Cleveland preview

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

Another big test for the Celtics -- one of those dreaded back-to-back road
games. The truth is that the Celtics could beat teams like Toronto and
Denver at home last year. But these games were a complete killer for them. 

Cleveland has surprisingly opened the season 2-0, though neither of their
wins were convincing -- a 4-pt win over the Nets that went down to the last
minute, and a double-overtime victory over Sacramento. They haven't played
since Wednesday so unfortunately they should be rested and prepared for us.

The Cavs may be the closest thing this year to the Orlando Magic from last
year. They traded away their disgruntled, underachieving superstar and got
back some interesting role players in Weatherspoon and Gatling. They were
one of the more active teams this offseason, also moving DeClercq and Sura.
Could it be addition by subtraction? They've also got their 7'3" $70M
center coming back from injury, who could be hard for Battie to handle.

Their main offensive threat with Kemp and Sura gone is Lamond Murray, who I
think has generally played well against us. Their other starters are
Ilgauskas, Weatherspoon, Harpring, and Andre Miller, which makes an
oversized lineup with the exception of Weatherspoon at power forward.
Gatling is their top player off the bench. I'd say that Miller and Gatling
are the biggest threats other than Murray. They also have the Tractor
Traylor who has given us trouble in the past.

Defensively they've held their opponents to an amazing 36% from the field.
Their starting lineup is full of tough defenders headed by Miller at the
point and anchored by the massive Ilgauskas. They've also outrebounded
their opponents by 9 per game.

However, they've turned the ball over 20 times per game led by Miller's 5.5
average and they've shot an anemic 2-11 from three point range.

Despite playing a back-to-back game, I think that we should probably press
them. That is what our depth is supposed to be for. Cleveland's a pretty
young team that hasn't had much experience playing together. They should be
vulnerable to pressure.

If the past is any indication (might not be since their personnel has
changed so much), stopping their penetration in the halfcourt will be
vital. In particular, we may want Randy Brown in if Anderson is getting
beat. Also, Randy Wittman's style last year was to count on only two or
three people to rebound defensively and send everyone else fast breaking.
That left them vulnerable on the boards but got them easy baskets. Our
perimeter players have to be aware of this while our inside players go for
the boards to punish them.

And of course, if they hold us to 36% shooting we're unlikely to win.
Weatherspoon has shut down Kenyon Martin and Chris Webber so far this
season. We may want to try to maximize our open court opportunities because
they could be a tough team to break down with our half court offense.
Hopefully Walker brings his A game tonight because he was off last night.

Alex