Hey, Cavs fans! It's A.C. , back in business on cavs.com. What's happening?
Before we get to the Cavaliers series with Atlanta, I wanted to congratulate LeBron on his MVP award and, recently, for being named to the All-Defensive First Team.
It's unbelievable to see how he has matured as a man and as a ballplayer. I did a lot of LeBron's state championship games. I even did the unfortunate game to Roger Bacon - the only one he lost. And I've watched him mature and watched him learn what it takes to win on the professional level.
He understood what it meant to win in high school, and it came very easy for him. Now, LeBron is starting to play like he did in high school on the professional level. He understands what it takes to dominate and win. And you can just see his maturation.
Each year, he's improved on something. Michael Jordan would do that - every year, he'd pick one part of his game and work on it. And this year, LeBron has worked on his defense and it's really paid off for him - second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, First Team All-Defense.
When you start putting up those type of performances - where you're totally proficient on offense and defense - now, he has a clear vision of what it takes to win a championship. And he's driven. That's one of the things I love about LeBron: as talented as he is, he could just rest on his laurels and collect money. His focus is on winning the Championship.
And I understand exactly where he's coming from, because when I was raised in the game of basketball, every coach I had was all about winning. It was never about individual performances. If I happened to play well individually, it was because I was trying to win. I wanted to win the game and win the championship. And you can see that LeBron is completely locked in on both ends of the floor.
And LeBron's not about to let anybody else lose focus. All his teammates are locked in with him. How can you not be when the main man is locked in? I love seeing what I'm seeing.
I have to admit, I was really surprised that Delonte West didn't receive a single vote for the All-Defensive Team. But see - all that comes with winning. If we win this season, then all that will come - because people will recognize.
To win a championship, everybody knows it's going to take more than one guy. And so then the media starts to watch: 'Let's see what these other guys do to make this happen.' Because that's just how writers are. They get focused on one area and they don't comprehend the group accomplishment. And that's the biggest weapon the Cavaliers have.
The sum total of their parts is what makes the Cavs the best team in the league. Not just LeBron James or Mo Williams - the All-Stars. It's the whole collective unit - everybody playing their part and not trying to do more than they can do. That's what it's all about.
After a slow start, I was really pleased with the Cavaliers performance in Game 1 on Tuesday. We weren't as sluggish as I thought we'd be - shooting-wise. The sluggishness came in our movement.
In that first quarter, we didn't move well at all. And LeBron figured that out right away. And he sort of held us in there until the other starters caught up. When the second unit got in there, we started to play Cavaliers Basketball - moving bodies, moving the ball, hitting open shots and playing tough defense. And then from there on, the starters came back and got into a groove - and everybody was ready to roll.
People talk about the Cavaliers being off for nine days and how it would affect them. But I thought Atlanta was still in Miami - their minds were still in the first round. Mentally, they did not want to deal with another team and did not want to climb another mountain.
I'm expecting a different team tonight. They understand they're in it with the Cavaliers now. And they'll be ready to play.
I really like what the defense did against Josh Smith in the second half. He's going to have to make his own adjustments. The Cavaliers have already adjusted to him. What they did the second half was just keep him in front of them and make him shoot over the top, because that's something he doesn't do well. The more you make him do something he doesn't want to do, the more frustrated he becomes. And he loses a little bit of focus.
Aside from the Cavaliers-Hawks series, I love that things are heating up around the league.
In the Boston-Orlando series, first of all, Skip To My Lou is going to be suspended for slapping Eddie House. Luckily for Orlando, Courtney Lee is coming back. But Boston is displaying the heart of a champion right now. Even without Paul Pierce producing, they beat the Magic handily. Boston plays very well on their home floor and Orlando kind of drifted into a perimeter game and went through the motions.
Now, the series out West between the Lakers and Rockets - on the other hand - is about to get out of hand. If Kobe doesn't get suspended - (which he won't be) - if I was Dwight Howard, I would petition the league office. The rule book says if you throw and elbow above the shoulders, it's an automatic ejection and one-game suspension.
The inequities on things like this are starting to become a problem, I think, in this league. You've already had the referee scandal and now you're having the inequality of punishment from one player to another. It's got to be black and white.
Regardless, that's going to be a battle out West now. It's on. By getting Artest emotionally involved - oh baby! It's going to be fun! L.A.'s finding out how tough Houston is and that the playoffs are all about defense, defense, defense. Houston's rugged and tough-minded. That goes a long way in the postseason.
The Cavaliers will need some of that tough-mindedness when they return to Atlanta this weekend. I'm expecting a whole different team.
The Hawks are a little bit of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. At home, they'll play differently. Guys will start hitting shots they're not hitting here. They'll get on the boards after we killed them in terms of offensive rebounds in the first game. In Atlanta, they're a different team.
And the Cavaliers will just have to fight the adversity. That's something that LeBron has talked about. They haven't had any adversity - even in the offseason.
So, the key is: how do they handle things with their backs against the wall, knowing that it's going to be a hard-fought game?
I have confidence that the MVP will find a way to figure it out.
I was really impressed with the Cavaliers' effort on Saturday afternoon. You could tell that over the last 20 games of the season, they were already getting geared up for the Playoffs. They took each game one game at a time and they had the best record in the league after the All-Star break.
They didn't get ahead of themselves. But you could tell that they were ready emotionally for the postseason around 20 games ago and they came out firing on Saturday. They're no-nonsense now.
Their focus is there. Just like Kobe said of the Lakers on Sunday night: This is what they've waited for. This is what the Cavaliers have been waiting for all year. And they're focused now on taking care of their business.
Sometimes, LeBron will get his teammates involved early in the game and then look for his own offense. But on Saturday, he was aggressive offensively right from the start of the game.
He's setting the tone. Because, what he understands about the game is that - the way Detroit is going to play Cleveland - he has to establish himself early. Now, once he gets established, he can play the rest of his game. He can draw the double-team and dish.
The entire team is moving the ball much better now than they were even in the last 10-12 games of the regular season. LeBron is drawing everyone to him, and - BANG! BANG! BANG! - guys are hitting their open shots. And once guys hit two or three shots, instead of the Pistons cheating over to LeBron, they're cheating away from him. That opens up all kinds of avenues for him to penetrate.
So a lot of things happen when he establishes himself early. Everyone's radar goes off when LeBron starts scoring early.
He knows, everyone knows. All the teams Cleveland's going to face are going to set up to stop LeBron. And I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pistons starting to take LeBron out of the air pretty soon. Sooner or later, they're going to get physical with him. And that's why it's going to be so important to establish the other guys. Get Anderson scoring around the basket, with Mo, Delonte and Z doing their thing. That was beautiful to watch.
The Cavs took Rasheed Wallace right out of the game, because they gave Rasheed the decision: do you want to come out and guard Z or do you stop LeBron coming off the double-team. Every time Rasheed would jump out on LeBron, he would make that pass to a wide-open Z - who knocked down the shot. Rasheed just couldn't get over there in time.
The Pistons don't really like to double anybody. That's how they play Orlando - they don't double Howard. That's not how they do things. But you look at the other teams the Cavaliers might face down the road - like Atlanta - that's all they'll do is double-team, because they're not a good man-to-man defense. So now you have to decoy yourself and let the other guys soften the defense up.
I'm not concerned about Mo Williams' slow start. It was foul trouble that messed him up.
I've been in that position many times. That first quarter, if you get two quick fouls and they take you out of the game - that kills your whole rhythm and while you're sitting on the bench, it feels like the game has gone past you. You're a passenger. And when you get back in, you have to catch up to the game speed again. It was nothing about nerves.
You saw what Mo was like when he came back in the third quarter - he was attacking the basket, making his jump shots. He did a great job in that third quarter of staying out of foul trouble so he could stay aggressive on the offensive end.
Foul trouble can screw up an entire team's rhythm. That's why you have to have a deep bench in the Playoffs. Mo gets two quick fouls, now right away, that takes a huge cog out of our offense - which probably slowed us down in the first half. But you had Boobie and Delonte do their thing and the Cavaliers had some nice, balanced scoring. Joe Smith was awesome and Wally was solid off the bench.
Detroit's going to have to stop the bleeding quickly. Michael Curry mentioned that they have to figure out a way to stop LeBron. So I imagine it's going to be an all-out war against LeBron in Game 2. They'll be tackling him, double- and triple-teaming him, anything they can do to stop him.
In other words, Curry's basically saying we're going to make someone else beat us besides LeBron. And the way the Cavaliers have played this year, they might just blow Detroit out if they focus too much on LeBron.
Detroit is going to put up a fight during the rest of this series, but I don't feel any trepidation. If the Cavaliers come out and take care of business on Tuesday, the only game that they'll have to be really concerned about is Game 3 on Friday in Detroit. Because then they'll come at us with everything they've got, so they don't get swept. If the Pistons don't get that one, their goose might be cooked.
Well, it's that time again. This has been a Cavaliers season for the ages, but none of it matters now as we start the Playoffs.
Out of all the teams we could have faced - Detroit, Chicago, Philly - the Pistons are the only team that I had a little bit of hesitancy about, because they know what it's like to deal with what they're dealing with. Mentally, they've got their feet planted on the ground.
The Pistons know - when it comes to the postseason - exactly what they need to do. They know it's a tough mountain to climb, but they know what it takes to climb it. That's the biggest difference between Detroit and the other two teams. Of course, in the Playoffs, some of the new guys that they've brought in - Bynum and Stuckey - they'll see that there's a big difference.
Both teams are perfectly familiar with one another; they know what the other team wants to do.
Offensively, you've got to guard the pick-downs on Hamilton. You need to have a clear understanding of how you're going to deal with that. You can't let McDyess roam around free. And you can't leave Rasheed, either. Because he's going to try to get your bigs away from the basket. Both McDyess and Rasheed are not going to go to the basket on a regular basis. So you don't have to worry about them going by you. You just need to worry about keeping them in front of you.
I think the guard play is going to go a long way in shaping the series. The Pistons are a guard-oriented team - they've always been that way.
Our guards have to do a good job on them defensively. Stuckey, Bynum, Hamilton - those guys are always going to be looking to go to the hoop, always looking to score. So you have to have a solid defensive scheme against them. But if we can turn our defense up and get on the break a little bit - run them - we can get about 15 fast break points a game.
Although I know that's the advanced billing, I don't expect the series to get overly physical. I would imagine if we beat Detroit both games here, that's what it'll turn into up there. But I don't see that happening here. They'll be scuffling to try to beat us here in Cleveland. When they get back to Detroit, they'll feel more comfortable. They might get one of the two in Detroit. And we should come back here and have them where we want them.
I didn't really want to fool with the Pistons, because, again, they will play over their heads when they play us. And beating the Cavaliers would erase a whole season of frustration. There's no shortage of motivation.
Three or four years ago, we were the upstart team. Now, we're on top and they're on bottom. And personally, I'm not sure they know how to deal with it. They don't look at themselves that way, and being there, it has to have an effect on them.
Allen Iverson is a Cavalier Killer, so not having to deal with him helps. But I think Iverson not being with Detroit has almost helped them. They didn't know how to play with a guy like Iverson.
Chauncey Billups is more of a guy who you can understand what he's going to do. He's methodical and he plays the game a certain way. Iverson is helter-skelter. You don't know what he's going to do. You might run a pick-and-roll with Iverson and he's the one setting the pick after he passes you the ball. You don't know what he's going to do, and sometimes he doesn't. Playing in Detroit slowed him down, playing in a structured system - because he's not a structured player.
There are a few players on both sides who'll be getting their first taste of Playoff intensity, and it will have an effect on them. That's why Playoff experience is so important.
That experience is huge because everyone plays at a higher level, a more intense pace. It's much different than the regular season. Every possession counts, because - aside from the rare blowout - it's going to come down to the last five minutes of the ballgame.
Your focus has to be there. And I think that's the biggest thing about Playoff basketball: you have to retain your focus for such a long period of time. But you still have to still be loose enough where you can play. You can't stymie yourself by getting too focused. But that's the way it is in the postseason: the intensity is there from the moment the ball goes up until the last tick on the clock.
I remember my first trip to the postseason. When I first made it, I was so happy to get there, that I wasn't even thinking about the difference between the Playoffs and regular season. And that was the wrong attitude.
In the Miracle Year, we went right on through the postseason. We were such a deep team that I had a chance to sort of work myself through it, and we were still able to be successful. But it was quite an experience. The same guys you were chummy with all year are now right up in your face. And it wakes you up right away.
Something else you have to have an understanding of in the postseason is the referees.
You have to, in a way, "scout" the referees. How are they letting you play? You have to figure that out in the first quarter. Because foul trouble can cause you huge problems in the Playoffs, if you don't watch what you're doing. If the refs are calling it tight, then you have to back off a little bit. You don't want to get two or three fouls and mess your team up because you made some stupid decisions on defense.
I think the Cavaliers should win this series in five games, six at the most. I think they'll give us a run. That's just the competitive nature I see in the Pistons. And granted, you always want a sweep. But I'm trying to be realistic, and I think the Pistons still have some fight left in them. I don't feel that we're threatened to lose the series, but I don't see us sweeping them.
The Cavaliers won't worry about how many games it'll take. They'll go with Coach Brown's philosophy of one game, one day at a time - just like they did all season. That mental approach is what got the Cavaliers through the season and kept them in the moment. They stayed in the moment. It's one of the reasons they never lost more than two straight games.
As long as we don't get ahead of ourselves, we'll be OK. We just have to stay in the moment. And everything will work itself out from there.
What's up, Cavalier fans! It's AC - what's happening?
The Cavaliers are coming off a strange weekend - having their 13-game streak stopped in D.C. before getting killed in Orlando. Then they turned it around with a really nice win over the Spurs on Sunday.
A lot of people have suggested that maybe it was good for the Cavaliers to take their lumps on Thursday and Friday. I don't ever think it's good to get thrashed like they did, because it leaves a scar. But at the same time, they've been bouncing back all season. It shows that it's a consistent part of their makeup - that they're able to put whatever happened behind them and leave it back there.
This is Mike Brown's philosophy: One game, one day at a time.
And for all the naysayers of that particular philosophy, this is exactly why you do that. Because of games like the Orlando game. You have to be able to say, 'that was an aberration, we're going to just forget about it because we know we're better than that.' And you go from there; you bounce back.
What happens during a long win streak - a 13-game win streak - is that you start to think it can automatically happen - that you can just "turn it on" - instead of realizing that it's the hard work you put in each quarter that makes it happen.
After a while, you start expecting that you can turn it on. The Cavaliers, for the most part, don't have a tendency for that. They don't get too caught up in wins either. They stay pretty level-headed, and I think that's how they've managed the win streaks they've had. Basically they realize that each game is its own entity and you don't get caught up in 'what if we win five more' or 'what if we win two more.'
They only worry about winning this one.
For a lottery-bound team, Washington has given us a tough time this year. And Orlando has given us trouble for a while.
Against the Wizards, it's basically because of their interior. Washington has big, strong guys in the interior. Orlando has one guy, but he's a problem for the whole league. And Orlando has built their team to where they have good shooters on the perimeter. So what happens is, they spread you out and you can either guard Howard one-on-one and guard the perimeter, or you're going to double-team him, make the Magic make two or three passes and hope they miss.
It's pick your poison with Orlando, and that's the way it is.
As far as Washington, last Thursday was their playoff game. They decided that they were going to throw everything at us and we went in there with our regular, everyday approach. But what they're trying to do is sell the players and the fans on next year. They wanted to use that game to promote next season.
Coming back and getting that win over San Antonio was huge, because it did a couple things. First, it continued with that bounce-back mentality. (I still contend that this team has the built-in playoff mentality because of that - because of what we just saw between Orlando and San Antonio. That's what happens in the playoffs. You'll have a game where nobody can hit shots and you can't get anything together. But you regroup, make your adjustments, come back and compete.)
And secondly, it was a win against a quality opponent. I don't quite understand that argument: that they haven't beaten any quality opponents. They have. And you have to remember, this is the NBA. Any team can beat any other team - especially when you're the team with the big bull's-eye on your back.
Look at the Celtics - they had the big bull's eye on their back and they come and play with intensity every night because they know that. They don't fool around. They're out there for one thing, and that's to beat you. They know you're trying to beat them because they're the Champs. So, that's the mentality that we're developing. We're on top now. And when you're on top, everybody wants to knock you down. That's why they need to keep coming with that attitude. Because it's a fleeting moment.
It's a mindset you need to have. And you have to have that swagger about yourself, ready to go out there and prove to people that you are the best. Right now, with us being the new kid on the block, everybody wants to challenge us. We don't present that physical dominant aura to opponents, but we are the consummate team. And our strength is in the sum of our parts.
So when the Wizards roll in here on Wednesday night, I imagine that they're going to go at Washington pretty hard. That would be my mentality. After what they did and the way they acted, that would be the way I would approach it.
We're down to the final five games of the season. The magic number is 2 in the East and they might have to win out to get the top spot in the league. So that's the mentality going into this last week-and-a-half.
In that time, I'd like to see the Cavs get a little better at individual defense. There's been too much dribble-penetration. You can't allow that consistently. There's going to be some, because these are great players you're playing against. But Hedo Turkoglu, for example, would start at the top of the key and get all the way to the basket. Those are the kinds of things you have to stop in the playoffs.
You can't allow a guy to beat you off the dribble. Good defensive teams don't allow that. We have a great team defense concept with help on the weakside. But the first premise of defense is: Stop Your Man. You can rely on help after, but you must try to stop your man first.
We're still not 100 percent right now. You want to get Ben back into the fold, you want to get Anderson straightened away. And you have to forge on; you can't afford to back off. You haven't achieved anything yet!
We have to get home court and keep pushing forward from there. Take care of business this Wednesday and take care of Philly on Friday and wrap up the East. At that point, you have a decision, but you only have three games left. So why back off then?
With those two recent losses, we've been "cooled off." After that 13-game streak, we've been cooled off. And now it's time to start heating back up, with solid defense and good execution on offense. And that should take us right into the playoffs.
And if we get that together, get healthy and go on a 13-game win streak in the playoffs, two months from now we'll be one game up in the NBA Finals.
Every win is nice, but getting the franchise-record 60th win Sunday was a huge milestone for the Cavaliers.
I think after being here for so many years, it shows that the franchise is in an upward mobility. Our Miracle team of the mid-70s kind of leveled off after our time, then it was Lenny's team that took it to another level, and they stayed there for a while. And now LeBron's era has taken the organization to the next level. And I think some of the records that are being created now will never be broken.
These records are nice, but of course, the Cavaliers main goal is the Playoffs. And if you've noticed, their energy level has picked up lately because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The dog days are over. The Cavs can see the end, and they know what the end means after all they've put into this season.
The biggest difference between last year and this year is that when the team went through the dog days last year, that's when they had their problems. This year, they went through the dog days at 15-2. There's a huge, HUGE advantage this year that the team has. They've been able to keep their focus through tough times. And now they see the light at the end of the tunnel - and they're getting geared up for what's at the end of it.
You could tell that they're getting focused just by looking at Sunday's game. They came out in that second half and played like they had in the first part of the year - just steamrolling teams and taking the life out of them. And it was just good to see on Sunday. Individually, Joe Smith was phenomenal - he changed the whole complexion of the game.
What I saw yesterday was a Playoff-like game. They didn't shoot the ball well and got into a hole early. And then they methodically worked their way back into the game in the second quarter. Then they destroyed Dallas in the third quarter and rested in the fourth.
The point is that they went in at halftime and made adjustments. That's the key to Playoff basketball.
In the postseason, teams are going to sacrifice their defensive principals to defend LeBron. They'll say: 'Let's stop LeBron James and let everyone else beat us.' Well, that's the beauty of LeBron's game: Whichever way he has to beat you, he'll beat you. He doesn't have to score 50 to beat you. But if he has to, he can. But if teams are going to let the rest of the Cavaliers beat them, LeBron will let them.
That's why we're 60-13. Either way, we're going to beat you.
A lot of the pundits have been talking about resting guys for the Playoffs down the stretch. I don't think you do that right now. The best way to rest the team is the way we did it on Sunday - by beating a team down.
If you're going to rest a guy, rest him after the first half. You don't rest a guy by sitting him on the bench and not playing him. You have to keep this momentum. You don't want to stop and have to rebuild. If you lose a game, you have to rebuild that momentum and rediscover your good habits. We don't want to do that at this point of the year.
This is really the first time that this team has gone through this type of situation - so we're going to have to feel our way through it. The media has no clue, and they keep coming up with these suggestions for resting the team. All they're doing is speculating about "what if's." It's all about second-guessing, but Coach Brown isn't going to second guess himself. He's going to rest the guys he thinks needs it.
Besides, we haven't locked up the Eastern Conference yet. We want to continue to push - at least probably until after the first week of April. By the time only five games remain in the season, it should be settled. But it's not settled now. You don't want to go into the Playoffs with negative momentum; you don't want to let up now.
The way this season has gone - blowing teams out for much of the year - there's been a lot of rest.
Not that you don't want to be fresh for the Playoffs. It's going to be a war. Everyone's gunning for us because we've got the top record. We're the team that everybody wants, and we're going to have to be ready for that.
There's going to be physical play - like what Jason Collins did the other night. That's the way it's going to go in the Playoffs, and it's going to happen to more guys than LeBron, too. They're going to go after Mo a little bit. They're going to go after Delonte and Andy and Z. They're going to go after everybody. There's going to be a confrontation sometime, somewhere - especially if we open up against the Pistons.
The Pistons and Cavaliers have switched roles this year - the hunter has become the hunted and vice versa. The Pistons were on their roll when they went through their six straight Eastern Conference Finals run. And now they're on the down-tick. (They brought Iverson in to try to stay level.) And now the Cavaliers - after they beat the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007 - are on the up-tick. So, right now, the franchises have just reversed roles.
I don't look at the Pistons as a No. 8 seed if they're playing against us in the first round. Because it's a rivalry, they will play above their heads against us. Now, maybe they might not play like that against the Bulls or the Heat. But against us, they will be ready to play.
That's how they're going to look at it. And we're going to have to take care of our business. Because the homecourt advantage means you have to win your home games - but you still have to play those games, and you have to win them. You have to take care of your business.
And this game on Tuesday against Detroit, you want to send a message to let them know: If we meet you in the first round, it's not going to be easy coming here to Cleveland.
I don't imagine the team will say Tuesday's game is a "message game."
Hey, Cavs fans! It's A.C. , back in business on cavs.com. What's happening?
