LeBron turns his D into a strength

With LeBron James and Ben Wallace (4) helping to lead the way, the Cavs have been swarming on defense all season. AP Steve Aschburner's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Steve. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

MINNEAPOLIS -- As experiments go, this one was straightforward and seemingly simple: Pay attention to LeBron James, for an entire game, only when he and the rest of the Cavaliers did not have the ball.

Turns out, in the Cavs' 93-70 victory against the Timberwolves on Wednesday, it wasn't so easy after all. For a couple of reasons:

• Focusing only on James and his team's defense left far too much idle time, what with Minnesota sputtering to season lows in points, assists (11) and three-point shooting (1-of-14). The Timberwolves weren't helping themselves reclaim the ball, either, tying a season low of 10 forced turnovers. If the NBA kept time of possession the way the NFL does, this would have been the New York Giants grinding down the clock against the three-and-out Detroit Lions.

• What James and his buddies do when they actually get their hands on the ball is so darn compelling. For instance, James shoveled a half-look bullet pass backward from the high post to a cutting J.J. Hickson for a dunk. Delonte West expertly weaved through white shirts in the paint like they were orange pylons on a test track somewhere. Or James, again, exploded ahead of the pack for a dunk that prompted, along press row, a spontaneous name check of "greatest open-court power dunkers in NBA history.'' (Erving? Jordan? Wilkins? My choice: Barkley.)

Limiting oneself only to James' defense, in that context, felt cruel and unusual and a little masochistic, like booking a festival of Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell and Mike Myers films -- dramatic roles only. Fun is hard enough to come by these days, so why deny yourself one of the NBA's greatest pleasures, that of the Cavs' superstar with the basketball in his hands and an opponent at his mercy?

Because in this league, when it matters most, denying is de answer.

"Everybody says they want to play defense. They say they want to make a defensive stand,'' James told me Wednesday. "But are you really going to go out there and take pride in your defense and guard your man one-on-one? It took me a few years to realize I wanted to be a really good defensive player, and I've kind of turned that corner to where I am today. ''

Enough that Cleveland coach Mike Brown was openly lobbying for James later in the evening as an All-Defensive selection, something he has yet to achieve. Enough that Ben Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, thinks James is worthy of that award, even as he amasses evidence for his first MVP honor.

"Oh, yeah,'' Wallace said, "he's got the potential to do whatever he wants in this league.''

In this game, as for much of the season, James played free safety and quarterback all at once in the Cavs' defense. Stationed on the weak side in a matchup with Ryan Gomes, he was able to help and roam almost indiscriminately, while barking out calls and picks and instructions from behind his team's ball defenders. He outscored Gomes 32-3, though almost every Wolves player got a turn in the tank against James (just as James matched up at various times with every Wolves attacker).

James had two steals and a half-dozen or more tips and deflections, with several moments of sneaky suspense -- flashing from the far side of midcourt to nearly swipe a Minnesota inbounds pass, curling behind Al Jefferson as a second set of hands to poke the ball loose -- ending up out of bounds, at least thwarting Wolves possessions. He also blocked two shots, getting Gomes twice on the same shot clock in the first quarter.

"He just doesn't do it one time. He does it quite a bit,'' Brown said. "You hear him from the back side of our defense. We may have two people involved in a pick-and-roll, and he's yelling to our guys what they should do, what type of coverage we're in. That's very exciting to hear and see.

"Then one thing I talk to him about is his weakside defense. I thought [in Wednesday's victory] we didn't come up with all of them, but he got his hands on a ton of balls coming from the weak side because he was in the correct position defensively. And he was aware. When you've got your leader doing that type of stuff on that end of the floor, it's very contagious.''