http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43DrapEn5QA

The only other teams I know besides Boston that commands the opponent to do what they wish most nights . . . in terms of pace . . . Cleveland and Detroit. Especially Cleveland. The one-speed bike pace Cleveland always seems to front is impressively difficult to change. And half-court and defense win a majority of championships this decade, if you forget about that Miami team, lol.

If it’s any other team besides Cleveland, Boston, or Detroit in the ECF, it’s going to be weird. I wouldn’t expect it. These three teams have a really good record against the West.

Larry Hughes worked well for Washington because the Wiz pace was much faster. Wiz don’t exactly play a ton of half-court. Apparently, Larry Hughes needs uptempo. I’m sure if you forced Steve Nash to play half-court, his numbers wouldn’t look half as good, either. That one’s on Ferry, though.

The guys I absolutely see giving Detroit fits are Varejao, Ilgauskas, Gibson, and LeBron, of course. The rest, especially Ben, are a huge negative in that playoff matchup. The worst thing Ferry did was dump Hughes, in a sense, for Ben Wallace, if you can believe that. That kind of motivation should keep Detroit focused to have the series advantage. Detroit enjoyed every moment of the four wins it dropped on the Bulls, at least, is what I’m trying to say.

Gooden was an 8th-man-quality foul machine. After all these years, he never really improved his game. It was time for him and his duck-tail patch and his beard to mosey on along to some loser’s club (wink: love ya, Paxson!).

At this point, it appears Cleveland will meet Boston in the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs, if I’m not mistaken on projections. Detroit is sitting in the easier seat of #2. The players don’t think about it, but the fans do. I’m expecting an ECF of Detroit vs. Boston, actually.

Prove it, Detroit! Don’t feed me that “under the radar” crap, and you Pistons have done a lot of talk, so you gotta walkin’ to do this season.

QD’s #1 of things that bother him is also my peeve. I’ve got another one.

When Detroit’s jumpers clank, every player (even the announcers, coaches) seem to buy into the ’shoot out of it’ mentality. Something, at least to me, seems really wrong with that idea, especially against a good defense.

It’s fine to know that a jumper will eventually hit the mark against a soft defense - the player will get more open looks, and the theory of shooting out of it should apply. Against a team like Cleveland, which did a great job of clogging our perimeter . . . such defensive play is often how Detroit’s offense comes unglued. I liked Larry Brown’s inside-out strategy against tougher defenses. I really don’t think it’s wise to keep running a strength against a strength when the other team’s strength is stronger, meaning, Cleveland seems to take away Detroit’s open looks, so it’s time for Detroit to respond to perimeter clogs with some screens, cuts, and post-ups.

Detroit has to get dirty, is my short answer for what it needs to do against better defenses. Instead of complaining when a non-call happens, do it again and again. Force the referees to recognize they have to call contact, since you’ll be going in there a whole lot more. Even if it’s at the blessed expense of Flip’s precious turnovers, the players have to slug it in the paint. The lack of free throws was largely due to terrible shot selection from contested jumpers after a handful of inside tries didn’t work for the Pistons. Detroit gave up the paint to Cleveland, and that seems to be on the players, not the coaches.

To me the Cavs offense looks like a bunch of 40yr olds playing pickup BB at the local YMCA. Not enough ball movement. Everyone waits around for Lebron to do something. Brown needs to design an offense that the point guard runs. Set some off the ball picks for Lebron and let him catch the ball with a defender already out of position. He is not going to catch and shoot like Rip does for Detroit, but he becomes even more difficult to guard if you are out of position and have to run out at him.

If they meet in the playoffs, it could go either way. I think Detroit will shift to defend Lebron and it will be up to the rest of the Cavs to win or lose the series.

Zydrunas is actually the closest thing to a running mate that LeBron has. It’s an odd couple, but since Z’s been healthy, it works very well. Gibson’s not too shabby, either. Those screens Z sets for the cutter are deadly.

Detroit couldn’t guard Jordan, either. The Jordan Rules, and all the other fun times, like when Mike blew up for a ton of points here and there, that’s all to be expected from LeBron. It’s not really about stopping him . . . more like, containment.

I’d rather just leave Prince on LeBron, Billups on Gibson, and work some sort of zone with those assignments. I think if Detroit takes away Cleveland’s perimeter pop options, and they force LeBron to do something with the ball when he has it, then Detroit can silence the Cavs.

I’m still unsure what West provides Cleveland. I haven’t decided if the defense is better, worse, offense is better . . . it seems like West just gives it to LeBron a lot still, and LeBron’s still the point forward.

Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Utah, San Antonio, Philadelphia. Can you name other teams that have a difficult defense to navigate?

That’s the reason why other teams can’t do this to Chauncey. The other reason is that a 6′8 260 lbs. freak of nature guarding a 6′3 200 lbs. point guard isn’t exactly a mismatch . . . it’s a nightmare. Billups usually gets guys smaller than him (Kirk Hinrich, et cetera).

“Those are disappointing losses. We get excited about playing certain teams, but the job should be the same, regardless of who you play. [But] I realize it doesn’t happen all the time because the emphasis is on the star atmosphere in basketball.”

Yes, a dubious emphasis, indeed.

I read and enjoyed this Jordan link from Ziller’s “David Stern Does Not Need You” post.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3243645

“David Stern hates when I say this, but in some ways he created his own problem. Look at the way the league markets its players. When I came in, they marketed the athletes themselves, how they performed, what they accomplished. To reinvent someone is very difficult. When you say a player is today’s Michael Jordan or today’s Magic Johnson, the first thing the public will do is compare him to the real Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. When the public doesn’t see the same degree of success, you’ve just dug yourself a deeper hole.”

Yeah, I think the league’s starting to get past Jordan (sheer time, memory turning into legend into forgetful fog), but at the same time, Kobe and LeBron get pegged right into the Jordan category. Why can’t they just be themselves? When I think of Tom Brady, I don’t automatically think of Joe Montana. I didn’t hear “The Next Walter Payton” when Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith started racking up great careers. The NFL doesn’t work that way, and look at the Lions, of all teams, tripping over themselves in profits off a dubious set of seasons. The NFL is about the team.

Well, I don’t need David Stern, lol.

Thanks, I only watch the Pistons play when they play the Cavs as I am a Cavs fan. I just wondered what the Cavs do differently than other teams against Billups. It seems strange that other teams do not try to trap him and get the ball out of his hands. Last year everyone attributed the success against Billups to the length of Larry Hughes, but Hughes is gone and it seems like we had the same result. Cavs have extreme difficulty with smaller/quicker point guards, but they seem to do ok with Billups. Should be an interesting post season if (big if) the two teams meet in the playoffs.