On Saturday night, with his team trailing the Pistons 29-18 at the end of the first quarter, Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown trotted out a lineup of Boobie Gibson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao, Wally Szczerbiak, and Devin Brown. By my count, that’s exactly 1.75 offensive threats – 1 point for Z, and 0.25 points each for Boobie Gibson, playing for the first time in over a month, Szczerbiak, who is still floundering around 35 percent or less from the field, and Devin Brown, who can score but usually depends on someone like LeBron to find him with open looks.
Nearly five minutes later, with 7:07 left in the second quarter, Detroit’s lead had grown to 38-22, and Brown decided it was time to bring LeBron back into the game, putting him alongside Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Devin Brown, and Varejao. The idea, it seems, was to lock down the inside with Wallace and Wild Thing and spread the floor for the shooters. …
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.