I think that Miami's defense will not be as good as the cavs was.

In watching the Heat/Nets series. So many times their was clear paths to the basline. I saw a lot of chinks in Miami's defensive schemes. I think this is one reason the Pistons had such success beating them.

The Cavs defense collapsed on the pistons from all directions, Maimi doesn't have the ability to do the same kind of things on defense.

One reason maybe age and not being able to create the consistent intensity.

Remember folks, the cavs are a young team and those young legs almost gave us a knock out punch. I just do not believe that Miami's defense will create many turnovers and disrupt our offense too much.

I think that we have been planning all year on how to play the heat in the playoffs. We will come in prepared, the only two worries I have is; fatigue and injuries.

Miami got a reprieve when uncle sniffy went out. They really missed his 24 minutes. New Jersey was not in the top 15 defensive teams this season.

Miami is a far better defensive team than the Cavs, and Pat Riley is a better defensive coach than Mike Brown. Cleveland is really a very mediocre defensive team.

The Heat have holes on the perimeter, and their screen/roll defense is atrocious, though. Jason Williams, Antoine Walker, and Shaquille O'Neal are terrible defenders, and the ability of Gary Payton, Dwyane Wade, and Derek Anderson to contain on the perimeter is inconsistent.

And keep in mind that Cleveland's best defensive player is Ira Newble, who couldn't get off the bench. It's unclear how much Shandon Anderson will be playing, but Riley has no qualms about using James Posey.

And Miami has Alonzo Mourning.

Two minor additional objections: The Cavs are not a young team, and the young players they do have (James in particular) are generally among their worst defenders; and New Jersey was a fantastic defensive team this season, #3 in points allowed per possession.

Compared to the cavs, the heat are going to look like the suns.

Which is not to say their defense is WORSE, the cavs just really really slowed down the game which made it seem like they were playing good D. Miami won't do that (unless they steal Mike Brown's gameplan), so scoring should be up in this series by quite a bit.

It'd say its a bit of a wash. They are both pretty terribly on average.

The Heat appear to be better than they really are defensively. None of their top 5 are overly aggressive defenders. Some of their guys have decent foot speed, but Haslem is slow. Shaq has been on a gradual downward spiral over the last couple of year. Walker....yeah right. Williams' knee has been giving him trouble all year. He won't really be a defensive factor and Payton is slowing down as well, although still quite physical.

Their only player of defensive significance is Mourning and that is only because he is allowed to Jackie Chan his way across the lane on most possessions. If we can get the South Beach Slasher in foul trouble, we shouldn't have much to worry about.

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This is exactly why I believe it will be easier to go past Miami than Cleveland. Miami is a much worse defensive team than Cleveland and it all starts with Chauncey. Eric Snow knows how to play defense and he shut off the Pistons "brain". Jason Williams will be lucky if he doesn't get owned by Chauncey Billups. Wade plays better D than Lebron but thats about it. Verajao gave it his all on setting screens getting loose balls and playing good defense and Shaq will not do that. Dwayne won't do as good as Lebron and Miami's defense will not be as good as Clevelands was. The only advantage i see with the Heat over Cleveland is Shaq's size. The X-Factor for Miami is definantly Walker. He's either very good or the one of the worst in the league.

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"That's the end, man." Rasheed Wallace

The Cavs best defensive player is Larry Huges who led the league last year in steals. He didn't play much, but when he did his defense wasn't too bad. Varejo was no slouch either. Lebron vs Wade, I think LBJ is a better defensder. With the exception of Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow, the Cavs age percentage is much lower than Miami

The Heat play better defense. The only legitimate defensive player on the Cavs was Eric Snow (because Hughes missed so much time). The Heat have several in Posey, Payton and Mourning.

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I agree 100%. I just posted the exact same thing in a different thread (you beat me to it, but I just read this now).

Payton Micro? The glove is more a mitten nowadays.

The problem with the heat is there defense. I was trying to figure out what someone said and it was perfectly right and now I finally remembered it. The Heat have what I call paper defense and there perimeter players can't gaurd. This gets Shaq in foul trouble, and its been happening this whole playoffs. I thought Cleveland was horrible at defense too but they got good at defense just at the right time. So who knows maybe the heat can get better defensively as well?