Defending Duncan a huge challenge for Cavaliers

Jun 6, 2007 - 9:14 PM By Chris Bernucca PA SportsTicker Pro Basketball Editor

SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - When the NBA Finals begin Thursday night, the fastest player on the court may surprise you.

It may not be Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James, whose incredible bursts seem impossible for someone 6-8 and 240 pounds. And it may not be San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, whose quickness often makes opponents appear as if they are standing still.

The player running the fastest may be the big man on the Cavaliers who has received the unenviable task of defending Spurs superstar forward Tim Duncan.

Whether it be 7-3 center Zydrunas Ilgauskas or power forwards Drew Gooden or Anderson Varejao, expect to see a streak of blue and orange hustling down the court at the AT&T Center, hoping to beat Duncan to his sweet spot on the low post.

That is just one of the tactics the Cavaliers plan to employ to try and slow down Duncan, a three-time Finals MVP who dissects defenses with his innate ability to know when to score and when to pass.

"There's a variety of things we can do to try to keep him off balance, but it begins with initial coverage," Cavaliers assistant Chris Jent said. "The man defending him 1-on-1 has got to be aggressive and make him work for his spot."

Jent and the rest of Cleveland's coaching staff want their big men to beat Duncan down the floor and meet him perhaps as high as the elbow in order to make him work to get more favorable position closer to the basket and perhaps take some time off the shot clock.

"You have to meet him early because he does such a good job of using his body, and that's something that we've emphasized to our bigs," Jent said. "Run ahead of him, Try to meet hime early, so he can't use his (body) angles. He can use the angles on you close to the basket. You've got to do your work early on him."

Of course, bumping Duncan at the elbow doesn't stop or even deter him. But it does delay him, and that is where the commitment to containing him must start. Varejao, who has defended Duncan in both the NBA and international basketball, sounds like he has gotten the message.

"You've gotta play smart against him," he said. "He's one of the five best players in the NBA. You've gotta take his space out of the lane, (don't let him) catch the ball where he likes to play."

Jent was not as forthcoming with some of the other tactics Cleveland plans to use against Duncan, whose basketball IQ makes him perhaps the best big man at exploiting double-teams in the history of the game. However, some elements are obvious.

In addition to rotating at least three different defenders on Duncan, the Cavaliers will try to vary the types of double-teams they use. They almost certainly will change the player who is coming to help and also will vary when that helps comes - on the catch, on the dribble or on the move.

"It's very important," Jent said. "Any great player like him, if you give him a steady diet of one coverage, he gets into a comfort zone, he gets into a rhythm. It's important that whatever we do, first of all we're aggressive in doing it, but you have to switch things up on him."

"It definitely takes a team effort, guys helping out and throwing some double-teams at him," Gooden said. "We just have to try and give him different looks and make him as uncomfortable as possible."

Ilgauskas said the different coverages and adjustments have to come "game by game," but it will have to be more like possession by possession. Duncan usually doesn't need more than one or two trips down the floor to figure out where the double-teams are coming from - and how to burn them.

Overall, the biggest adjustments in any playoff series usually are made between Games One and Two. But Gooden knows that Duncan's depth of knowledge will force the Cavaliers to change on the fly.

"In a playoff series, you always have your first game and you kind of deal from that," Gooden said. "You either make an adjustment or a counter move. Even during the course of a ballgame you make adjustments.

"There will be adjustments made. We're not going to give him the same look for the whole series and we will throw everything in the kitchen - including the kitchen sink - at him."

Appliances aside, the Cavaliers know that know matter how many different looks they come up with, they will not unnerve Duncan, whose intelligence was described by coach Mike Brown as "off the charts."

"He's got a sense of poise and pace about him where he never looks rattled," said Brown, an assistant for three years with the Spurs. "When you watch a guy that never gets rattled or is not emotional, it's scary because whether they're up 20, down 20, you don't think they're ever out of the game because he's just steady."

And Duncan? Well, he may have a big guy or two zoom past him as he is headed downcourt. But once he gets there, he doesn't think he is going to see any sort of defense he hasn't beaten before.

"The beauty of the NBA Finals is there are not too many secrets," Duncan said. "I think you go in and you face a team (and) there are not too many things you're going to sneak people with. You have to execute."