It was frustrating to watch the Cavs offense bog down in Game 1 into the old style offense.
See LeBron.
See LeBron dribble.
See LeBron dribble some more.
See LeBron shoot.
Yes, James, as he said, "had it going." He was hitting a lot of jumpers, and he was carrying his team, but it always seems like the Cavs are better off when James scores 48 points off set plays and picks and screens and ball movement rather than the stationary version it used for good parts of the Game 1 loss. That's the angle I went to on game night.
As Thursday wore on, the thought hit me, though, that Mo Williams and Delonte West shot a combined 10-for-32. And Zydrunas Ilgauskas can shoot better. And the offense in general can be better — if James allows it to function. So even if James doesn't score 49 again, the Cavs still should be OK offensively because the rest of the team can score more.
So I started to think about the Cavs defense, and the more I thought (always dangerous, I know), the more it seemed like the Cavs key to winning this series is in their bread-and-butter, their bellcow, their GDOTA (granddaddy of them all .. those who had Mr. Benander for Algebra understand).
And that is their defense, a topic I tried to address in Friday's Beacon Journal. Because if the Cavs really are as proud and as good a defensive team as we've thought all season — and they played some pretty good defense — they cannot let a team shoot 55 percent again, and they cannot let the team shoot 63 percent in the final three quarters.
The conundrum (like that word?) is that the Magic make good defensive teams look bad with their style. They murder teams that are not strong on the inside (ahem … Cleveland) with Dwight Howard, then when the defense starts to collapse they turn to their shooters on the perimeter. They have good ball movement, and they put their shooters in spots where they can make shots.
Sounds simple, but it's pretty tough to stop. And it's all pretty much the reason the Magic are in the East Finals.
Mike Brown did not seem overly concerned when he spoke to the media on Thursday. He said his team did not need to make "a ton" of defensive adjustments. Perhaps they need a half-ton? Brown has always believed in his system, and come playoff time he believes his team can shut down anyone. His players believe in his system, too.
But the system has had trouble with Orlando — unless you think the Magic winning nine-of-12 is an aberration. The Cavs have every right to believe they can win the series, but the Magic play a style that causes the Cavs problems.
Brown is the Coach of the Year. Defense is his specialty. He has made some very adept moves during past playoff series. The Cavs were built with a defense-first mentality. James was second in the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year voting. The Cavs will score, but to win this series they have to stop Orlando.
Figuring out the best way to do that will be key as the series continues.
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Agree that it's all about the Defense. As I watched the game I was quickly becoming horrified with the way we were standing around on Offense and watching LeBron do his thing, but looking at the stats after you can't really ask to score more than 106 points.
We have to do a better job of stopping Orlando on the other end. Even if that means letting Dwight Howard "get his" and staying all over the Magic shooters. We were fine in the first half when Howard was killing us, but we weren't letting their shooters get shots off, I say that's the key to winning the series.
And if we wanted to play a little more Big Ben to see if he could give Howard a little more trouble scoring that would be fine too.