NBA Match Up Problems

May 25, 2009

All of us NBA fans want to see the the Cavaliers go against the Lakers in the finals. The only problem is that may not happen. If you have been watching the Eastern Conference finals in the NBA you will understand that LeBron is facing some problems.

You’ve all got to understand something about the NBA playoffs. Its all about match-ups. I do not care how good of a team you are there is always another team that might give you hell
and you had better hope that you do not see them when it counts. Remember the top seeded Dallas Mavericks loosing to the eighth seeded Warriors several seasons ago. That is a prime
example of a severe match-up problem happening at just the wrong time. If Dallas would have played another other team in the playoffs they could and most likely would have beat them.

Fast forward to the present which is what this whole discussion is really all about. The Orlando Magic versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is a huge match-up problem and probably more than people realize. It is going to fully test what Cleveland, lead by their superstar LeBron James, is really made out of.

The Orlando Magic is a team that is constructed a lot like the Houston Rockets, lead by Hakeem Olajuwon, in the mid nineties. They have beast in the middle who is an absolute nightmare for any opponent who is surrounded by almost nothing but three point shooters.

That “beast” is Dwight Howard. He is a double double nightmare every night. He will get you 20-30 points in the paint while taking down 15-20 rebounds. You have to double team him! No buts about it. But wait, you have two former all-star forwards in Hedu Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis who can shoot the lights from the three point line out and more supporting cast in Aston, Lee, and Michael Pietrus who at times can do the exact same thing.

The Cavaliers have the best defense, hands down, in the NBA this year but Orlando is stretching them to the max.

LeBron James is a nightmare himself and one who it takes a whole team to guard. But Orlando has three people during a game that at times will command a double team. The Cavs bigs are not strong but not every fast. Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Anderson Varejao are not going to be guarding anyone for long stretches of time at the three point line. Its just not going to happen. And yet, that is what they are being forced to do and when that happens those two guys can put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket.

Hense Turkoglu getting to the line 12 times in Saturday’s game three.

This is a fantastic match-up to watch. The Cavaliers, everyone’s favorites in the Eastern Conference for the entire season, have breezed through the first and second round of the playoffs without much resistance. The Magic have had to fight and claw their way to every win up until this point. Now a battle tested team is meeting a great but relatively green team in the final round of the playoffs.

Great to watch.

What can the Cavs’ do?

They should at the San Antonio Spurs game plan against the Phoenix Suns several years ago. The Suns were built much like the Magic. They had Amare Stoudemire dominating on the inside with dunks, layups, and drives assisted by the great Steve Nash. He was surrounded by nothing but three point shooters in Nash, Johnson, Richardson, Marion, Barbosa, Bell, etc.. The Suns had way more firepower than the Magic have right now.

How did the Spurs guard that.

Gregg Popovich came up with a brilliant scheme that worked to perfection. He let Amare roam free. He tried to make life as hard as possible on him but never doubled team him. He told his defenders to stay at home on all the shooters.

End result: Amare was torching the Spurs on the inside but they hit very little threes. They shut down everyone else but Amare. He was scoring 40 points a game but everyone else was scoring 10.

Let’s see what coach Brown can devise……..

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