MVN - Most Valuable Network

What to Watch for: Series Shifts Back to Beantown for Game 5

You had to love Boston faithful Bill Simmons’ article this morning on ESPN.com. If you didn’t, then you’re just not a fan of sports and/or sports writing.

Cavs fans may be more upset about the fact that the turnaround in this best-of-seven is being looked at more as a “Boston collapse” than a “Cleveland surge.” Looking at this series nationally as it stands right now, the overwhelming response to the series being tied 2-2 is about the Celtics not being able to win on the road. Heck, they can go 0-12 away from the Garden and still win the championship (although it would take going to seven games in every series and 16-0 at home).

And it doesn’t help as far as getting national recognition when LeBron isn’t doing much of anything. Before that resounding dunk in KG’s mug, LeBron’s contributions to this series were limited to making others around him better and locking down defensively. Although that’s the beauty of LeBron’s game, this Sportscenter world is not going to appreciate it.

So now this series has become all about “That Dunk” and Boston’s road woes. What it should be is a testament to just how much head coach Mike Brown has grown in three years as a strategist and defensive mastermind who has made some incredible adjustments in this best-of-seven series. And just as Simmons used his space to bash Doc Rivers, it would only be appropriate for me to give the lion’s share of the credit on Cleveland’s part to Mike Brown.

Help on perimeter defense. Brown’s adjustments have brought out the best in Delonte West and LeBron James, as both have brought good help defense to expose Boston’s weaknesses. Even when Rajon Rondo’s jumper was falling in Game 4, the C’s still couldn’t pull it out. If you’re a Boston fan, don’t bet on Rondo hitting jumpers like that for the rest of this series, if at any time ever again.

This has also helped cut off any open looks for Boston coming off screens. It also helps that Ray Allen has been ice cold with bum ankles during this series, but the halfcourt defense has been exceptional for the majority of this series.

The only time this defense looked out-of-sync was in the second and third quarters of Game 2, when the Cavs were giving up way too many transition and second-chance opportunities. The former may be a direct result of one of the big keys we’ve talked about in this series - protecting the basketball - but other than that hiccup, the Cavs have locked Boston up completely.

Playing the right rotation. The first time I noticed Brown’s ability to play the right rotation was in a regular season game against Phoenix back in January of 2006. Against a run-and-gun team like the Suns, Brown put in Anderson Varejao at center, Donyell Marshall at power forward, LB at small forward (of course), Sasha Pavlovic at shooting guard, and Damon Jones at the point. Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden were benched for almost all of the second half, and the Cavs used the outside shooting of Marshall, Jones, and Pavlovic, the reckless abandon of Varejao, and 44 points from LeBron James to out-gun the Suns that day.

In this series, he’s got it going on again. The hot hands stay on the floor, and mismatches are exposed. Expect to see more of Varejao completely hounding KG and getting under his skin in Game 5 and for the remainder of this series. It’s what Varejao did to make a name for himself in the ‘06 playoffs against Detroit, and it (along with the flopping) has become his trademark.

The Cavs knew what they were getting when they hired Brown in the first place. Like I’ve said before, Brown is no Mike D’Antoni or Rick Adelman. He isn’t a savant of the triangle offense like Phil Jackson. Owner Dan Gilbert knew he was bringing in Brown because of the overused “Defense Wins Championships” mantra.

Brown was the 2005 version of Tom Thibodeau. He was the reason the Pacers stayed in tune with a solid defense despite going through a season of Ron Artest fighting the city of Detroit, Jermaine O’Neal blowing out his shoulder, and Reggie Miller looking jurassic as hell.

So Gilbert and the Cavaliers organization are getting what they asked for in June of 2005. And to be honest, it is the brand of basketball that wins championships. It’s not going to get you on Sportscenter like the Phoenix Suns or Los Angeles Lakers, but those Suns and post-Shaq Lakers don’t have any rings, either, do they?

Brown has been exceptional in doing the job that was asked of him. For that, you would have to be absolutely foolish to not stand up and applaud him for the job he has done so far in these playoffs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Rajon Rondo, Delonte West, Mike D'Antoni, Anderson Varejao, Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones, Dan Gilbert, Rick Adelman, Jermaine O'Neal, Phil Jackson, Drew Gooden, Reggie Miller, Ron Artest, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, Mike Brown, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ray Allen, Doc Rivers, Bill Simmons, Sasha Pavlovic, Boston Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.