Celtics defense continues to confound King James
BOSTON – Before the game, LeBron James was asked if there was anything different about playing the Celtics. His response: "I get up for everybody. All you have to do is check my stats."
So I did. Not a pretty sight.
In the past 10 games against the Celtics -- seven in their second-round playoff series last season, and three in the regular season this year -- LeBron is shooting 38 percent (82-for-216). The King has been held to a peasant-like 35 percent or less in half those games, including Friday night, when he was 5-for-15 for 21 points in the Celtics' 105-94 victory without Kevin Garnett.
Even I can see that's a trend.
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| LeBron James finds little space to operate vs. the C's. (Getty Images) |
"We have to do a better job moving bodies," Brown said. "They're a shrink-the-floor team, so when the paint gets as crowded as it did tonight, at times we're going to have to take jump shots. The good thing was, we did take 38 free throws. So maybe we were trying to do something right in terms of trying to get the ball into the paint."
That part's true. James had 12 free-throw attempts, as many as the Celtics' entire team. But the Celtics did what the Celtics do against the Cavs, especially at home: They kept LeBron away from the basket, and they outscored Cleveland 58-22 in the paint. They did all of this with Garnett nowhere near the court. K.G. will miss another week with a knee strain and wasn't on the bench. Defensive guru Tom Thibodeau was, though. People talk about the rivalries between LeBron and Kobe, LeBron and Dwyane Wade. For my money, the best rivalry we'll see this postseason will be LeBron vs. Thibodeau.
"The coaches came up with a great game plan," said Leon Powe, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds in a game reminiscent of his 21-point breakout in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Lakers last June. "They told us at shootaround about some of their hedges and stuff, how they go out and trap the ball. ... They hedge real hard, and when they do that, the bigs just have to duck in or get to the open area and it's an easy dumpoff for a dunk."
Easy for Powe to say; he was 9-for-11 from the field. The only time LeBron had an easy look at the basket -- aside from when he blew a breakaway dunk in the first quarter -- was when he bull-rushed Glen "Big Baby" Davis after his Flagrant 2 against Anderson Varejao early in the third. I thought it was a classic overreaction call; Davis reached over Varejao's head and shoulders in an attempt to go for the ball, but he has such a long way to reach with those T-Rex arms that it looked like a dirtier play than it was. Davis said he didn't remember what James said to him upon racing toward him under the basket because, "It happened so fast, and he was coming at me so fast."
LeBron didn't get to the paint that easily the rest of the game. And the way the Celtics have figured out how to defend him, he might never get there again.
The Cavs should be concerned about this. They've erased the 21-game difference between these teams' records last season and still hold a one-game lead in the loss column over the Celts for home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They better hold on to that lead as though it were their last breath, because there's no way they want to come into the Gah-den for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. They couldn't win a Game 7 here in the conference semifinals last year with LeBron scoring 45.
"If we had lost to them at home, it would've been their home court to lose," said Paul Pierce, who scored 29 and was often the first line of defense against LeBron -- the first of many. "But we put ourselves right back in the race."
Home court is always important, but even more so when it's the Cavs and Celtics; the home team has won their past 15 meetings. "Unbelievable," LeBron said. "At one point, somebody's going to have to get a win on the other's home court."
What was harder to believe was LeBron's inability to get to the basket even though Garnett wasn't there to defend it. He couldn't make the Celtics pay for overplaying him, either. Boston switched on pick-and-rolls all game, and there were always two defenders shadowing the on-ball defender when James had it on the perimeter -- one on either side, leaving no lane to the basket and turning LeBron into a jump-shooter.
"I just wanted to run him into the help," Pierce said. "The guys behind me did a great job of talking to me, not giving him any open lanes and taking away his easy baskets. We feel like if we challenge his shots, make him try to beat us from the outside, we'll live with that.
"He's so offensively gifted," Pierce said. "At any moment, he can go off and have one of those huge LeBron James games."
Against the Celtics? Not so much. Not in Boston, anyway. If the Cavs are going to get past the defending champs, they better hope it doesn't come down to a game like this.
