Cleveland's Interior D

[Bankshot]

Was it always this bad or do they miss Ben Wallace that much? Or are our bigs a bad matchup for them or did their front court simply have a bad game? Their front court looks Charmin soft, something the Celtics exploited and can exploit in the future.

If their problem is an absent Wallace, I hope more teams will take advantage of them in the paint for the rest of the season.

[Brendan]

None of them are that good against bangers and our bangers played well. Definately missing Wallace a bit, but he's not even so great anymore.

[celticinorlando]

cleveland is in trouble against  physical team inside...against elite LBJ refuses to go inside.

[Fafnir]

cleveland is in trouble against  physical team inside...against elite LBJ refuses to go inside.

Not true, he just is unable to get inside most game as efficiently. We did a good job last night, but last year we had trouble containing him after the first three games. He's very very good.

[celticinorlando]

not so sure...james sems to fall in love with the jumper vs teams like boston, orlando and the lakers....esp when they are on the road

[2short]

A HUGE tip of the hat to doc and the coaching staff (and our bigs for that matter).  Great job of finding a serious weakness with cleveland and exploiting it.  Cleveland was taking away paul and rays game earlier.  Like true champs we simply went elsewhere and made them pay for it.  Best ball movement I've seen from C's in awhile.

[cordobes]

Well, they played Wally at the 4, how good was their interior D supposed to be?

I've been saying since Ben Wallace got injured that their frontcourt sans-Ben was too weak and would ultimately prevent them from having a decent shot at the title: they can't afford to play James at the 4 for too long, Ilgauskas can't play more than 30 minutes and ends every game mentally and physically tired, Varejão can't play the energy provider role that suits him better if he has to control the foul rate to play 35 minutes and Hickson, while talented, is far from where Powe and Davis were last season in terms of defence and rebounding and Wally is useless versus teams like the C's or the Lakers. Getting production out of Smith is going to be vital for them - their defence won't be so good but maybe their offence will improve enough to make up for most of it. But as I said previously to the game, we'd have a good chance of beating them by going inside.  

LeBron is a victim of his team in some games, they don't keep him off the ball enough. But people have a very short memory: just two months ago he dropped almost 40 points and a triple double on us...  

[fairweatherfan]

Swap that first "t" with an "f" and you've got a good description of our relative play last night.

[xmuscularghandix]

they used their bigs to come and trap Pierce, then when we beat them on it they just kept with it.

[Cman]

If their problem is an absent Wallace, I hope more teams will take advantage of them in the paint for the rest of the season.

Agreed -- here's hoping the Cavs have a well - deserved losing streak coming their way.

[RAcker]

they used their bigs to come and trap Pierce, then when we beat them on it they just kept with it.

Remember that our coach was a solid NBA player and we have Thibs in our corner.  Mike Brown started as a video guy in Denver and somehow worked his way up to coach.  I'll take our guys over theirs in terms of making in-game adjustments any day.

[TrueGreen]

Was it always this bad or do they miss Ben Wallace that much? Or are our bigs a bad matchup for them or did their front court simply have a bad game? Their front court looks Charmin soft, something the Celtics exploited and can exploit in the future.

If their problem is an absent Wallace, I hope more teams will take advantage of them in the paint for the rest of the season.

It was the game plan devised by Doc and Armand Hill. They knew the Cav's would double Paul and Ray. That took there bigs away from the basket and the C's were able to use that against them. I don't know if the Cav's play this way all the time, but last nite we took what they did and used it against them. And to their credit, our Bigs, made it work.

[Fafnir]

they used their bigs to come and trap Pierce, then when we beat them on it they just kept with it.

They pulled the same defense on Wade in the game they recently rallied to win in the fourth. Wade and the Heat couldn't get anything other than long jumpers out of it. Wade had a few turnovers trying to split it.

I was very impressed with how Ray and Paul made them pay for trapping. I'm sure the coaching staff broke down that game and made sure we were ready for it.