LeBron James sent a stern message to any future opponents standing in his way of an NBA championship this year. He can defeat you single-handedly.
It is clear that the Bulls' 2-point win in Game 3 was really the Cavs not being interested in winning 3 games in a row while clanking a bunch of free-throws from the charity stripe.
With his whole arsenal on display, LeBron dropped an effortless triple-double on the hapless Bulls, who committed a dumbfounding 12 turnovers. And when I mean turnovers, I mean people throwing the ball straight into the first row without a player in sight.
The #1 problem again seemed to be the play of Brad Miller. His super-slow drives to the lane are almost comical, as the defender, guaranteed to be not only quicker but also younger, stuffs his meek attempt at scoring 2.
Joakim Noah was a monster, but his 20-20 game felt really empty as the air just went out of the United Center by halftime.
My fellow Bulls fan, Munkhi, noted that Vinny Del Negro did a poor job in not stopping the momentum that the Cavs built during the 2nd quarter. Instead he went Phil Jackson-style and tried to let the overmatched Bulls “play through” the difficult period. What he should have done was called some timeouts to regroup his young, reeling team, and maybe insert some people who can score.
Now let’s be clear, nothing Vinny would have done could have stopped the avalanche of the Cavs scoring, led by LeBron. So why not get offensive? Why not put a bunch of slashers and scorers on the floor? By inserting James Johnson who picked up a foul-per-minute, it was clear he still thought he could somehow STOP Lebron instead of keeping pace with him. And if you are going to foul someone, REALLY FOUL someone (see point 5 later).
With Game 5 looming around the corner, The Dr. has come up with a few pointers for Vinny and the gang.
1. Get production from your bench (SG position) – When Kirk doesn’t get going the Bulls get in trouble…fast. Don’t be shy of yanking Kirk and RUNNING PLAYS for Flip Murray. If he can’t get it going, throw in Pargo to play with Derrick Rose. He can shoot three-pointers. The Cavs made 3x the number of three-pointers as the Bulls.
2. Stop Antawn Jamison – you know you can’t stop LeBron. But you can stop Jamison. He is a crafty veteran with a variety of “YMCA”-gym rat moves and his 3-point plays were destroying the Bulls. If you foul-him, wrap him up every time. Consider even doubling him. He is a major difference-maker
3. Do not play Brad Miller – Play more of Hakim Warrick, Taj Gibson, Chris Richard. These guys are young, quick, long, and can do all the dirty work that Brad can. And by the way, Brad cannot hit the 3-pointer consistently.
4. Light a fire into Luol Deng – Deng started to settle for comfortable fade-away jumpers again instead of driving into the lane. Even if you get blocked every time, it can help get the Cavs into foul trouble.
5. Attack LeBron James – do you remember the Jordan Rules? The Detroit Pistons aka the Bad Boys, knew how to stop the best player on the planet. Everytime MJ drove the lane, he got fouled HARD. Hammered. Thrown to the ground. Flagarant Fouls everytime. And this was to teach him a lesson - If you drive the lane, you are going to get rocked. They even extended this to Scottie Pippen. And guess what - it worked (for a couple years)! This strategy should be employeed by James Johnson and anyone else you don’t give a crap about in terms of staying on the floor. Get out there and try to intimidate LeBron. I’m not saying injure him, but lay down some good hard fouls to remind him that the Bulls are not going to go down without a fight. Maybe even literally.
No comments:
Post a Comment