Guarding LBJ

[Slugger]

How do we do it?

Do we flat out double team him in the half-court like we did Joe Johnson?

Or, do we play him heads up?

I dont think we can be effective with quick doubling like we did JJ.  Cleveland has much better shooters than ATL, and LBJ is taller and a better passer than JJ.

I thought during the regular season, Ray Allen did a fantastic job in guarding LBJ.  Whilst Lebron still got his, i think Ray played fantastic position D, making LBJ earn it.

I think Posey plays Lebron extremely well, although he can be a little suss on the Pick n roll.  He will join Ray in trying to contain Lebron.  I dont see Paul defending LBJ that much in this series.

We know that the Cavs will play alot of pick n roll offense, so our team defense has to make the neccessary rotations needed to nulify this.  The times we played Cleveland this year, our pick n roll D against them has been fantastic at times, but lacklustre other times.

IMO, the key to this series is Perk.  His man, be it Varajeo or Ilgauskas, will be the ones setting picks.  Perk has shown a tremendous ability to push the ball handler away from the basket on the pick n roll, then rotate back to his man.  He has an uncanny knack of just putting the right amount of pressure on the ball handler before he drops back.

Obviously in a pick n roll situation our team defense has to make the neccessary adjustments to allow Perk to do this, but i cant help but be impressed with the way he does it.

I can see Leon Powe getting fairly limited minutes in this series, as i think he is our weakest team defender (out of our big men).

When he is one of the 3 bottom defenders on the pick, his rotations are always off - be it too late, or over commiting.  This has been exploited a number of times in previous Cavs games. He is also a poor defensive rebounder - something we will need against a top notch offensive rebounding team.

I can see Big Baby and PJ Brown getting good minutes backing up Perk and KG in this series.  They play superior team D to Powe, whilst still being able to contribute on offense.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I skimmed through your post as I'm too tired to read a long post at this time of the morning, but I'll say that during the season I think we defended LeBron quite well.  He certainly got his, but he nailed quite a few highly contested shots with frequency on those games, including 3-pointers.  I don't expect him to have those types of performances night in and night out if we defend him like we did during the season.

I'll think we'll see a lot of Posey on LeBron though, mainly because during the playoffs he's been playing more SF than during the regular season, with Pierce moving to the SG position when Ray comes out.  With that said, I think it'll be Pierce on him rather than Ray, who I think was his main defender through most stretches during the season games. Ray will be on Wally.  During the season we had to deal with LeBron playing SG often, and I think he'll be playing SF more often during the playoffs.

[stanthompsonismyhero]

Simple solution: start Big Baby Davis in game 1, and on the first Cavs possession, Davis should "accidentally" fall on LeBron's ankle, like a defensive lineman "inadvertently" rolling into a quarterback's leg right after a pass.  King James is out for the series, Celtics in four. 

[Sweet17]

Double team him and make the other guys beat us. Really this series comes down to our OFFENSE though. Rather then stopping Cleveland we have to take advantage of all the matchups in our favour. There is KG vs. whoever. There is Ray Allen vs. Wally!? And there is Rondo vs. West.

That should provide some easy times for our offense. The C's need to ignore the media and turn this whole thing on it's head. It should be how is CLEVELAND going to stop Ray Allen, KG and Rondo.. Not how are we going to stop a guy who shot 41% vs us during the season.

Pete

[BudweiserCeltic]

Double team him and make the other guys beat us. Really this series comes down to our OFFENSE though. Rather then stopping Cleveland we have to take advantage of all the matchups in our favour. There is KG vs. whoever. There is Ray Allen vs. Wally!? And there is Rondo vs. West.

That should provide some easy times for our offense. The C's need to ignore the media and turn this whole thing on it's head. It should be how is CLEVELAND going to stop Ray Allen, KG and Rondo.. Not how are we going to stop a guy who shot 41% vs us during the season.

Pete

I hope Pierce is aggresive when LeBron is on him. Pierce is as clever as it gets drawing fouls, and LeBron steps back once in a while to avoid getting fouls.  Hopefully Pierce can punish him for it.

[jay_jay54]

I think we did a pretty solid job on Lebron,in the regular season..if my memory serves me right,i think Pierce was handling him most of the time,with Posey at coming in at times.I don't think he ever got a chance to dominate any of the games,like he usually does a lot of teams.He got his pts.but they were not momentum getters,or change the complexity of the game.

[tanner]

I think Posey plays Lebron extremely well, although he can be a little suss on the Pick n roll.  He will join Ray in trying to contain Lebron.  I dont see Paul defending LBJ that much in this series.

Unless you're suggesting to sit Paul down, Doc would have to go small to have Posey on Lebron and still play Ray and Paul.  As much as he's done it till the latter of the season, I don't see him doing that now, not against the big Cavs frontcourt.

It will be more or less Paul half of the time, but that depends how healthy Paul is for this series.  Celtics should be throwing different looks at Lebron and keep him guessing.  They'll probably want to trap more and double when Paul is in since they don't want Paul to get into foul trouble as much.  What's also interesting is who gets Lebron at the end of close games. Does Doc do a defensive/offensive substitution with Posey?

I agree Perk is so critical in this series.  I know he hasn't done particularly well against Ilgauskas but I have confidence (I hope) he'll respond to the challenge.  No repeats of his 1-rebound performance, please.  As to Powe, I'd be very surprised if he gets downgraded in the rotation.

[Bankshot]

I know this is about guarding Lebron, but Baby needs to play in this series.  Not to guard Lebron, but to guard Ilgauskas.  I remember he guarded him during the regular season and was able to push him away from the paint and make him shoot tough fallaways.  He really frustrated Ilgauskas in that one game.  Maybe Perk can get it done too, but if not, Baby needs to be given a chance.

[tanner]

I know this is about guarding Lebron, but Baby needs to play in this series.  Not to guard Lebron, but to guard Ilgauskas.  I remember he guarded him during the regular season and was able to push him away from the paint and make him shoot tough fallaways.  He really frustrated Ilgauskas in that one game.  Maybe Perk can get it done too, but if not, Baby needs to be given a chance.

Yea Baby had a good showing.  Ilgauskas is such a headache.  Now that I think about it, Powe hasn't done a good job against Z.  hmm...     

[kw10]

Ok, put KG on him every now and then. I'm serious, KG can be is a very good perimeter player. We just have to make sure Powe or someone else step in and keep the offence going while KG covers all over LBJ.

[wdleehi]

Guard him just like they did in the regular season. 

Ye, Lebron is going to score, but the method of defense the Celtics used on Lebron had him shooting well below his shooting %. 

Plus, Pierce and Posey on Lebron is better then Ray on JJ.  (well, maybe not)


Do not get Ben Wallace in foul trouble.  Keep him in the game as many minutes as possible.  Help off Wallace and sideshow. 




I think the key backup big man may be PJ Brown.  He has the length and the savy to guard big Z.

And play Perkins stater minutes (as long as he is out of foul trouble)  He does the best job of keeping big Z from getting to his comfort spot.

[winsomme]

Guard him just like they did in the regular season. 

Ye, Lebron is going to score, but the method of defense the Celtics used on Lebron had him shooting well below his shooting %. 

Plus, Pierce and Posey on Lebron is better then Ray on JJ.  (well, maybe not)


Do not get Ben Wallace in foul trouble.  Keep him in the game as many minutes as possible.  Help off Wallace and sideshow. 




I think the key backup big man may be PJ Brown.  He has the length and the savy to guard big Z.

And play Perkins stater minutes (as long as he is out of foul trouble)  He does the best job of keeping big Z from getting to his comfort spot.

we have used different strategies against LeBron this season, so when you say guard him like we did in the regular season, i'm not sure what you mean.

in the first two games, we basically played him straight up and he killed us. in the last game, we trapped him early and often and IMO it was the best way to deal with him.

i don't think you can use one strategy all the time on Lebron, but i do think you have to give him a heavy dose of trapping and do it with different players so he doesn't get to used to where the trap is coming from.

i also think we need to game plan for Z because he has not been an easy match up for us with his size and shooting ability....

LeBron is a beast, so we're also going to have to play it by ear a little too and make adjustments on the fly....

i can't wait.

[jaketwice]

I would like to see a kind of 3-2 zone (since the Cavs don't have much of an interior game) with a sort of twist, in that someone will always be man-up against LBJ. The cheater will come from Ben Wallace's defender.

I think if you can take away the left against LBJ, he's going to have to shoot 3's (since he really has no mid-range game).


Also, TA should be in there trying to snake the ball.


                 p
     LBJ         C
     / C  ^            C p 
    / /   C             
     /    BW           
                   ZI/KP       

[Frontierboy]

I see Pierce and Posey on Lebron throughout the series..... I feel more comfortable with that than when Ray was guarding Joe Johnson.

Ray won't guard Lebron cause he gives up too much height and weight to him.  Look for Ray to run Wally ragged..... Rondo needs to stay up on Gibson and West.  Perk has to remember to box out as the Cavs are the best Offensive rebounding team in the league.

I totally like this matchup better than the Hawks. 

I really think the key to this series is Cassell.  He will be able to post up any of their  guards easily since all they have are small PG's.

Also, Do we use the Hack-a-Ben in this series like the Spurs have done these playoffs?  He's averaging a 25% from the FT line in the playoffs and 42% for the season.  Or Anderson Verajo at 59%?

[Edgar]

wellMr. Posey,
time to esarn your check.
And to keep PP out of Foul trouble