What to do with this one…

Pretend you’re Mike Brown. What do you have in the works going into tonight’s game? If it were me, the first thing I’d do is start Daniel Gibson. Cleveland got behind the 8-ball in Game 1 mostly because Tony Parker was destroying Larry Hughes off the dribble, and Hughes even admitted that his bad foot was slowing him down and TP was smart to take advantage. That created a domino effect that led to LeBron having to guard Parker, which forces ‘Bron to expend valuable energy chasing TP around that he could have used to impose his will on offense. Gibson isn’t the best defender out there, but at this point he can at least do a better job than Hughes of staying in front of Parker, and Boobie gives Cleveland the outside shooting that Hughes only provides in spots (and most of those spots happened when he was in a Wizards uni).

On top of that, I’d play Eric Snow (former Sonic!) more than the one minute of tick he got in Game 1, just to give Parker a different look. When and if Parker gets on a roll, Snow should be inserted as The Eraser to take away his momentum. I just saw E-Snow lock up Vince Carter in the Jersey series and occasionally give Chauncey problems against Detroit, so I know he can cause Parker a problem or two.

Then, I’d try some of the things offensively with LeBron that Cleveland went away from in Game 1. Namely, posting ‘Bron up on Bruce Bowen. As long as someone makes a decent entry pass and ‘Bron catches near the cup, he can go strong to the hole and either score or draw fouls on Bowen and/or Duncan. LeBron was put in the post a few times early in Game 1, but eventually Brown went back to his trusty pocket-sized playbook and the Cavs offense was more stagnant because of it.

Finally, I’d preach rotation. The Spurs have mastered the art of swinging the ball around for the best look, but some of the shots they got off in Game 1 were too wide-open.

We’ll see what’s what within the hour …