<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> CLEVELAND – Eddie Jones knows it's not going to be like this all the time. There will be some rough times.</p> But there was nothing but smiles in the locker room after the game for the way he and Trenton Hassell handled the job of defending LeBron James in the season opener.</p> Turns out they had some added motivation – the 70 points James scored on the Mavericks in two meetings last season.</p> <span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> "They've been throwing it down our throats," Jones said. "You watch ESPN, and he averaged 35 against us last year. You just got to come out and defend. Maybe he'll get 35 again, but you got to make him work for it."</p> Perhaps James has had worse games, but it's hard to imagine a worse half of basketball than the first 24 minutes Wednesday night.</p> Jones and Hassell deserve at least some of the credit for James' no-point, three-foul, two-turnover half, when he went 0-for-4 from the field.</p> There also was some solid help defense against the King. It was arguably his worst game as a pro, although his lowest total is five points. The final line Wednesday: 10 points, 2-for-11 shooting, 6-for-10 from the free throw line.</p> He needed a garbage-time bucket to reach double figures and outscore DeSagana Diop by two points.</p> "Tonight, the most valuable players are Trenton Hassell and Eddie Jones," said Jason Terry. "The way they defended LeBron James and made it tough on him, that's the reason why we brought them here."</p> The reason the Mavericks need them couldn't have been any clearer. They are defenders first.</p> "They were great," said Dirk Nowitzki, who along with Diop helped converge on James whenever he got past the primary defender. "We got them for perimeter defense. They don't care if they score or not. They're out there to make things hard for the best scorer on the other team."</p> </span></span></div></p> Source: Dallas News</p> The Mavs did a number on LeBron last night and I'm wondering if other teams are going to start duplicating what Dallas did when they match up with Cleveland. The problem for the Cavs is the fact they can't do much to counter if teams continue to shutdown LeBron. Another issue is the fact most teams have Eddie Jone/Hassell type players available to hound LeBron all game long. The formula is out on how to stop LeBron let's see how the Cavs respond. Larry Hughes that means you.</p> </span></span></p>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Hughes and Gibson needed to step up. Simple as. LeBron will get double-teamed a lot this year, and they will need to come up big if the Cavs are to win. At least Z is showing that last year might have been a blip rather than the start of a decline.</span></p>
I think its more of a bad game rather than great defense.</p> I agree though, Gibson needs to continue what he did in the playoffs.</p>
Wow, is this Eddie Jones, who's about 35? Sheesh.</p> The Mavs have a very, very good wing rotation right now...between Howard, Jones, Hassel, Stackhouse. Doesn't look like they need Kobe to me.</p>
I really don't think that one game proves that this is the formula for stopping Lebron, maybe after a couple weeks if he still isn't putting up good numbers you could say that, but I think it's way too early at this point. It will be interesting to how he plays in the next couple of games given his horrilbe performance in the opener.</p>
