Cavs in 6.
I think the Cavs can win this series, but I don't know if they can win a Game 7 in Beantown.
If the games are close, the Cavs have a HUGE advantage with LeBron. Especially since Boston doesn't do a good job matching buckets down the stretch of games (like Games 3, 4 and 6 in Atlanta).
If you can't guard Joe Johnson, how are you going to deal with LeBron James?
I can't wait to see KG and Anderson Varejao get into it. There's going to be some kind of altercation between those two in this series (provided Andy's play keeps him on the court).
The Cavs may need Sasha Pavlovic's defense more than Wally Szczerbiak's offense.
Delonte West needs to stay in front of Rondo. If Rondo can get to the lane easily, the Cavs could have issues.
I don't like either of these coaches for mid-game decisions, but I have much more confidence in Brown with regards to series and game preparation.
They can't get Boston get out to a big lead, especially at home. The closer the game is, the better.
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I'm looking for Mike Brown's substitution pattern to be less-than-stellar for Game 1. The prospect of facing Boston's big three, along with stopping Rondo, probably has had Brown out-thinking himself since Sunday afternoon.
Unlike the Wizards and Pistons, he hasn't faced Boston in a playoff series yet, so that's working against Brown, too.
Brown will probably lean heavily on Ben Wallace in Game 1, playing him big minutes on KG -- maybe too many.
He'll probably also turn the backcourt into a shell game depending on what we see out of Rondo, Allen and Posey. He'll probably shuffle Wally, Sasha, Boobie, Delonte and Devin Brown in and out of the game all night in an effort to find that magic mixture that slows Rondo, keeps Allen from raining threes and breaks down Posey's defense.
So Game 1 might amount to a get-your-bearings game for the Cavs. We'll see what happens, but I like their chances in Game 2 more than I do tonight. At least we know Brown is generally good at making game-to-game adjustments -- and LBJ isn't too shabby at that, either.
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