Cavs playoffs, Star Wars trailers and more: While We’re Waiting…
April 17, 2015Cavaliers favorites to win 2014-15 NBA Title
April 17, 2015Only five members of the Cleveland Cavaliers have had the opportunity of playing with or against LeBron James in the playoffs: Mike Miller and James Jones (teammates with the Miami Heat), Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood (2011 NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks), and a player that probably knows the most about him even though he has never been his teammate for a playoff game, Kendrick Perkins.
With him flaunting the wine and gold since he was signed by the Cavaliers in late February, Perkins has been a huge part of the Cavs’ success (both on and off the court), despite not received much in the way of playing time.
When asked about James in the playoffs compared to James in the regular season, Perkins responded.
Via ESPN Cleveland:
“He is a beast,” Perkins said. “You know, you try to scout, you try to game plan, but there ain’t nothing you can do.
“There ain’t (expletive) that you can do.”
Perkins obviously loves that James is now his teammate for this (hopefully long) playoff run. When asked if he turns into a different kind of person during the postseason, James smirked and replied with, “ask my teammates come Sunday”.
With 158 playoff games, five Eastern Conference Championships, two championship rings, and two NBA Finals MVP awards under his belt, James is used to playoff basketball. In those 158 games, James has averaged 28 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.7 steals in 42.5 minutes per game; compared to the regular season, where he has averaged 27.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.9 assists, and 1.7 steals in 911 games.
But when it comes to flipping that switch, James credits his different mindset come playoff time to the time off between each playoff game.
“You just have more time to prep,” James said. “There are so many games in the regular season that you can’t give all of your time to just one opponent because you have four (games) in five nights and back-to-backs you have to get ready for the next night.
“(Now) you have at least four times that you are going to see the one opponent. There are not many different sets that you’re going to see. You see the same personnel and I am able to lock in on tendencies a lot more. I am able to lock in on what they want to do. What they don’t want to do. Then I relay that back to my teammates, so it is a totally different mindset for myself.”
Cleveland fans have seen what rest does to James, the four-time MVP looking and feeling substantially better following a two-week hiatus in the middle of the 2014-15 season. Factor in the mental aspects involved with a multi-game series, and Perkins’s words may not be all that far from the truth—expletives included.
3 Comments
Cannot wait for Sunday.
Is it just me, or do his playoff numbers and regular season numbers not look significantly different?
I should be interesting. LeBron has a legit Big in Mozgov for the first time in his career. Historically, the center lane has been open on teams he has played on, including Miami. This may be the best seven or eight players he has played with other than on an all-star or Olympic team.
It should be interesting to see if they can really play together as an effective championship unit. They have one huge achilles heel though: TURNOVERS. They must get a handle on the turnovers or they will be in trouble. There have been very glaring times throughout the season that the ball handling has been suspect by trying to force things to happen and basic poor passing.
I think they are the best team in the NBA, but they must pull it together -NOW and cut down on the turnovers.