With Big Z Back in the Fold, Cavs Prepare for Championship Run
The Cavs rolled to an 11-1 record when they had to play "small ball" due to Shaquille O'Neal's thumb injury and the 30 day moratorium on re-signing Zydrunas Ilgauskas--but neither of their main rivals gained any ground on them in the standings; during that time, the L.A. Lakers went 9-3 and the Orlando Magic went 11-2.With Ilgauskas back on the roster, the Cavs now have all of the core players from their 2009 team that rolled to the Eastern Conference Finals, plus Antawn Jamison, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon and a much more effective J.J. Hickson who has emerged as a key member of the rotation. Assuming that the Cavs make it through the first two rounds of the playoffs they will add Shaquille O'Neal to that mix in the Eastern Conference Finals.
In my newest CavsNews article, I discuss why the Cavaliers look very strong heading into the 2010 NBA Playoffs (6/19/15 edit: the link to CavsNews.com no longer works, so I have posted the original article below):
The Cleveland
Cavaliers have lapped the field in the race for homecourt advantage throughout
the 2010 NBA Playoffs; the Cavs have just nine games remaining—six of which
will be played at home—and currently are ahead of the L.A. Lakers by three
games in the loss column. The Cavs lead the Orlando Magic by six games in the
loss column. I thought that playing "small ball" for a month without Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas might cost the Cavs some wins but the Cavs went 11-1
from February 25 to March 21 to all but clinch having the league’s best record
for the second year in a row; the Lakers went 9-3 during that time, while the
Magic went 11-2. It says a lot about the Cavs’ depth that despite being without
their top two centers for a month they actually pulled further away from both
the Lakers and the Magic.
Some
commentators have suggested that the Cavs are actually better off without
O’Neal and/or Ilgauskas. That is ridiculous. The “small ball” lineup can be
very effective versus certain teams throughout a game and it can be a nice
change of pace for limited periods of time even versus big teams but it is not
a recipe to win 16 playoff games and claim the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The only
way that the Cavs will consider this season to be a success if is they win the
championship and in order to do that they will likely have to defeat both the
Magic and the Lakers in the playoffs; “small ball” will not get the job done
against either of those teams.
Now that the
Cavs have re-signed Ilgauskas they have the top six players from their 2009
team that posted the best record in the NBA and won eight straight playoff
games en route to a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals; in the 10 man
rotation, this year’s Cavs replaced (listed in order of mpg) Ben Wallace, Wally
Szczcerbiak, Joe Smith and Sasha Pavlovic with Antawn Jamison, Anthony Parker, Shaquille O’Neal (who is on schedule to
return during the playoffs) and J.J. Hickson (who was on the roster last season
but not a major member of the rotation). The Cavs are so deep now that Jamario
Moon—a two year starter for playoff teams in Toronto—currently ranks 11th
on the team in mpg, while Leon Powe—a major rotation player for the 2008 NBA
Champion Boston Celtics—is a nice frontcourt insurance policy who ranks 13th
on the team in mpg.
Ilgauskas
came off of the bench in his first two games since rejoining the Cavs. He has
started just six times in 55 games this season. His numbers in those two games—and
for this season in general—are underwhelming but statistics rarely tell the
complete story about anything that is as dynamic and fluid as an NBA basketball
game. Ilgauskas opens up the court offensively because when he spots up the
opposing center has to come out of the paint. Also, when Ilgauskas plays down
low his length enables him to be a very effective offensive rebounder; although
his offensive rebounds per game average dropped from 2.4 last season to 1.7
this season that is largely a function of reduced playing time: on a per minute
basis his numbers in that category have remained steady (3.2 in 2008-09, 3.0 in
2009-10). Ilgauskas’ lack of mobility defensively is well noted but anyone who
has played basketball at any level should be able to understand that as a 7-3
presence in the paint Ilgauskas has a certain impact just by properly
positioning himself.
Coach Mike
Brown likes pairing Ilgauskas with Anderson Varejao on the second unit because
Ilgauskas’ outside shooting touch provides a nice counterpoint to Varejao’s
mobility. Keep in mind that those two players started for Cleveland’s
66 win team last season, so Cleveland’s
bench has more talent and experience than the starting units deployed by many
NBA teams. J.J. Hickson plays with good energy as a starter and Coach Brown can
always juggle those players’ minutes during a given game based on matchups,
foul trouble and so forth; as the cliché states, it is more important who finishes
than who starts, a point that has been exemplified by Manu Ginobili and Lamar
Odom on recent championship teams.
Several of
the Cavs’ losses this season came in clusters right after personnel changes:
the Cavs started 3-3 as Brown dealt with the Delonte West situation and
adjusted to having a new rotation after the offseason acquisitions of O’Neal,
Parker and Moon. Then the Cavs won 40 of their next 48 games before dropping
three straight right after acquiring Jamison in exchange for Ilgauskas. The
Cavs bounced back to capture 12 of their next 13 games before going 1-1 since
Ilgauskas returned. It likely will not take the Cavs very long to regain their
stride once again, though it will be interesting to see what lineups Coach
Brown uses down the stretch: he certainly wants the Cavs to clinch homecourt
advantage and develop some rotation continuity heading into the playoffs but
once homecourt advantage is clinched he probably will reduce the minutes of
LeBron James and some other key players.
However,
Coach Brown’s final major personnel adjustment of this season will be his most
important and could possibly take place in the pressure packed environment of
the Eastern Conference Finals: the Cavs simply cannot afford to lose a game or
two while getting used to having O’Neal back on the court, so when the "Big Bill Cartwright" returns both he and his teammates will have to be very
focused on performing within their designated roles, walking that fine line
between not trying to do too much but also not deferring too much to others.
The nature of that kind of challenge should not be underestimated—just look at
what happened to the Magic during last year’s NBA Finals when they tried to
bring back All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson—but the Cavs really seem to be on
a mission this season: they have not only consistently pounded the weaker teams
but they have gone 6-2 versus top Eastern contenders Orlando, Boston and
Atlanta plus 2-0 versus the Lakers.
Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
posted by David Friedman @ 2:18 PM
4 Comments:
Good article as always - when you have players that were good enough to start coming off the bench and the ability to manage the personalities, you're in a position to do big things!
Here's my key questions for a potential Cavs-Lakers series. Can Artest slow down LeBron? Can Gasol or Odom contain Jamison? And if the Cavs go "small-ball" with Hickson and Jamison alongside LeBron, then can either team defend the other?
Bhel Atlantic:
I will address those questions--and others--more completely when I write my playoff previews but based on the Cavs' two victories in two tries over the Lakers this season it certainly seems like the Cavs match up quite well with the Lakers.
Bhel Atlantic:
I will address those questions--and others--more completely when I write my playoff previews but based on the Cavs' two victories in two tries over the Lakers this season it certainly seems like the Cavs match up quite well with the Lakers.
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