Boston and Detroit rule the NBA’s Eastern Conference but don’t count out Cleveland.
As the calendar turned to 2008, it is painfully obvious that right now if you are not in Boston or Detroit, you have about three chances to get to the NBA Finals: slim, none and fat chance.
Boston and Detroit sit atop the east and there are only 4 1/2 games, at the time of this writing, that separate seeds four through twelve in the conference. That being said, with Detroit and Boston showing the way, you don’t want to be sitting in the seventh chair -- or even worse, the eighth chair -- when the music stops on Apr. 16.
The Celtics defeated the Pistons on Saturday in Detroit issuing payback for the Pistons 87-85 win in Boston on Dec. 19. At times teams sleepwalk through regular season games, but this one was different on Saturday.
"It’s rare to see that kind of sustained intensity for a regular-season game," said Boston head coach Doc Rivers.
In truth games like that provide the Celtics, who are cruising through the regular season, with a taste of playoff-like intensity. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and James Posey know what those types of games are about. But the other members of the supporting cast are about as green as the team’s uniforms when it comes to contests of that ilk, the likes of which they will undoubtedly become more familiar with this spring.
Rivers decided that one of his young players, Glen "Big Baby" Davis, was going to stay in the game instead of James Posey. Although he’s a rookie, Davis, a second-round pick, had a huge game finishing with a career high 20 points including some unlikely baskets late in the game. While Davis surprised some onlookers, scouts will tell you that he has penchant for rising to the occasion in important games.
There are four months left in the season and while it looks like Boston and Detroit are on a collision course headed for the conference finals, there are teams that are looking to improve and make a move to show that they could be a contender come Mother’s Day or beyond. The most intriguing team is the defending conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs gave everyone at the Air Canada Centre a look at just how bad and how good they could be in a 93-90 win over the Toronto Raptors last Sunday. For three quarters, Cleveland played disinterested having Toronto and its fans smelling a victory. But then it happened. The same Cavalier squad that went to the NBA Finals last season showed up.
There was LeBron James with "that look in his eye" -- the one that only great players get when they start to take over a game. James scored 24 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter as Cleveland forged the largest comeback by a Raptor opponent on home court in Toronto franchise history.
It becomes easy, after the fact, to state what Toronto should have done to try and stop James, but reminiscent of the career-high 56 points that King James served the Raptors in March 2005 at the Air Canada Centre or the 48 points he gave the Pistons at the Palace last spring in Game 5 of the conference final, it may not matter what you try when LeBron opens up the "do-it-yourself" kit. James was making shots and staring down the Raptor bench with disdain as if to say "do you guys have anyone who can guard me?"
This was the Cavs team that was rooted in defence and rebounding last year, the same team that beat Detroit to get to the finals. Cleveland held Toronto to 38.9-per-cent shooting in the final quarter. But don’t let a win over the inconsistent Raptors convince you that Cleveland could climb the mountain again and be in the mix come April. Just remember they have that guy LeBron. Aside from Kobe Bryant, there is nobody who can regularly take over a game the way James does when he chooses to do so.
Cleveland head coach Mike Brown spent time on his offence during the pre-season not concentrating on the defensive mindset that he brought with him from San Antonio where he served as assistant. Brown figures he dedicated 70 per cent of his time to offence during training camp and it backfired early in the season. Between holdouts (Anderson Varajao and Sasha Pavlovic) and injuries (James and Larry Hughes) he suddenly realized he was not working with the same squad and the focus on offence was misguided.
Now that he has his team back he says it’s back to the drawing board and concentrating on defence. What about the offence? Simple, as he says right now, he just wants his team to work on the drive and kick game. That should be easy to accomplish if you put the ball in LeBron’s hands and surround him with shooters. Right now, with Cleveland finding its winning ways back it is a simple and easily accomplished plan, just ask the Raptors.
