AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- For now, call it the LeBron Plan.
Years ago, the Detroit Pistons had a catchy name -- "Jordan
Rules" -- to contain an NBA superstar. Now another star awaits in
LeBron James.
"We've got a name for it," Pistons coach Flip Saunders told
The Associated Press on Saturday with a sly grin. "But I'm not
going to talk about it now. Maybe later."
The Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers open the Eastern Conference
finals Monday night. And while the name of the Pistons' plan may be
under wraps, the strategy itself is not quite as mysterious.
Tayshaun Prince will be the primary defender, drawing his usual
assignment against a star on the perimeter, but he will get plenty
of help.
"It's going to be a collective effort," Saunders said.
Detroit wants to limit the number of times James has the ball in
the lane.
"If you let him get to the basket, he can make plays for
himself and other people," Saunders said.
When the Pistons are unsuccessful, they don't want him to enjoy
bump-free paths to the basket.
"At this point, no matter who it is, he's going to get fouled
hard going to the basket," Saunders said. "You've seen that in
the playoffs so far and as you extend in the playoffs, more is at
stake. You might kind of like somebody the first game and the
second game you kind of don't like them. By the fifth game, you
hate them. That's just the playoffs."
In last year's conference semifinals, Detroit trapped James,
went over screens and under screens while sending waves of
defenders at him. James managed to be spectacular at times but was
stunted at others, including the second half of Game 7 when he made
only one field goal.
"I've seen almost every defense that I could possibly see for
the rest of my career in this series," James said on May 21, 2006.
"That's why they're Eastern Conference champions, and that's why
they keep winning."
A year later, the Pistons are still winning while the Cavs have
won more in the playoffs than they have in more than a decade.
Cleveland beat New Jersey 88-72 Friday night, advancing to the
conference finals for the first time since 1992 against a team that
has been at least this far in five straight years.
James said experiencing playoff-style intensity against the
Nets' Mikki Moore and Bostjan Nachbar prepared the Cavs for what
they're about to face against the Pistons.
"We had a lot of physical plays, which is going to help us in
the Detroit series because that's a very physical team," he said.
"I think that's going to help us get over the hump. But at the
same time, it's a very great team we're playing."
The Pistons want to do more than just test James physically.
They want to confuse him by randomly alternating man-to-man and
zone defenses while sending up to five different defenders toward
him.
"I don't want to give out all our secrets," reserve guard
Lindsey Hunter said. "But we just want to make him work extremely
hard and give him a lot of different looks to not let him get
comfortable and settled in on how we're going to guard him. We want
him to think and to tire him out."
Detroit doesn't want to let James relax on defense, either,
whether he's guarding Prince or somebody else.
"We want to go at LeBron," Saunders said. "We've got to keep
him on his heels."
The Pistons hope they can keep their cool if James' stardom
leads to favorable calls from the officials.
"We know he's going to get his love and go to the line, but
we're going to make it hard for him," power forward Rasheed
Wallace said. "He can get 30, but he's going to have to put up
like 30 shots."
Detroit had the same mind-set entering its four straight playoff
matchups with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls from 1988-91 and
that plan prevented him from reaching the NBA finals until his
seventh season in the league.
Joe Dumars led the "Jordan Rules" as shooting guard back then.
Now, he is Detroit's president of basketball operations.
"The game plan is the same," Dumars told the AP. "We never
leave one guy out there and say, 'It's your job to try to stop this
guy.' We send five guys out with a mission to limit that particular
guy.
"I don't know how many rules we have, but I do know that all
five guys understand that it's their job as five to not leave
Tayshaun or whoever it is out there by himself."