Surprisingly, the Bobcats were the only team in the entire East to sweep their opponents in the first round, and they got extra rest as a result. But soon their second-round opponent was fresh — well, not that new for them, and it was time for their first-round opponents last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Bobcats to get their revenge.

O'Neal's gradual aging has made the Cavaliers' "Shark King Combination" fall apart, and now this is James' one-man team, and the Cavaliers' starting five position has been replaced by the one Chang Wei was more familiar with in his previous life, and James' good friend Ilgoskas. The No. 2 and No. 4 positions are Hughes and Gooden, respectively, with Gibson and West taking turns as starting point guards.

The overall strength of this roster is not bad, but all 29 teams in the league know one thing, if James is restricted, then the Cavaliers will not be competitive, and no one else will be able to replace his role. However, it is easy to see the truth of the matter, but how to solve it is a difficult problem, and now this problem is in front of Jackson and Chang Wei.

"No, no, no, we can't give up our attacking firepower, last season proved that it's going to be a tough road!" Jackson said loudly that he still insisted on the regular starting lineup, leaving Ariza alone to carry the stronger James alone.

"Damon, you have to be clear about one thing, LeBron is not the LeBron of last season. I'll admit that Trevor has grown into a good 3-and-D player, but it's unrealistic to have him go one-on-one with LeBron, he needs help! ”

"So what do you say?" Jackson snorted back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee.

Chang Wei said lightly: "Let Brandon swing down to play point guard, and then let Toni start to play point guard." ”

"Poof-" All the coffee in Jackson's mouth was squirted out, and he looked at Chang Wei in a daze, thinking that his good friend had a brain problem. Do you want to put on a new starting lineup at this time? Is there that much time to run in? Moreover, this obviously sacrificed the team's already strong offensive firepower, and Jackson didn't know how to beat the Cavaliers in this way.

"Don't look at Tony and Trevor's points per game average not increasing much, but if they are given the opportunity, they will be able to take it. And Jarlett's score was not very high, and if others worked harder, scoring was not a problem at all. But then LeBron will be greatly limited on the court, which will quickly drain his physical strength. And on the bench, we also have Wilson, although this guy is still a rookie, but his height and weight can still play a little role. ”

Jackson's expression changed, and Chang Wei knew that he must have weighed it quickly in his heart, so he didn't bother him, but took another cup of coffee and took a sip. In fact, how to limit James has been one of the hardest issues in the league, if not one, and the Bobcats have the advantage of having excellent outside gates, and now it's time to put them to good use.

After 10 minutes of silence, Jackson finally made up his mind and let Allen and Roy form the starting backcourt together. He sighed and said sadly: "I don't know if this arrangement is good or bad...... Chang Wei patted him on the shoulder, smiled and said: "Everything will wait until the arena to test, at least I think this is the best way for us to deal with it at the moment." ”

Two days before the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Jackson led the team to Cleveland, and he wanted his players to be in the best shape against tough opponents. You must know that the two sides met 3 times in the regular season, and the Bobcats only achieved a 1-2 record, and in these three games, James averaged 31.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, which was the biggest headache for the Bobcats.

On the day of the game, the Bobcats were the first to announce their starting lineup, originally everyone thought that they would use regular starters against the Cavaliers, but the Bobcats' lineup surprised them, and it is rare to put two defensive giants in the starting lineup at the same time, especially when their offensive ability is not strong, do the Bobcats really think that they can kill the opponent by defense alone?

Mike Brown didn't take the Bobcats' change of formation on the radar either, but he soon found out that the team was in trouble, and it was James who was technically in trouble. Brown then understood the significance of the Bobcats' changes to the starting lineup, which would make James have to face a good perimeter defender for the vast majority of the round, and he couldn't always switch to Roy.

Ariza and Allen certainly can't let James go without points at all, maybe they can do it together in a few seasons, but for now they just need to make James feel bad. In fact, James is really uncomfortable, Ariza has a pair of long arms, Allen is strong and tough enough, and more importantly, they often work together to contain James.

James tried to hand the ball to his teammates, but Hughes seemed to be obsessed, and it was basically difficult to shoot the basket, and one round the basketball even spun around the basket Lee and flew out, which greatly damaged the morale of the Cavaliers. They subconsciously wanted to count on James, but the latter was caught in the bobcat's double bag and couldn't extricate himself, so naturally he couldn't help much.

When the Bobcats made it 15-5, Brown reluctantly called the first timeout of the game. He has to do it, and even if he can't find an effective solution, it's good to interrupt the rhythm of the opponent's attack.

In Brown's opinion, James is comfortable with either Ariza or Allen, but now he has to deal with a two-man bag. If you want to disperse them, the others have to step up and hurt the opponent with offense, so that they won't equip James with two outside defensive gates, so that they can also free James.

The starting point guard of the Cavaliers in this game is Gibson, Brown is interested in his projection ability outside the three-point line, but he still looks too thin compared to Roy, and the previous few catches were entangled by Roy, and he didn't even have a chance to shoot, so he had to hand the ball back to his teammates, and the moment he passed the ball, the Cavaliers lost a good scoring opportunity.

Taking advantage of this timeout, Brown put West on the court, and although he is the team's shooting guard, he is actually a two-way guard, averaging nearly twice as many assists per game as Gibson, who simply plays the No. 1 position. And most importantly, he doesn't have a physical disadvantage against Roy, and it can also take some of the pressure off James.