Cavs Sweep, Who's Next?

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ first round victory over the Washington Wizards was entirely expected, so the excitement level around town is somewhat muted.  In typical fashion for this town, there is even a little disappointment that the wine and gold did not blow out the Wizards in all four games, especially since they were missing All Stars Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler.  The fact is, the Cavs played four games and won them all, you can’t do better than that.

 

Now the hand wringing has begun for the Conference semi-finals.  The Cavs will likely play New Jersey, who has been a match up problem for Mike Brown’s team in the past.  The wine and gold did beat the Nets decisively in the last week of the regular season, but Jersey does have Jason Kidd, arguably one of the best point guard in NBA history.  They also have the explosive Vince Carter and a solid small forward in Richard Jefferson.  However, they are somewhat weak in the middle.

 

This means the Cavaliers must continue to get good play from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden.  Ilgauskas, the frequent whipping boy for some, played excellent basketball against the Wizards.  His critics will say Washington doesn’t have a true center, but they pointed the same thing out last playoff season when he didn’t dominate inside against the Wiz.  You can’t have it both ways.  He must continue to rebound and hit the open shot against the likes of Jason Collins and Mikki Moore, in order to make New Jersey pay for doubling on LeBron James.

 

Defensively, the playoffs are a different game.  In the regular season, you have a defensive philosophy that you try to use on a night to night basis.  In the playoffs, you start to take away what your opponent likes to do, since you could be playing them for seven games.  You likely will see a lot of Eric Snow guarding Kidd, since Snow is a bigger, more physical defender.  That will mean Larry Hughes or Sasha Pavlovic will take Carter.  I would instruct them to be physical with the former Tar Heel, because he doesn’t like a lot of contact. 

 

On offense, LeBron should get more low post time in order to make Jefferson play him down low where James would have a decided advantage.  The Nets like to get out and run, so it would be in the Cavs’ best interest to slow the game down and make it a series based on brawn and muscle.  Also, they should make sure Pavlovic runs all over the place without the ball to make Carter play defense.  Look for Anderson Varajao to be more of a factor in this series as well. 

 

Of course, Toronto still has a chance to be the Cavs’ opponent in the next series, but odds are the Nets will take Game 6 at home and will be here over the weekend to start the seven game set.  Despite some struggles in the regular season against New Jersey, the Cavaliers should win and get to the Conference finals against the winner of the Pistons-Bulls series.  Clevelanders aren’t truly happy unless they have something sports related to worry about.

 

JK