Another great question. What fun! Yeah I've thought about this a bit. The problem for most Eastern conference teams is they lack quick enough bigs to be able to accomplish this kind of a D. If you think about it, Miami also likes to blitz the pick & Roll and we've had trouble with them as well. I probably don't need to tell you the issue is the ability/willingness for Ky and LBJ to give up the ball.
I think we'll see that and what Chicago did - which was sag into the lane to prevent completed drives and force the Cavs to hit jumpers. If you think about it, it almost worked if you take away 3 miraculous shots.
The key is the Cavs ability to find weakside guys. Sometimes LeBron throws bad passes (hence the high TO rate) right across the lane to the weakside. I think WFNY had a column recently showing West grabbing one of these.
But I've also -esp. in Chicago game - noticed Ky and LeBron not taking it all the way into the lane - but passing just as they entered.
The Hawks on the other hand are about forcing the Cavs to make the extra pass. We can do it. I don't see it as a strategic problem so much as a practical one, esp if Love/Shumpert/Smith don't hit their open 3s.
the other real issue for me as I alluded earlier is that Horford has been able to exploit Mozgov's weak lateral quickness and force Blatt to remove him, which makes us much more vulnerable to penetration. Seems to me they need to make Carroll and Teague to complete plays. But that's just my take, I'm not sure exactly how it will play out when they've played each other a couple times and know each others sets
