Celtics need to double Lebron to have a chance

[Tr1boy]

Celtics need to make the open shots, the only thing that we can do to make at least home games interesting. We know who Cleveland is, but that was terrible last night.

Yes. Lost after thr 2nd pretty much

Horford missing layups...IT4 missing 10 ft jump shots , 1-3 in fts

A night to forget

[shrinkage36]

Double him because all he'll do is run off a screen for a favorable matchup and score at will. You must double him or again, he'll score at will. Don't double off of Kyrie's man, but anyone else. And for goodness sake, calm down on offense and score when you have open shots like Love did.

[droopdog7]

There is a reason Lebron is in the conversation as the best ever.  You can't double him because then we'll lose by 40.  He's a better playmaker than he is a scorer.  He also prefers to pass tha score. 

Our best chance is to see if he can score 50 and then try to keep the others down.  So basically, the complete opposite of the premise of this thread.

[Tr1boy]

There is a reason Lebron is in the conversation as the best ever.  You can't double him because then we'll lose by 40.  He's a better playmaker than he is a scorer.  He also prefers to pass tha score. 

Our best chance is to see if he can score 50 and then try to keep the others down.  So basically, the complete opposite of the premise of this thread.

Well the complete opposite got our roofs blown off last night

It was a joke to see 5-6 different celts players undressed by Lebron

[droopdog7]

There is a reason Lebron is in the conversation as the best ever.  You can't double him because then we'll lose by 40.  He's a better playmaker than he is a scorer.  He also prefers to pass tha score. 

Our best chance is to see if he can score 50 and then try to keep the others down.  So basically, the complete opposite of the premise of this thread.

Well the complete opposite got our roofs blown off last night

It was a joke to see 5-6 different celts players undressed by Lebron

I understand that you want to change it up after last night, but trust me, it will be worse if we try to double Lebron every time.  Much worse.

[Tr1boy]

Celtics should also explore to post up/kick out strategy

All the cavs are doing is sitting back, daring Celts to shoot with a hand in the face

I hate the fact Celts let the Cavs dictate the play on both ends

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Lebron is gonna get his no matter what. Focus on shutting down his teammates instead. The team successfully shut down Kyrie in this game, but left Love wide open and Tristan with offensive rebounding that leads to unconstested 3s.

this actually may have some merit and make sense. Lebron will score. but how much? try shutting down others as much as possible I just doubt we can even do that. make lebron score 60 every game to beat us and make him do it from outside not layups...so if it means giving him some open looks so be it. cover other guys. we cannot keep giving up layups like we did last game. problem is it is basically a pick your poison.

[green18!]

I think there is an in-between solution here, which is to have a second defender waiting, but not double, and then to start rotating as necessary. Here is an example (which is on the front page of cb):
https://twitter.com/JaredWeissNBA/status/865098433970962432

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

There is a reason Lebron is in the conversation as the best ever.  You can't double him because then we'll lose by 40.  He's a better playmaker than he is a scorer.  He also prefers to pass tha score. 

Our best chance is to see if he can score 50 and then try to keep the others down.  So basically, the complete opposite of the premise of this thread.

yep. it is a crazy mentality but I feel same way. make huim score the vast majority of points for the cavs IF POSSIBLE. what i mean by that is he should go cold sooner or later, make him hit J's and not layups and we might have a prayer. law of averages should catch up with him eventually. cavs are better when they distrubute the ball to all stars they have. make lebron score 60 or 70. keep others out of rythym. it is worth a shot. i doubt he scores 60 or 70 from outside. but can we hold him outside? keep him from passing? those are issues!

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

There is a reason Lebron is in the conversation as the best ever.  You can't double him because then we'll lose by 40.  He's a better playmaker than he is a scorer.  He also prefers to pass tha score. 

Our best chance is to see if he can score 50 and then try to keep the others down.  So basically, the complete opposite of the premise of this thread.

Well the complete opposite got our roofs blown off last night

It was a joke to see 5-6 different celts players undressed by Lebron

I understand that you want to change it up after last night, but trust me, it will be worse if we try to double Lebron every time.  Much worse.

i think u are right. leaving others wide open to get hot when lebron may be cold is a disaster for us. make lebron score 70. and not layups because lebron will and can score 100 on layups. make him hit long 3's. all game to beat us.

[kozlodoev]

They tried and it was layup galore for Tristan Thompson.

What they need to try is to play real defense -- you know, help, closing out, rotating, and all that. Enough with the lazy "let's just switch everything" stuff.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Lebron is gonna get his no matter what. Focus on shutting down his teammates instead. The team successfully shut down Kyrie in this game, but left Love wide open and Tristan with offensive rebounding that leads to unconstested 3s.

this actually may have some merit and make sense. Lebron will score. but how much? try shutting down others as much as possible I just doubt we can even do that. make lebron score 60 every game to beat us and make him do it from outside not layups...so if it means giving him some open looks so be it. cover other guys. we cannot keep giving up layups like we did last game. problem is it is basically a pick your poison.

And he's also going to get tired and settle for jumpers.

We go under the screens on LeBron, switch if needed.

And to me, the important thing is don't send help. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out.

If we send help, he'll pick us apart, either by passing, or with Tristan being open for an offensive rebound because his man has to help. If we don't send help, chances are he scores. That's the lesser of two evils we can get. But what this does is it puts his teammates out of the picture, out of rhythm.

But this will only work if we also take care of our offensive side of the court.

So in theory, just try and defend LeBron one on one. We won't be able to full shut him down, but we'll gas him out, and shut down his supporting crew in the process. If we take care of business offensively, we should be within striking distance, regardless if LeBron is shooting 60% from the field, as long as we shut the rest of the team down and we don't allow offensive rebounding.

Go under the screens, switch if needed. Don't send help. If he scores on whoever defends him one on one, so be it. He won't be able to do it the entire game.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Lebron is gonna get his no matter what. Focus on shutting down his teammates instead. The team successfully shut down Kyrie in this game, but left Love wide open and Tristan with offensive rebounding that leads to unconstested 3s.

this actually may have some merit and make sense. Lebron will score. but how much? try shutting down others as much as possible I just doubt we can even do that. make lebron score 60 every game to beat us and make him do it from outside not layups...so if it means giving him some open looks so be it. cover other guys. we cannot keep giving up layups like we did last game. problem is it is basically a pick your poison.

And he's also going to get tired and settle for jumpers.

We go under the screens on LeBron, switch if needed.

And to me, the important thing is don't send help. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out.

If we send help, he'll pick us apart, either by passing, or with Tristan being open for an offensive rebound because his man has to help. If we don't send help, chances are he scores. That's the lesser of two evils we can get. But what this does is it puts his teammates out of the picture, out of rhythm.

But this will only work if we also take care of our offensive side of the court.

So in theory, just try and defend LeBron one on one. We won't be able to full shut him down, but we'll gas him out, and shut down his supporting crew in the process. If we take care of business offensively, we should be within striking distance, regardless if LeBron is shooting 60% from the field, as long as we shut the rest of the team down and we don't allow offensive rebounding.

Go under the screens, switch if needed. Don't send help. If he scores on whoever defends him one on one, so be it. He won't be able to do it the entire game.

i agree 100%. we are on the same page. i know it sounds crazy but it keeps others cold and out of rythym as you said. eventually lebron gets tired and goes through a cold spell. make him score 70 from OUTSIDE to beat us. make him keep that up all game. i will take my chances. let him pass to others when he is cold or double him and somebody else will take up teh slack for the cavs and beat us. hell play zone and make them all make everything from outside. LOL it is worth a shot. if we go down let's go down swinging and having tried everything.

[KGBirdBias]

I think Stevens was playing vanilla defense so he could see what they're trying to do.

You cannot let Bron get 4,5,6 dribbles and take off. I would double after the 3rd dribble and after 10 seconds on the shot clock. I would always try to double from JR's or TTs man, then flood that area like Thibs used to do. Bron will pass to the open guy and once that ball goes to JR, he's not a playmaker and will either jack a 3 pointer or try and drive.

You have to flood the strong side of the floor and if they swing it to the weak side, leave them with little time on the shot clock.

I would also start smaller...IT, AB, Green, Crowder and Horford. Smart did a great job of boxing out TT and let that be someone's only job.

Let the others score to beat you but you can't give up both. They looked tired last night and I expect a different gameplan and energy level to this game.

[KGBirdBias]

Stevens needs to look at film to see what the Bulls did to the Cavs this year, look at film from what the Celtics did in the past and what the Spurs did to the HEAT. It's no secret what the Cavs are doing but you can't show Bron the same look every time.

Sometimes you double and sometimes you don't. Don't show him where the double is coming from and also be prepared to take a lot of charges. I know that's a lot to ask but he's a runaway train and it will be a layup drill if you don't stop him before he can elevate at the rim.