That's pretty much it in a nutshell JZ.

This is just an idea, make LeBron work on defense, and hit him hard when he goes to the hoop, but otherwise, don't let Larry Hughes, Pavlovich, etc. go off.

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Thank you for another great season!

i think several of these things (lebron, teammates, and rebs, esp off rebs) go together and that the lynch pin is not letting lebron into the paint. he gets past his guy into the paint and several things can happen (all bad): uncontested easy baskets that fire him up; help rotation by our players resulting in, at best, a kick out to an open teammate of his, or, at worst, a foul and one for lbj; our bigs leave their bigs to help out and their bigs are freed up for put backs and easy off rebs.

i'm personally in favor of lbj's man sagging off and making him beat us from the perimeter (i.e. give him anything from 17-18 feet on out). seems to me from past games (and from the cleve. nj series) that lbj sort of succumbs to the ease of that fadeaway jumper and the belief that he's a better perimeter shooter than he is. i'm not saying he can't make it, but cleveland doesn't have a chance to win the series (sure, maybe a game) if most of his shots are coming from there. keep him on the perimeter and lbj's role players aren't a factor and we win the boards.

the other thing, on the other end, is movement without the ball and of the ball, good screens and intelligent easy passes...don't let them get confidence by having hughes and lbj get steals and fast break points

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We have to rebound--that is for sure. I think we have to do a little of both, slow down or channel Le Bron where we want him to go and control the other guys. I would take away Isgauskis. They need someone else to go to once in a while and it is usually him.

We have to avoid stagnation and predictability on offense.

I don't think I could agree with this any more if I tried, esp the part in bold.

What burned us last year was when Gooden and Verajao started hitting the boards. Rebounding will be a key.

Those guys' offensive rebounding was a problem in last year's series, but the Pistons also turned the tables late in Game 6, on that crucial last minute possession where the Pistons got something like 4 offensive boards.

Most of it was effort. Last year the Piston front-line thought that all they had to do was show up and they would automatically win all matchups. That let themselfs open to the Verajao's of the league.

This year we have not had the same problems against tall athletic ( sometimes otherwise scrub ) players. Maybe Maxiel will be the matchup from hell for the Cavs this year.

Cavs are 0-11 for on the road game 1.................

i'll be there again (although probably selling game 2). i have a feeling it's going to be a good crowd.

I`m sure it will be a good crowd. I hope it`s a

LOUD CROWD!!!!!!!!!!!