Notes on Boston-Cleveland series

I was going to do a review and preview of all the series, but some of the matchups didn't interest me, and I had no desire to write anything. Here's a little something I wrote about the second round match-up between the Cavaliers and the Celtics:



1 Boston Celtics def. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1)- Every game was won by the home team. Luckily, Boston had home-court advantage, so they move on. For all the talk about how bad Lebron's teammates are, it was they who carried him in this series. The team defense held the Celtics (who averaged 100.5 points during the regular season) to 84 per game for seven games. If Lebron hadn't shot 2-18 (0-6 from 3) and committed 10 turnovers in Game 1, they would have won the series.

Sometimes it seems like Lebron forgets how good he is. He keeps dribbling and dribbling, looking for a driving lane, and then other times, he just knifes through defenders and gets to the hoop at will. He did the same thing in the 2006 WBC against Greece, where he looked clueless until the last few minutes, when he had an epiphany and realized he could get to the rim and finish against anybody.

Is there a worse offensive coach in the NBA than Mike Brown? Consider they have Lebron James, who, while not without his faults, is already one of the most unstoppable offensive players ever. He can drive to the rim, finish, pass, and for the most part, makes good decisions. He shot 48.4% from the field without a trustworthy jumpshot, got to the line, and averaged 30 points and 7.2 assists. While Lebron doesn't have an all-time great supporting cast, he does have teammates with complimentary skills. Zydrunas Ilgauskas can create his own shot in the low post and can make open mid- and long-range jumpshots. And he's an above average passer for a center. Pavlovic is a good spot-up shooter, and part of the reason he makes such poor decisions is because of the Cavs' (non-)system. Daniel Gibson and Delonte West are both good shooters (Gibson being a great one), who aren't pure point guards, but any offense with someone like Lebron (or Kobe or Michael) doesn't need a pure point guard. They need a point guard who can get the ball up the court, distribute the ball, knock down open jump shots, and generally play off of them. Think John Paxson, B.J. Armstrong, Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher. None of these guys are above average NBA point guards, but they each won three championships by compimenting superstars. Are Daniel Gibson and Delonte West any worse than these guys? Also, the Cavs were second in the league in offensive rebounding, due to defenders losing rebounding position to rotate to Lebron, and Anderson Varejao's and Ilguaskas' offensive rebounding process. What kind of offense has Coach Mike been able to mold with these parts? The 19th best in the league. Where would they rank without Lebron, good shooters, and so many offensive rebounds and putbacks? Whenever I watch the Cavs, I find myself wondering how good their offense would be if Phil Jackson was coaching them.

I like Kevin Garnett, but his weaknesses were really on show during this series. That he's better off as a sidekick and that he isn't clutch is already well known, but what jumped out at me was how much energy he spends letting everyone know how much energy he's spending. He yelled, he pounded his chest, he goal tended shots after fouls, but did he or his teammates outwork their Cavalier counterparts?