Have the Pistons forgotten?

Question

When they won it all in 2004, the Pistons decided to let O'neal have his points and shut everyone else down, and OMG!!! it worked, they made the mighty Lakers look like an NBDL team.

So what is stopping them from doing the same thing to Lebron and the Cavs?

Answer 1

The difference is that LeBron is a tremendous distributor of the ball. So is Shaq, but LeBron's game poses a different kind of threat. He can drive and dunk the lane like an Amare, or dish the ball almost as well as Nash. His Assist to TO Ratio throughout the playoffs is 3.03 to 1 - meaning that he dishes out over 3 Asts for every 1 turnover. That is incredible in the regular season, much less the playoffs where the defense is intensified. Shaq is the dominant of dominant players, but LeBron poses many threats.

Shaq was/is stationary in a sense, in that his game is in the low block area. If you can prevent Shaq from posting deep in the paint, which is very hard to do, you can take him out of his game. Keep in mind that very few teams have been able to do that w/ Shaq, and hence his teams are always good when he's healthy. LeBron's game usually starts on the perimeter where he creates dribble penetration. It's totally different. If LeBron beats his man off of the dribble which he does consistently their points in the paint will be hard for Detroit to combat. If you look at the first few games, a few times LeBron had his shot blocked in the paint. Imagine if they had not brought a man over, and basically given him those points. If you look at the final scores of the first two games, allowing LeBron to have those easy points would have cost them the first 2 games.

LeBron also has enormous hand size. He has lots of ball control (palming the ball) when driving the lane. This is a big reason that he dunked on Sheed. Without ball control he would have cupped the ball and Sheed would have blocked the shot. Wade is very similar. Without big hands it's hard to attack the basket in the NBA. He is also a tremendous passer, and with his size he's able to see over perimeter defenders. His big hands also factor in driving the lane and passing the ball. Because he's able to easily palm the ball, it makes for easier and quicker passes to the perimeter.

In short, LeBron is a totally different type of player than Shaq. You must bring a man over to help when he beats his man off of the dribble. If you've noticed, even when they do bring help he still has lots of success driving the lane. Imagine if they didn't help. He'd score nearly everytime. I hope that this helps.

Answer 2

The pistons beat the lakers because Kobe got it into his head to try and be MVP. Kobe Shot the ball 22 times in Laker losses for only 33 percent. While Shaq was dominating at 67% shooting but only shot 16 times.

LeBron is more than willing to pass the ball and share with his teamates so it won't even come close to working. LeBron will find the open man. Also, who are you going to find on the cavs to out shoot LeBron with such bad percentages? nobody

Answer 3

You sound as if Cleveland is up 3-0 in the series. Didn't they totally shut him down the first two games? Detroit has the better all around team, but that doesn't guarantee anything. You are right that the Pistons have to realize Lebron will get his points, but they seem to have forgotten that they need to score as well.

Answer 4

Have you forgotten that in the '05 season the Spurs beat the Pistons in the playoffs?!?!?! If you have then let me remind you that whoever wins the Piston/ Cavs series will be crushed by the Spurs in the Finals, so why even ask this question?!?!

Answer 5

yeah but shaq n lebron have 2 totally different playing styles
shaq sits under the net and waits for the ball, while lebron can do anywhere. They just need help on lebron when he has the ball

Answer 6

They Don't have Ben Wallace anymore....Simple.