Around this time a year ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals.
It is widely regarded that the reason was mismatches across the board in favor of Orlando. In short, Dwight Howard ate Zydrunas Ilgauskas alive, Orlando was too big at the small forward and power forward spots, and Rashard Lewis' role as a SF-PF hybrid who could stretch the floor to three-point range proved unguardable for Cleveland's plodding big men.
To address these discrepancies, the Cavaliers made several moves to specifically combat Orlando's 'Dwight and four shooters' attack.
They acquired Shaquille O'Neal to have an able body to defend Dwight Howard one on one.
Additionally, right as the trade deadline neared, Antawn Jamison was added to the roster for the purposes of defending Rashard Lewis and adequately spacing the floor for LeBron James on the offensive end.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, they'll never know how this team would've fared against the Magic. With their Eastern Conference Semifinals collapse to the Celtics complete, this roster will never get that opportunity for revenge.
Th ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by David Spohn
Cleveland Was Constructed To Beat Orlando, Not Boston
May 14th, 2010 by David Spohn Leave a reply »
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