In his latest PER Diem, John Hollinger thinks that the Cavs should think about going small.
Thus, the Cavs must go back to the drawing board, and it’s time for them to unearth the one tactic we didn’t see Wednesday night: going small.
This may be the only way for the Cavs to survive. It’s easier to double Howard with quicker, faster players, while James can slide up to the 4 and lock up Lewis. The Cavs haven’t used that plan much this postseason, but it may be the only way they can guard the Magic in this series. Such a lineup might require them to play Sasha Pavlovic, because Wally Szczerbiak can’t guard Pietrus, and that’s a terrifying thought. But anything would be preferable to the way they’ve been chewed up during the teams’ first four meetings.
I know the Cavs like the idea of allowing James to roam by having him defend Alston, but he’s the only player on the team qualified to check Lewis. I’m a huge fan of Anderson Varejao’s defensive expertise, but this is a bad matchup for him. He isn’t used to defending the 3-point line and had trouble getting back to Lewis on the pick-and-pop plays on which Orlando devoured the Cavs during the second half. And if Varejao guards Howard instead, he may be able to flop himself into a few offensive-foul calls — which is vital, because putting Howard on the bench is about the only way Cleveland can stop him.
I guess it’s worth a try. Having Zydrunas Ilgauskas cover Dwight Howard one-on-one did not work. Going small would allow the Cavs to double Howard more quickly with smaller players and the theory is that he’d give the ball up. The problem is that the Cavs would be replacing one of their better players (Ilgauskas or Varejao) with one of their…um…more questionable players (Szczerbiak, Pavlovic). This also means that Joe Smith would see fewer minutes in favor of Szcerbiak or Pavlovic and that’s not a good thing.
