Let's face it, the Main problem with last year, was the big man "toughness"...Zeller/Amir/Kelly were as WEAK as you can get up front.
I disagree.
The main weakness was at the wing/guard position. We went from one of the smallest teams at the wing (only Crowder was even average size unless you consider Jerebko a wing I don't) to a huge one.
Bradley/Smart/Crowder/Rozier/Brown gave way to Brown/Tatum/Morris/Smart/Semi.
And Brown was basically Semi during last years playoffs, more O but way worse D overall. Now he's playing at an all-star caliber when he hasn't been limited by injury.
This seems right. Every player at the 1-3 spots was a positional oddball, and had at least one serious limitation on the defensive end. The idea of doing all the switching we do now with IT and Bradley seems ridiculous.
Also, Crowder's defense was just awful last year. Idk what happened but he no longer looked like the elite defender he was made out to be.
I mean, Morris is actually locking down James well and scoring too. Crowder did neither last year and Lebron killed him all series.
Lebron looks tired to me. He's logged a lot of miles on those legs going to the Finals every year. This year he had the least amount of support he's had in a long time. I think its all finally caught up to him. After the first quarter he just settled for mid range and perimeter shots all game, and played no defense. He looks spent.
That's true.
The difference is also, the C's are making him work hard even for those jumpers and perimeter shots. Last year, it was like Crowder and Olynyk (on switches) just gave James 10 feet of space to shoot open looks. Of course, he cooked us as a result in four of the five games (except Game 3).
I do agree that against the Cavaliers, even if we start slow, the key is staying in the game. That whole team seems to fold and tire out by the middle of the 3rd quarter. As absurd as that sounds, it's looked that way in Games 1 and 2.