Opponents' Strategy Against the Cavs

[LyXo]

No offense, but, um, no offense

I visited the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves locker rooms before they played and beat the Cavs last week. Both of them had virtually the exact same scouting report up on the dry-erase board. They read something like this:

"Make them play half court. Slow tempo. Stop the ball. No fast breaks."

There's no espionage there, these aren't industry secrets. In the NBA, two things exist in incredible abundance: extreme paranoia and carnal knowledge of sets, plays, trends, and styles. NBA advance scouts work in teams with binoculars, listening devices and pages of play diagrams. By this point in the season, the entire NBA knows the Cavs plays and what they're called.

Just to give you an example, I've seen the LA Clippers advance scout at least four times at Cavs games already. They play twice in four days this week. Before that, I saw the Pacers scout come to two or three straight games.

So here's my point, the scouts came and watched the Cavs rip teams apart by running and gunning and figured it might be a good idea to keep LeBron James and Larry Hughes out of transition. The Pacers and Timberwolves are also good half court defensive teams, so they were also playing to their strengths. But the league has figured out that when playing the Cavs you need to make them play half court offense. Which is why the Cavs have to figure out how to play better half court offense.

I give my opinion in my Sunday column, which is to take advantage of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Mike Brown's reaction is to play better defense. This is sound thinking, because in the playoffs every game is a half court game and the team that plays better defense usually wins. However, this is November and they badly need to get better in the half-court.

They are inserting new plays all the time, but really only a handful seem to work in the half court. As Mike Brown taught me during one of his media practices, the Cavs offense calls for lots of movement if the original play breaks down. Well, they haven't been doing it recently. In the last two losses, there's been a lot of LeBron dribbling the ball and everyone else standing around...where have we seen that before.

The Cavs have three days off to work on it, let's see how they respond. After their last two-game losing skid, they won eight straight.

-Brain Windhorst
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Involving Z more would be appropriate, I agree. But he needs to learn how to distribute the ball more.

But I've been thinking about it. We don't score all our buckets off the transition. We score, most, but not all. From my memory of the season, I remember Hughes being the primary ball handler and playmaker in the half court. It seems that his sickness has hurt the team as well, as if he's not effective, then the half court isn't.

And Mike Brown. I love how he continues his mantra of defense, defense, defense. But enough is enough. We do need to score at some point, or we just look embarassed out there. We have a ton of weapons, but the combinations and methods we're using are pretty wretched. At least start with some more routine plays, run for everybody.

 

[fsqp13]

And Mike Brown. I love how he continues his mantra of defense, defense, defense. But enough is enough. We do need to score at some point, or we just look embarassed out there. We have a ton of weapons, but the combinations and methods we're using are pretty wretched. At least start with some more routine plays, run for everybody.

except for memphis, we've been beating other opponents handily once we reach 100, we should focus more on the offense right now once more

 

[CleveRocks]

As I have said in an earlier post (Mooheads anti z thread), we have not worked on the half court offense and it shows. But this is exactly why Z was resigned. He is the one with a real problematic post game, and when you get him the ball at the right place he is very difficult to defend. Gooden is also very good in the paint. It is just that currently we don't have a good set of plays to get them the ball. We should expect that at this point in the season.

I think Brown is right to focus first on the defense side of the ball. That is the part which most of the cavs have been without for the last few years, and the part of the game that is most teachable to those willing to learn it. Yes Minneapolis beat us with a good plan, but we were in that game the whole way because we played tough defense (unlike Indiana). Had we hit any two of the combined 12 O-fers from Jones or Marshall, we'ld have beaten the t-wolves.

That is not to say it is OK to ignore the post game. We will need the post game to win in the playoffs. We have the rest of the season to get it fine tuned. But it would be nice to see some eveidence of progress.

If the scouting report on the cavs boils down to make Ilgauskas score, the opposition will suffer. We know Z can put up the numbers, and Gooden is good enough to make them pay for overplaying the perimeter.

 

[Karma]

We have at stages this season gone to Z early to establish him with mixed results. After this though we tend to ignore him. My thoughts maybe to try and utilise Gooden early in the post and see how he works. Z maybe able to get some better looks feeding off the increased pressure on Gooden whether it be an open jumper or hounding the offensive boards. Neither of our bigs are getting enough ball and there is no excuse for that in half court basketball.

 

[NarlCavs]

I really haven't seen too much of an offensive system yet this season. Many times the offense is just let LeBron and Hughes create or go 1 on 1. They are both talented players with good creative ability but you still need to have some type of structured offensive system especially when teams now are going to try to force the Cavs into a halfcourt game and limit the fastbreak opportunities.

I agree the Cavs need to go to Z in the post in the halfcourt and Gooden at times too. At the same time the Cavs other players need to have better offensive movement and get into proper position to receive the pass from the post player who's doubleteamed. At times there's been too much standing around either watching the post player or watching LeBron and Hughes dribble and try to drive or create something.

Another problem I've noticed is that LeBron does a poor job many times running the pick and roll with Z on offense. Z sets the pick, rolls and is wide open for a 15-18 foot jumper, which he can hit consistently, but LeBron doesn't look to him and instead tries to force his own offense.

It is still early in the year but the kinks need to be worked out offensively and some adjustments made.

 

[ootbttnlagitnbasf]

Lebron will not get any allstar votes passing the rock back to z. he needs to take it hard to the hole to energize the crowd and make people want to have fun at cav's games. ilgauksas just looks dopey when he tosses that loopy jumper of his. Lebron is a better option. the early season kinks will go away once this team learns to play with each other more than they have so far. we are 9 out of 13 and almost in first place in our division. once we get better acclimated the sky is the limit and the door will be wide open.

 

[Karma]

Lebron will not get any allstar votes passing the rock back to z. he needs to take it hard to the hole to energize the crowd and make people want to have fun at cav's games. ilgauksas just looks dopey when he tosses that loopy jumper of his. Lebron is a better option. the early season kinks will go away once this team learns to play with each other more than they have so far. we are 9 out of 13 and almost in first place in our division. once we get better acclimated the sky is the limit and the door will be wide open.

Oh my! Dont pass it to Z as it will effect your chances of making the allstar team. LMAO

 

[ootbttnlagitnbasf]

making the allstar team as a starter is important to a player who has a lot of commerical endorsements. that popularity translates into sponsor dollars. that is supposedly one of the underlyign reasons that Lebron has new representation this year, as he thought that circumstances were conspiring against him last season. especially with no playoff appearances and mello a. getting a lot of publicity for his playoff run.

and passing to ilgauskas did not work when Lebron did it a lot in the first half of last season, so the King started keeping the ball more in february and march and his scoring went up. what more proof do we need than an increase in scoring average. we probably would have lost all those games and missed the playoffs anyway.

 

[Maximus]

Ummm....it sure worked tonight!

 

[ootbttnlagitnbasf]

Lebron made his average even when the shots were not falling. the refs could see that he was getting hacked every time that he went to the basket so they called fouls the right way and Lebron gets his 28. when he scores his average and gets almost ten assists and the team wins, he is happy. keeps his momentum.

ilgauskas was the key to the game because the clippers did not have anyone who could defend him.

sam cassell always plays good against damon jones. they have a friendship and rivalry that goes back to when cassell was with the rockets and jones played for the university of houston and they spent a lot of time together. they jaw at each other and trash talk the entire game and cassell always seems to come out on top.