]

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