How Do You "Stop" LeBron?

I’m not the first to say it, but you don’t. You pick your poison with him.

I think what’s most important is to make him work on defense, maybe even (refs allowing) get him to foul you and make him play self-conciously. If you can do that, it will hopefully start to wear on him, particularly in a series.

Stop him from penetrating. make him settle for a tough contested jump shot or make him pass and force someone else to beat us. He is like a combination between Josh Smith and Joe Johnson. Can’t let him get to the basket and must box him out!!

START POSEY!!

Put Posey on Lebron, move Pierce to the 2. Ray Allen becomes your instant offense 6th man off the bench. Allen isnt giving us enough to warrant starting him over our best defensive player.

POSEY POSEY POSEY!! Let him have at Lebron all game 1 on 1, no help, so we don’t have to double team.

You don’t…

You make sure your interior defensive rotations are sound and force him to shoot jumpers as much as possible.

Take the defense played on TMac during the streak ending game, copy and paste it to LeBron, and hope that Wally/West/Gibson are not going off.

We’ll probably see a little more of Tony Allen. Uggh. He really loses focus but when on his game he’s a good one on one defender. Lebron is the closest thing to Magic Johnson I’ve seen. He’s really strong and just big all over (I’m not trying to spread rumors but I’ve got on a pretty reliable source that the NBA is looking at a potential steroid scandal of their own in the not too distant future.) Like Magic, the guy just physically overwhelms the guards and SFs that guard him. A Mack truck might work.

10 instaneous menacing, oops, I meant Ubuntu hand gestures sure will intimidate him.

Even if LeBron scores 50, that won’t be enough points to beat the Celts. I think they should not focus too much attention on him at the expense of giving open looks to the guys around him. I believe the key is to hold down the supporting cast, LeBron is going to get his points, it is all about how many they get from everyone else.

Who cares… Wilt always got his points against Russell, but the Celtics almost always won the series. Hopefully we will put the foot on the gas this series and attack this team. We are a better team and it will show in the end.

Man on Man. Let Bron try and drop 50 on us in single coverage, just stop the rest of the team from getting the uncontested looks that doubles/trapping will cause.

This method has been proven successful in 3 playoff series that I can recall.

Last year, Bowen played him 1 on 1, the year before in the ECF, the Pistons just sent Tayshaun, and before that Washington took them to 7 games with a vastly inferior team by just sending Jared Jeffries at him and limiting his assists.

I think Posey/Pierce are capable similiar defensive performances.

The idea is to win ballgames, right? So by definition the idea is to do things that will make it hard on him to play as well as normal. And you do this while not putting your other guys into bad matchups.

1. You want to wear his butt down on d early. You atack him relentlessly but only if you he chooses to guard PP, Ray or KG. If they put him on Posey, start running Posey off screens. If they put him on TA, start having TA drive. Do everything you can to get him in some foul trouble. If there is a way to use Powe and Baby to tough his butt up, do it.
more in a minute

I guard him one on one. Let him get his and shut down everyone else.

Start with Pierce, then Posey. 1 on 1

It’s been said but it bares repeating. You don’t try to stop him. You stop everyone else. Keep a guy on the perimiter shooters like Wally and Gibson and they are useless. Let King James try and win it on his own. As the C’s always used to say “Five of a kind always beats one ace”. I saw Jordan throw up 64 against the C’s in the playoffs (or 63, i don’t remeber exactly)and lose. He can’t do it alone, force him to try.

2. so hit the boards like every rebound matters. EVERY BOARD. By hammering the boards you will bang on him because he is there, and you keep the ball out of his hands so he can’t bring it up, or tip it in.

3. I want PP on him right away. First foul PP gets, I put KG on him. I am not kidding: KG. You zone so Perk has the hoop guarded and you have PP lay back there too. We are still in q1. Soon as KG gets a foul also, bring in Posey for Perk and put Posey on him. Now we are t small but lets see how we do. Soon as its not going well or Posey draws foul two, I make sure the lineup isn’t small and get KG back on LB. I don’t want PP getting 3 fouls trying to guard LB, I want man up do on him from my most physical guys and ant them fresh

I want Ray away from him. I need to get Ray off from 3 to grab a good lead, h needs to stay fresh if the rest of the scenario is playing out. I also want posey fresh to play the 4th and be able to have legs. KG is gonna get a good 15-20 minutes on Bron in my defense

posey will get 15-20 and PP gets ten with Baby or Powe beating heck out of him for a couple each should he play the whole game

Bottom line is this:

Whatever the strategy is to beat the Cavs, whoever is not trapping, helping, etc. in terms of Lebron better damned well be at home on those shooters and not be caught just watching him.

That is how he will beat you. He wants you to focus only on him so that he can start picking you apart with passes. This is when he can get his second wind in a game. Make him try to be a one man show. That, plus making him defend every trip, will wear even the best down.

IF he starts going off with scoring, just make sure we continue to clamp down on everyone else and let him know that he’s going to have to go it alone tonight…everynight.

Play him one on one with different players, make him go left, play deny defense on others, throw an occasional double, make him think, make HIM play defense. James will get his points, just don’t allow others to get theirs. For those of you young uns, Micheal Jordan scored 63 points against the C’s in a playoff game at the Garden. The Celtics won the game.

When LeBron is strictly a scorer, the Cavs are actually a very mediocre team. VERY mediocre is not poor. It’s when you make him into a creator and passer that he becomes very dangerous. Try to keep him out of the lane as best as possible. That’s about it. Make him take contested shots. Close out and contest Delonte, Wally when the jack from outside. That’s about it. Double often but not always. See if anyone can handle him one-on-one..

For the most part you go one-on-one and let him try ot beat you himself. Of course on a drive you have to send some help. The key, (and this doesn’t happen enough) is that the guy who gets beat off the dribble needs to get back in the play and put a body on whoever is left open on the rotation. You have to get back in the play and make an effort on the boards, you can’t have Z and Big Ben cleaning up with easy put backs.

I definitely agree with the man-to-man comments above. LeBron is a great scorer, but what makes him truly great is his ability to make other’s better. We need to take that away from him. Guys like Delonte West and Wally Sczerbiack aren’t going to be effective if they aren’t open. Moreover, a guy like Delonte at the point could actually be a huge liability if Rondo pressures him instead of trying to worry about LeBron.

One interesting idea with LeBron is to have Garnett defend him. It would neutralize his size advantage. What’s more, it’s entirely doable, especially with Ben Wallace on the floor. Since Wallace is a non-threat on offense, let Pierce or Allen guard him. They’re most likely not going to pass it to him anyway, and if they do, all the better for us if the ball is in his hand.

If I’m Doc, I start the game that way. Then, by the time they sub in Joe Smith for Ben Wallace, Doc can sub in Posey for Allen, and let Posey take over duties.

Posey!!

When he goes to his left he shoots jumpshots, when he goes to his right he takes it to the hole for the most part.

You don’t stop him. You stop everyone else. Not even MJ won a championship single handed. He needed Pippen before that happened. Stop the roleplayers and eventually even Lebron will run out of gas.

Bring back Max, he’ll stop the b.

You don’t stop him… Let him shoot…..

You stop everyone else on the Cavs…….

If a good offense is a result of a good defense, then a good defense is a result of a good offense. If he guards PP, then PP should attack the hoop relentlessly in order to make LeBron tired. If he guards Posey or Allen, then make him chase them around screens. If he gets too tired, he can’t play well on the offensive end and will have to give up the ball. THAT IS HOW YOU STOP LeBron!

Put a fast defender like Tony Allen on him and make him shoot. Anything to stop him from getting to the basket with ease. Doubling against the Cavs will be tough because of their perimeter shooters.

These are all good thoughts guys. As a Cavs fan, there really isn’t one answer. Initially, I think Boston should double him high and make him get rid of the ball. See if the rest of the Cavs have their shots going for them. If they do, then you have to play man to man and hope Lebron is off on his jumper. If the Cavs shooters are off then you can double Lebron all night

I’m just glad we picked up Posey last summer!!!

Mix up defenses on Lebron, single, double coverage, different defenders. He can be coaxed into taking quick, bad shots from outside if no one is open and the passing lanes are cut off, but that’s only about 1 out of 4 trips down the floor.

I think the C’s just play tough D like they’ve done all year. The problem with Hawks is that they had 4 mini-LeBrons in Childress, Smith, Johnson & Williams. That’s tough to cover.

The Cavs only have one. (But he’s really, really good…)

just double team him like you did joe johnson. Don’t leave ilgauskas free. The guy who is guarding big ben who is KG should maybe help out but also shouldn’t leave the paint free. If you have allen and pierce double him then u have their shooters free. Boston will just have to double team and adapt to somehow cover the open man.Pierce also has to take it to lebron early and get him in foul trouble. LEbron though has owned pierce easily on defense. He just has to forget about shooting, penetrate and fake lebron

The most obvious answer is stay in front of him and force him to be a jump-shooter. Obviously it’s more easily said than done, but the last thing we need is Lebron bulling his way to the basket, and not only getting our guys in foul trouble, but also getting a strong rhythm going to the basket. As he proved last year against the Pistons, once he starts mixing in the pull-up jumper along with strong drives to the basket, it’s all over. Keep him away from the hoop at all costs, even if it means “daring” him to hit 20 footers all night.

call me crazy, but i’d start posey and bring ray off the bench.

also, whoever lebron is guarding should constantly be running around to tire him out.