A lot of people, including myself, have talked about how Detroit gets complacent at times during the playoffs. Well, Cleveland is just the opposite.
The Cavs have lulls during the regular season that lead them to underachieve. But over the past three seasons, they've always turned it up and played their best basketball in the postseason.They have the right formula for successful playoff basketball:
(1) A great individual player in LeBron James who can create offense when nothing's there.
(2) A great rebounding team. They were first in the league in overall rebounding, and second in offensive rebounding.
In their six Eastern Conference playoff series of the LeBron era, the Cavs have outrebounded their opponent each time.
(3) A great defensive team. They weren't great on that end during the regular season, which is one reason they won only 45 games.
But in each of the three postseasons with LeBron, including this one, the Cavs' defense has improved significantly from the regular season to the playoffs.
This season, they were just 11th in the league in defense, allowing opponents to shoot 45.5 percent from the floor. But in two games against Washington, they've held the Wizards to 86 points per game (12 below the Wizards' season average) on 38 percent shooting.
Each member of Washington's big three of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler is shooting less than 40 percent.
LeBron set the tone in Game 2 by guarding Arenas all night and holding him to just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting.
If the Cavs continue to improve throughout this series, beat Washington in four or five games and enter their second-round series against Boston (I'm going out on a limb by assuming they'll survive Atlanta) with major momentum, I believe they'll actually have a chance of pulling the upset.
I'm not predicting an upset, but a Cavs team at the top of its game will be a handful for the Celtics.
Chris Broussard | email
ESPN Senior Writer- Senior Writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Formerly at the New York Times, 1998-2004
- Covering the NBA since 1995
ABOUT THIS BLOG
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Chris Broussard
Chris Broussard grew up in the Midwest (Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Syracuse, Des Moines and Cleveland) dreaming of being the next great tailback at USC. Instead, he became the next underachieving point guard ("I should have averaged 20'') at Oberlin College. In 1990, he launched his sportswriting career at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Four years later, he started covering the NBA for the Akron Beacon Journal. He spent 2½ seasons as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat writer before going to the New York Times to cover the Nets (two years), the Knicks (three) and then the NBA (one). He joined ESPN The Magazine in September 2004.
When he wasn't running the point at Oberlin – and of course, hitting the books – Broussard spent time working at the school radio station. Broussard has written one book, "Not Without Scars: The Inspiring Life Journey of Mark C. Olds." Broussard lives in South Orange, N.J., with his wife, Crystal, and their twin daughters, Alexis and Noelle.
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