DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs v, Bulls Playoffs!

You dont think he should start with him on Rose and then spell him instead of letting him get hot and get everybody else going then making the swicth after the damage is done?

Can Rose handle being checked by Lebron for at least half the time he is on the floor? We sure wouldnt know would we?

I'm not saying that he should give a "rah rah" speech in the locker room.

But, Mike Brown VERY rarely shows any intensity himself. How the team plays relects the head coach. If he head coach doesn't show any intensity, how can you expect the team to?

It's the playoffs, everyone needs to have a sense of urgency, and that starts with Mike Brown and works it's way down.

I've never bought that line about a coach needing to show emotion.

I think that either a guy at that level has it within himself to motivate and push himself, or he doesn't belong at that level. If you want emotion and drive, that comes from within.

rose is stepping his game up.

before this series started, he averaged 17 ppg against the cavs this year.

the guy is starting to emerge as a top threat.

and yes, you absolutely cannot put lebron on rose to start the game, that is suicide. in 1987 you may have been able to do that. in fact the best player on one team would check the best player on the opposing team.

in my opinion, rose is not the problem. i can live with him carrying the ball up the court and scoring 25-30. what i can't live with is hinrich banging in wide open jumpers and deng morphing into a decent wing player.

lebron needs to rattle deng's cage. the guy is guaranteed to quit if he does. i didn't watch all 82 of the bulls games, but i have seen enough of them to know that guy will mail it in at the first sign of adversity.

but you gotta take mo off of derek rose. it's not working. and the help defense isn't... well helping.

Our lack of defensive intensity and urgency concern. However I'm not gonna blast mike brown for the offense because it is what it is. I'm not shocked we got out rebounded. I'm not even surprised we lost. We should try LeBron at the PG to match up with Rose. I mean everyone knows he's atheltic enough to do it.

nothing that most of us haven't noticed already, looks like Mike Brown is still obtuse

LeBron says J.J. Hickson, Brown says Shaq; Cleveland Cavaliers ponder Game 4 frontcourt options
By Brian Windhorst, The Plain Dealer
April 23, 2010, 5:43PM

LeBron James is pushing for Hickson's playing time, but coach Mike Brown says getting O'Neal back into a good rhythm is more important.CHICAGO -- It is an easy joke to refer to LeBron James as his own coach. But there is little doubt James has a significant impact on Cavaliers coach Mike Brown's big decisions.

Just how much of an impact may be known when the Cavs play the Chicago Bulls Sunday in Game 4 as they look to curb a downward trend in production from their big men over the last two games in the playoff series the Cavs currently lead, 2-1.

After the Cavs wiped out a 21-point Bulls lead in the second half of Thursday's 108-106 Game 3 loss, James suggested the team may want to play the athletic and undersized Bulls with a quicker and smaller lineup. He went a step further Friday as the Cavs began their assessment of what has been going wrong by openly pitching for J.J. Hickson to get playing time.

jjreboundss.jpgScott Shaw / The Plain DealerJ.J. Hickson was a pleasant surprise as a regular on the front line during the regular season for the Cavaliers. Will he be in the rotation on Sunday?

• Hickson needs to see the court: Livingston
• Game 4: Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls, Sunday, 3:30 p.m. TV: WEWS Ch. 5
• Game 5: Chicago Bulls at Cavaliers, Tuesday, 8 p.m. TV: TNT/FSN Ohio"I think personally I would love to see J.J. on the court," James said. "I don't know if he's ready, but I think he will be."

Hickson has seen less than two minutes' playing time in the series after he started 73 games in the regular season. Brown, however, has another problem that seems more at the front of his mind and it doesn't involve getting smaller or quicker. It is centered on Shaquille O'Neal, who has struggled over the last two games after a strong debut in Game 1.

Brown has played O'Neal just a combined 35 minutes in Games 2 and 3 because of foul trouble and ineffectiveness. He went just 2-of-8 shooting in Game 2, including a handful of missed layups and a missed dunk. But while James is hoping to get floor time with Hickson, Brown is looking for more minutes for O'Neal.

"Is there any plan of going to J.J. for a few minutes? Not right now," Brown said. "I've got to get Shaq on the floor a little bit more and other than that, that is my main goal right now with my bigs."

Brown may be deploying a bit of a smoke screen. He admitted that playing small with James at power forward and Antawn Jamison at center, when led to the Cavs scoring 38 fourth-quarter points in a failed comeback try, has its merits. During the latter stages of the season the Cavs played smaller a great deal, especially when O'Neal was injured and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had been traded.

"We'll go small if we need to," Brown said. "That is something we always have done in the past if we think it is effective."

But the Cavs have been getting eaten up with the scoring in the paint -- the Bulls lead that area by a stunning 94-70 count over the past two games -- and Brown believes O'Neal can help clean that up at both ends.

Before O'Neal was hurt, he was a reason why the Cavs led the league in defending the paint, allowing fewer than 36 points a game. When O'Neal played well and got 24 effective minutes and three blocks in Game 1, the Bulls scored just 26 points inside. He also scored 12 points in the series opener, helping the Cavs to 42 points in the paint.

Since then those numbers have reversed, with O'Neal not playing as well or as much. Which is why Brown is focusing on O'Neal as the Cavs attempt to rediscover their size edge.

"I've got to get him more involved in the series," Brown said. "He had some great looks that popped out but those will go down. He can be a big factor for us."

It isn't that Hickson and O'Neal can't both play. The Cavs have the ability to play stretches of the game differently because of their roster diversity. It is possible Brown could look to give Hickson some of the minutes allotted to Ilgauskas, who is getting 10 minutes a game.

But expanding O'Neal role and carving out a niche for Hickson at the same time may not both be part of the game plan. Even if James, and many fans, want to see it happen.

"For me, I'm not going to say what lineups we should use," James said. "But I know the game, I know the feel of the game. I'm not trying to make a pitch for J.J., but we all saw what he was able to do during the regular season; with his size, his athleticism and his ability to put pressure on the rim. That is something you can't substitute. I said before the series started that we're going to need J.J."


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If it ever dawns on the Cavs coaches to just have Delonte West shadow Derrick Rose at every possible moment, this series is over without any more trouble. But I expect them to have a Mo/Weak Sauce tandem on him the rest of the series. It seems like Mike Brown is either too stubborn to alter his lineup or too loyal to his guys or too scared to ... them off, I'm not sure which. But its plain as day to anyone with the basketball IQ of Dwight Howard what we need to do to breeze past the bulls.

We have so many guys who can come in and play when someone is struggling that I don't understand why we never use them correctly. Weak Sauce can't make an open 3 and the other teams guards are faster than he is? Put in Jamario if you want size or run a Mo/Delonte backcourt and put Mo on Hinrich. Mo missing most of his shots today, well he isn't worth keeping out there for his defense so bring in another guy who can at least defend. Shaq missing most of his shots today? How about we use JJ a little? Noah wreaking havoc? Force him to the perimeter with Z or Jamison. I'm not saying all of my answers are the secret to winning this series (just the Delonte one ) but I am saying that we have so many tools that if we just used them correctly nobody could stop us... but we don't do that enough of the time.

2 games off between games, two times in a row, is ridiculous. 2 games in 6 days? stupid.

as much as I can't stand Stan VanGundy, he was right on when he said NBA playoffs are too long, its dumb and no sense in it, seriously, why take a month for a first round? Its the NBA being greedy, I'm along the thinking of a 5 game series for rounds 1 and two, and limit the teams to 6 each conference. It would mean more competitive first series and better ratings. But once again, NBA being greedy, i mean seriously teams getting into the playoffs with a .500 record and with losing records is dumb and teams shouldn't be rewarded for playing horrible through the season and by process of elimination you make the playoffs.

J/C

Sorry about my comments a couple days ago guys. - A little too much Coors light. I hope we can pull through tommorow. Orlando and Boston are both up 3-0 right now.

the first round takes forever because they want no games overlapping, and i think it has only happened once so far. you can literally watch every playoff game without missing another.

therefore, every series is going to have 2 days off between, and for the cavs it has happened twice, and it's lame.

the hockey guys are doing it every other night, and games get overlapped, but the nhl is killing the nba right now in terms of entertainment. every series is fun. all but one series in the nba went 2-0

the blackhawks also had a home game today which probably played a part in getting that extra day. i think they technically can do two in one day, but the hawk game would have had to be at a 12est start.

Was today's game always at 3:30? I thought it was at 1? Is buckdawg flying solo?

3:30 tip on ABC.

Quote:

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Is buckdawg flying solo?

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Not at all, I'm suffering through the dReds game until tip.

Lets get it done today!

I really thought I saw a 1pm tip somewhere. That being said, I say let jj play.

We had the best regular season record all year, and what do you do for the playoffs? You change things?

if it's not broke

let's see some better defense today. cavs defense. we've looked like the friggin suns the last 2 games.

while rose is stepping his game up, i pointed out before that rose was kept to 17 a game against us this year.

They keep letting Rose open on that medium jumper

LETS GO CAVS!

Any word on LBJ's injury?

This team has no fire or urgency once again.... WOW

sore elbow. he's ok

We should be up by 16 points, I don't know what is going on

AJ is proving his worth.

LEBRON! wow that 3 over rose was sick.

It's just amazing when he shoots those like they are a normal jump shot! 43 footer, WOW

Well LeBron isn't human so the normal laws of physics dont apply to him

Time to run the score up and crush their will