By: rizz

@jonjo Against the lineup of Wade, Ray, Bron, Rashard, and Chris if I was Lakers I would have Howard and Gasol guard the paint and then have Nash, Metta, and Kobe guard perimeter against Miami making basically a zone. This will crowd the paint making it really tough for penetration especially when you have Dwight defending it. This in turn forces Bron and Wade to put up jumpers and they fail at jumpers beyond the paint. Kobe, Nash, and Metta can keep the 3-point shooters at bay with Metta/Kobe rotating for help defense. The reason this works is because Wade and Bron themselves are not big 3 point threats and if they get past any of the perimeter guards they have to go through Howard and Gasol guarding the paint. Yeah Bosh will be posting down low and Bron will most likely play PF but Pau can matchup against Bosh and Dwight has enough speed to matchup with Bron in the paint. You also didn’t mention any of the mis-matches Miami will have on defense. With the particular lineup you mentioned Miami is going to get KILLED on the boards against the Lakers and they are absolutely going to get hammered in the paint. Who is going to guard Dwight? Bosh? Bron??? He’s gonna put up 22 ppg with 18 rpg against that lineup. Gasol would benefit as well with 18 ppg and 15 rpg. That means tons of second chance points for the Lakers as well as basically eliminating Miami’s fastbreak opportunities which they thrive on. Miami would be foolish to play that small against L.A. because whatever advantages it might have produced would be severely outweighed by the disadvantages. Not to mention with so many other teams in the East getting bigger and healthier Miami may not even make it to the Finals let alone with the Championship. Boston is looking REALLY good now and healthy, Hornets are scary if Davis and Rivers live up to their potential, Nets are SICK, Philli is SICK, Knicks are still good, Pacers are looking sharp. Suddenly small ball seems so bad this season and I expect Miami will have a much tougher time in their quest for a repeat.