Not to discount Cleveland's status as one of the best team's in the game, but I think they are Miami on steroids. True, Miami has no miniature Shaq, but the meat of Cleveland's attack is Lebron and his 3-point shooting sidekicks, with a better-than-Haslem hustling big in Varejo. Jamison and Beasley aren't exactly 2 peas in a pod but neither seem able to provide a credible 2 to Lebron's 1. PG play is comparable.
I think Shaq/Z provides a little something Miami doesn't have, but I actually like Kendrick on Shaq. After watching Wade for 5 games, I am not any more scared of Lebron than I am of Dwyane (well, maybe a little).
Don't get me wrong, Cleveland is a much better team than Miami, but bottom line is that Lebron, like Wade, has to trust his teammates and trusting them is a little bit dangerous. We'll see another one man show as needed in the next series. And I hope it's needed because, like Wade, Lebron can win games on his own, but not a series -- against the Celtics.
I was thinking the same thing earlier:
The Heat are kind of a junior varsity version of the Cavs so it does make for an interesting extrapolation. Just about every player in the Heat rotation is a poor man's version of a Cav's counterpart. Arroyo's a homeless man's Mo Williams, Wade is a solid approximation of LeBron, Q-Rich and Parker are the 3-point shooting journeymen, the O'Neals are washed-up scoring big men, Jamison and Beasley are the stretch 4s who are supposed to pick up the scoring slack for their dominant wings, Haslem and Varejao are the hustle-oriented rebounding bench bigs, Wright and Moon are the elite athletes who mostly just shoot 3s and Chalmers and West are the inconsistent combo-guards who theoretically provide scoring and playmaking off the bench. Heck, even Magloire and Z are both ex-all star sloth big men.
Offensively, I think we should have similar success against the Cavs as we have against the Heat. The Cavs have the same problems denying pick and roll penetration, perhaps even moreso than the Heat, with Shaq/Z seeing significant time. KG will again enjoy a significant height/post-up advantage at the 4. Ray and Paul's averages against the Cavs this season are nearly identical to their production thus far in the playoffs.
Defensively is where our success vs Miami is harder to project. Playing against Wade is a nice prep for playing against Bron, but LeBron's slightly more dangerous, and unlike, Wade, he has 2 excellent 3-point shooters to pass to in Mo Williams and Anthony Parker (as opposed to one for Wade), as well as 2 consistent secondary scorers in Williams and Jamison, compared to none for Wade (JO shooting under 20%, Beasley wildly inconsistent).
The defense we're throwing at Wade involves heavy overplays that Jamison and Mo Williams would make us pay for.
Still, if Baby continues to show that he can rebound and play quick-footed help defense and we get KG for 35 minutes per night, I think we'll be able to a passing imitation of our defensive performance vs the Heat, and thus we'll have a decent chance.
Topic: Is Cleveland Just a Better Version of Miami? (Read 7641 times)