What Cleveland Must Do To Win:
- Outscore the Celtics
- Out rebound the Celtics
- Oh wait, this is a real preview, not the normal stuff you'll see from the "sports experts"
Cleveland, the Eastern Conference Champs are coming in with a lot of weight on their shoulders. As the top seed, the Cavs are the natural favorite but that's an easy way of painting an XL bulls-eye on them. LeBron and Co. disposed of the Bulls with relative ease but the Bulls are a young team with a lot of turmoil (see the feud between GM John Paxson and Coach Vinny Del Negro). The Cavs have a lot of strength beyond LeBron (Shaq, Delonte West, Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao play co-starring roles while additions of Antawn Jamison and Zydrunas Ilgauskas provide needed depth.) The Cavs have the needed depth but the 2nd and 3rd scorers are unknowns at this point - could be an edge since the ball can be distributed to a number of players that can light it up. LeBron has a nice, built in excuse with his "injured" elbow.
I expect a lot of give and gos to Shaq early in most games, get him going, get Perkins in foul trouble, and control the game from there. LeBron will dominate the ball late in games and in the middle, Mo Williams will find Jamison, West, Varejao, Parker, and Jemario Moon. Under-appreciated, though overpaid, Daniel Gibson who can bomb 3s if given the chance and Leon Powe may even re-surface at some point to play spoilers depending on how the foul situation plays out.
What the Celtics Must Do To Win:
- Control the boards - they're bigger, stronger, and tougher on the interior, even if Varejao is playing since Wallace and Davis should off-set his rebounding off the bench.
- Rajon Rondo - The best PG on all playoff teams must dominate by dishing when needed and driving to the hoop to create havoc for the defenders.
- The Allens - Ray is THE hottest hand has been hitting 3s like they are free throws. If he's hot, Cs are in great shape. Tony is shut down defense and can keep LeBron in check when on the floor - I'd expect his minutes to bump up during this series.
Pierce and Co. are all healthy, finally, so the 4th seed is misleading. Pierce can score and can dish and rebound out of the 3 spot and the Cavs cannot cover him, that's right, you heard me correctly. Garnett's intensity and Perkins' size may be too much for Shaq to handle down low.They've been playing with a very short bench (Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Michael Finley and Sheed are the only guys playing consistently since the playoffs started. Perkins must remain out of foul trouble or else the Cs are forced to go to players who haven't played meaningful minutes in a while.
All that said, series will go 7 games and I'm picking the Cs to win it in Cleveland.
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