Detroit Bad Boys and YAYsports! and the NBA Playoffs

In an effort to not go to war with the various wonderful Pistons blogs out there, we’ve done a little exchange of content with Detroit Bad Boys. If you head over there, you’ll find our dead serious list of ways the Cavaliers can win this series.

Before we get to their portion of this trade, let’s all remember just what type of defense you’ll see when watching the game live from the Motor City today.

We’re not going to comment either way on the antics of an innocent kid, but if you can pull your eyes from the main player for second, take a look at the faces of the people sitting around him. They look thrilled to be associated with this, huh? (Thanks to Need4Sheed for the vid, obviously.)

Here then, after the jump, is DBB, with their list of ways Detroit can win.

Everything between the dotted lines is them DBBers.

———————————————-

“Welcome to the LeBron Show!” (Also featuring the two-time Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons)

Despite appearing in the last two NBA Finals and pacing the entire league with a franchise-best 64-18 record, the Pistons are still treated like second-class citizens in the NBA. Two of their five first-round games were stuck on NBA TV — and a third would have been had the Mavericks not dispatched the Grizzlies in four. The middle seeds in Washington and Cleveland, meanwhile, were regular guests on national television, and even pushed Detroit’s deciding Game 5 over the Bucks to an awkward weekday 6 PM start time to accommodate their prime-time appearance on TNT.

But alas, the Pistons are used to such treatment, and if anything, it’s helped put the “underdog” chip back on their shoulder that’s understandably been missing for most of the season. For Cleveland, that’s a bad thing, as they will all be witnesses to a focused veteran team that will enjoy nothing more than crashing LeBron’s playoff party and putting the limelight back on them where it belongs.

1. Don’t try stopping LeBron, stop everyone else. LeBron James is capable of carrying the Cavaliers on his back for long periods of time. How long? Let’s find out. Much like how the Pistons have dealt with dominant superstars like Shaquille O’Neal in the past, expect Detroit to play single-man coverage on LeBron for most of the game, relying on help defense when he enters the post. Why? Because avoiding too many double teams will allow the Pistons to shut down the supporting cast and turn the game into a 1-on-5 mismatch. Oh sure, LeBron will still get his — he’s not the leading scorer in the playoffs for nothing — but the Pistons can safely let him pop for 40 each night as long as they keep guys like Larry Hughes, Flip Murray or Zydrunas Ilgauskas from chipping in for 20.

2. Keep the Cavs honest on the boards. I would say, “win the battle of the boards,” but I’m finally resigned to the fact that the Pistons are incapable of dominating the glass every night with their current system. In fact, they ceded the rebounding edge in three of their four games against the Cavs this season and still managed to win three.

This is not to say that rebounding is an insignificant factor in this series. Ben Wallace will need to play with some semblance of passion (as opposed to just sending out his inflatable stunt double, like he did in the Bucks’ series). But as long as the Pistons stay close in the offensive and total rebounding numbers, their lack of turnovers and insanely good foul shooting should win most matchups against the Cavs.

3. Pound the ball inside. The Pistons are a jump-shooting team for the most part. It is a character flaw that Piston fans have been able to stomach all season due to the off-and-on (but mostly on) heroics of Chauncey, Rip, and Sheed. But they’ve shown at times this season that when faced with an opponent that allows for mismatches, they will exploit them. The Cavs don’t offer any mismatches on the level of T.J. Ford vs. Chauncey Billups, but they do have an overall apathetic attitude towards defense. And for all his strengths, Lebron has yet to make the leap to dominant defender (something that should come easy for an athlete of his caliber).

4. Pound the ball inside. Yeah, I said it twice, what of it? Seriously though, this needs to be stressed twice for the benefit of the Pistons’ defense as well. How many times against the ‘Zards did we see Lebron, with a full head of steam, managing an acrobatic “And 1″ as he was mauled by Wizards’ defenders in the paint? Well, the Washington Wizards are a jump-shooting team just like the Pistons. And the Cavs (mostly Lebron, but also Flip Murray and Larry Hughes) were able to sprint out on the break after collecting long rebounds, leaving the Wizards’ big men stranded down low on the other end of the court.

Getting the ball down low produces shot opportunities from closer in, which allows perimeter players to get back on D and allows the big men to battle for boards in the pain, harass Cleveland rebounders, and force the Cavs to run their halfcourt sets.

5. Play physical. I’m not advocating cheap shots on Lebron here. I’m not even advocating cheap shots on “Sideshow” Anderson Varejao (though it is hard not to after his takedown of Sheed). But what I am suggesting is that the Wallaces, Ben and Rasheed, have an intimidation advantage against any and all the bigs Cleveland has to offer. Aside from the regular season scuffles with Zydrunas and Varejao, which definitely set a tone for the soon-to-be rivalry between these two teams (remember the “Sheed must bleed” sign at “Tha Q”?); aside from the “tough guy” aura that Ben’s fro and Ultimate Warrior armbands emit; the Piston bigs have the advantage of having seen the second round of the playoffs before. So not only can the Wallace’s camp out inside the heads of the Cavs’ frontcourt, they can do so with their nerves calm and their shorts clean.

———————————————-

Thanks guys, and that’s all fine info, but you still need to take responsibility for that kid. That and we learned DBB is one of those “two spaces after a period” guys. We’re not saying we’re the grammar master or anything, but we did go to public school and we’re an honest-to-god college drop-out.

Wait. That didn’t come out sounding how it was supposed to. What we meant is “we’ve killed people before and ain’t never been caught.”