There is a reason that the Cavs are off to a tremendous start this year. It starts and ends with their defense. Good article here on LeBron's new found commitment on the defensive end. Here is what LeBron says:"Everybody says they want to play defense. They say they want to make a defensive stand,'' James told me Wednesday. "But are you really going to go out there and take pride in your defense and guard your man one-on-one? It took me a few years to realize I wanted to be a really good defensive player, and I've kind of turned that corner to where I am today. ''
"Communication is the biggest thing on defense,'' he said. "If you don't have that, you can easily break down. Me spearheading the defense with Ben and Delonte, we do a good job of trying to make sure guys are in the right spots. We try to help each other. It's not always going to be right, but you have to be able to cover for each other. When you make mistakes, by talking and communicating, you can get through it.''
Says coach Mike Brown:
"He just doesn't do it one time. He does it quite a bit,'' Brown said. "You hear him from the back side of our defense. We may have two people involved in a pick-and-roll, and he's yelling to our guys what they should do, what type of coverage we're in. That's very exciting to hear and see.
"Then one thing I talk to him about is his weakside defense. I thought [in Wednesday's victory] we didn't come up with all of them, but he got his hands on a ton of balls coming from the weak side because he was in the correct position defensively. And he was aware. When you've got your leader doing that type of stuff on that end of the floor, it's very contagious.''
More from Coach Brown:
Talking your way through defense is a big step forward from just talking about it. To demonstrate how thoroughly indoctrinated his club has become to the task, Brown -- in the middle of a pregame chat with reporters -- interrupted his comments to stop Williams as the point guard walked by.
"Hey, Mo! Mo!'' Brown said. "What's the one thing we have to do tonight? Yeah, one thing ...''
Poor Williams. Suddenly, a dozen people were looking at him, the silence lengthening. He might have been thinking about his Christmas list, pondering world peace or solving quadratic equations on his way out to shoot some warm-up shots, but now he was on the spot.
"We ... have to defend,'' Williams finally said.
Brown beamed.
"Now look at his face,'' the coach said. "That's a sincere young man there. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. That's just how my guys are. And you've got to love it. It just comes from within them. We've talked about it, and they believe it. I can ask any one of my guys that and they'll give you the same answer.''
