Game #4 Detroit @ Cleveland

[highplainsdrifter]

GAME #4

vs

Cleveland Cavaliers (1) vs Detroit Pistons (2)

Monday, May 15, 2006
Time: 7:00pm
TV: TNT
Location: The Q, Cleveland OH

Head Coaches

Mike Brown / Flip Saunders

Probable Starters

Eric Snow / Chauncey Billups

Flip Murray / Richard Hamilton

LeBron James / Tayshaun Prince

Drew Gooden / Rasheed Wallace

Zydrunas Ilgauskas / Ben Wallace

Cavaliers Bench

Damon Jones/Larry Hughes/Donyell Marshall/Anderson Varejao

Pistons Bench

Lindsey Hunter/Maurice Evans/Tony Delk/Antonio McDyess
​

Sorry for the late preview. I just got back from the Degobah System where I interviewed Yoda...

HPD: Wow Yoda! What a game 3!!! LeBron James was fantastic, especially in the 4th, and he recorded a triple-double! The fans were going crazy!!!

Yoda: Strong with the Cavalier Force LeBron is. When he gets his team involved, unbeatable they are.

HPD: What do you think of Sheed's comments about Detroit winning game 4? And he says the series will end in 5 games?

Yoda: Worry about Sheed or any Pistons I will not. He is loyal to the Dark Side, a true Punk, Darth Sheed is...

HPD: Will the Cavs win game 4?

Yoda: Is Chewbacca hairy, hmm?

HPD: Can the Cavaliers win the series?

Yoda: Of course. A masterful performance from LeBron, and a total team effort it will take. Many fans may be tempted by the Dark Side, and fear may cause them to doubt.

Believe in the Cavalier Force we must........

 

[Karma]

Nice preview Yoda and HPD.

On some news to hand.....

Hughes Will Miss Game 4

14th May, 2006 - 11:32 pm
Beacon-Journal - Larry Hughes will miss Game 4 on Monday as he remains with his family in St. Louis following his brother's death. He also sat out Cleveland's Game 3 victory.

The wake is scheduled for Monday and the funeral will be Tuesday morning.

The Cavaliers are still unsure whether or not he will return to the club in time for Game 5 in Detroit.

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/40506/20060514/hughes_will_miss_game_4/

 

[blackmagicGTI]

Hughes needs to take his time. I have no qualms with him missing the rest of these games if thats what he needs to do.

The Cavs need to do a good job of avoiding getting into it with Rasheed. This is exactly what he wants. He is the little kid who is annoying and will only stop if you ignore him and play your game.

Varejao and Z need to watch as Rasheed has tried to bait them into Technical Fouls multiple times. If Z is more of a factor watch for Rasheed to do it to Z more.

The keys for me are:

1. Team defense for 48 minutes. Help and trap. Individual defense is a bonus but with Snow's size and Hughes out, team defense is key.

2. Energy from start to finish.

3. Flip stepping up. Come on Flip. We need a solid 20pt performance.

4. Bench. Marshall and Jones just need to make the Pistons respect us from 3 and Anderson just needs to play his game and not get cheap fouls.

5. Keep the game close. No early leads for Detroit. If we are within 4 with 2:00 minutes to play I say we should be happy and I like our chances with how LeBron has been playing in the 4th quarter and OT.

GO CAVS!!

 

[PIP]

Another excellent preview, HPD...

Not only am I going to this game, but I present to you, MY LUCKY TACO

 

[blackmagicGTI]

After reading how much the Pistons and their fans think that they are God's gift to the game of basketball I take back the fact about not needing any extra motivation.

This is a key game for LeBron. (I hate to do the MJ thing but here goes). What do you think the result would have been if Rasheed ran his mouth off to an MJ led Bulls team with talent similar to how this series is? MJ would have gone off for 50+ and beat the Pistons by 20.

LeBron, you gotta take this personal. Damn, I don't want to see any smiles or handshakes before the game, especially with 'Sheed. Show some intensity and I want to see a selfish LeBron that wants to DESTROY THE PISTONS.

Forget Z, forget Drew, Forget Flip. That will fall in place since LeBron will get them the ball. But this is the time for LeBron to show us why the NBA is the one league in which a superstar can make the difference.

No tentative 6 pt first half. I want to see the whole arsenal. NO SMILES. Drop some 3's, some fades, and posterize Rasheed's ugly spot on his head.

It's scary to imagine what LeBron could do if he ever got that pissed (as much as I am right now if you couldn't tell). I could easily see a 50/12/12 game in 48 minutes of action.

I'm psyched and hope that they show up like their pride matters to them. I know AV will. We aren't a great team but that doesn't mean we have to bow down to these Pistons and take their shit with a smile on our faces.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

LeBron, you gotta take this personal. Damn, I don't want to see any smiles or handshakes before the game, especially with 'Sheed. Show some intensity and I want to see a selfish LeBron that wants to DESTROY THE PISTONS.

Great post BlackMagic!

For Real, LeBron wants to be friends with everybody it seems, time to get MEAN!!! :heated:

 

[Dungong]

Some keys for game 4 I see:

Take care of the ball. The Cavs have done this pretty well, it needs to continue. The Cavs won the turnover battle pretty decisively in game 3.

Watch the fouls. One thing that hurt especially in game 1 was that the Pistons were in the penalty a lot and ended up getting free scoring opportunities on silly touch fouls at the end of quarters.

Guard the jumper first. Pluto pointed this out in a nice article, and it was huge in game 3. The Cavs need to avoid sagging or giving any perimeter space. Detroit is shooting the 3 pointer so well that its simply better to let them try to take it inside.

Tire them out. The Piston's starting 5 has trouble playing big minutes. Aside from the self proclaimed "best conditioned athlete in the world" the Pistons get tired. They aren't used to playing 45 minutes a game and their bench is full of role players. If the Cavs keep moving on offense and keep the game close, the Pistons won't have much left in the 4th. Anyone notice the Pistons just seemed a step slower down the stretch?

Finish strong inside. Yeah, Ben Wallace on D is like Lebron on offense. Sometimes, hes just going to bail out his team with a spectacular play. But time and again the Cavs have missed from point blank. Sure, your blocked dunk may turn into ESPN fodder, but more often than not its a better play than some rediculous double clutch scoop shot to avoid the D entirely.

No more jump hooks from Z. The turnaround jumper on the low block has been pretty good this season, yet for some reason Z has tried to go to a sweeping hook in the lane that has about a 20% sucess rate and gets him called for traveling a lot.

 

[Whitley]

There is a lot of mismatches everywhere still for the Cavs. One thing Flip Saunders will do that Larry Brown didn't is that when there is a mismatch that is there he will keep going to it until the other team changes up on it.

For the Cavs to win the following MUST happen:

1) Play defense. The Cavs stepped it up again. The Pistons very well might only commit 16 turnovers in the next two games. So the easy buckets very well might not be there. Cavs are not likely to break 90 tonight (only happened 2 times in the previous 7 games this year and only average 83.2 ppg), so the defense must be there.

2) Sideshow Bob must have another game like he did in Game 3. If he does it will negate what McDyess brings off the bench for Detroit.

3) Damon Jones. If billups decides to abuse him Jones is going to pickup quick fouls and Eric Snow is going to have to play heavy minutes(38+) something he is not suited to do anymore. This is espically true with Flip Murray having to start tonight again.

4) Flip Murray. He finally came to life in this series and had seven critical rebounds. He must rebound and chip in about 15 points for Cleveland tonight.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Yet again, hard to concentrate on work because of anticipation.

We better play with a determination tonight. Come out with confidence - keep your composure - good things will happen.

If Detroit starts slow, I can see frustration settling in for them. The game could get chippy - we need to stay level-headed.

 

[hughes1988]

Z has a good game #3... looks to be getting more relaxed shooting the jumper... if Z is open let him shoot it, it will go down...

 

[jjc58]

Damn, I don't want to see any smiles or handshakes before the game, especially with 'Sheed. Show some intensity and I want to see a selfish LeBron that wants to DESTROY THE PISTONS.

I'd love LeBron to be all smiles and handshakes with Sheed before the game, only to add something like "They don't teach grammar so good down in Chapel Hill, do they?" or "Win this one and the ad contract with Rogaine is just about sewn up"...

Pregame doesn't matter. I just want to come out with some intense D. Force them to drive. And I say skip the double team entirely, at least until they make us go there. If I'm Sheed, I'd rather get doubled in the post, especially early in the shot clock. Pass--and the Pistons will rotate the ball to the open man. Shoot (over the double or fading away)--and the double allows Ben Wallace a higher probability of coming down with a rebound. Make Sheed make good on his promise down low. If he starts missing, he'll turn from the wise-cracking, belly laughing, joker-looking idiot into the whiny, crybaby, forcing up all kinds of stupid shots and elbowing-AV-to-try-to-start-some-crap idiot.

When a Piston shooter (anyone not named Ben) has an open look, close out like a maniac. None of this raising a hand crap. Think about how teams defend Donyell Marshall. Sprint at them! If you give up a few drives, so be it. Chauncey, as good as he is, ain't Gilbert Arenas.

Best way to get Z involved, IMO, is to screen-n-roll from the baseline with LeBron taking the ball away from the baseline. Z rolls to the baseline where he can see all of the defenders and doesn't have to rush the shot on account of help defense. Get him a few chances early (as well as a few layups off of dishes by Flip). If he hits, keep feeding him. Once he hits a few easy ones, the fade starts dropping, the hook looks easier, and he doesn't have to press as much (which should limit the traveling calls).

Finally, we must contain Rip.

 

[blackmagicGTI]

When a Piston shooter (anyone not named Ben) has an open look, close out like a maniac. None of this raising a hand crap. Think about how teams defend Donyell Marshall. Sprint at them! If you give up a few drives, so be it. Chauncey, as good as he is, ain't Gilbert Arenas.

That's not a very good idea considering we already give up a good amount of second chance points. With us running out on every jumpshot, they'll get all the long rebounds. Teams didn't "defend" Donyell, sometimes he just seems to think that if he catches the ball in the corner he has to shoot it regardless of pressure. However, he has played well in the playoffs and I got no beef with Donyell.

If anything we have to play smart and patient team defense. If we bite on every pump fake this will lead to dribble penetration, foul trouble, and easy points for the Pistons. That's not how I want the Cavs to play.

 

[The George]

Lets Do This Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Am Ready To Go!!!!

We Can Win This Game

Just Believe Baby Just Got To Believe

 

[bob2the2nd]

Lets Do This Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Am Ready To Go!!!!

We Can Win This Game

Just Believe Baby Just Got To Believe

im glad someone else feels EXACTLY how i feel right now...

 

[crazedcav333]

WE READY! Bring it Rasheed! Nice to finally be apart of these threads that I've heard so much about! And.....this is a must-win.